A Canadian Citizen as a minority partner in your US company?

Mark Stephan Product Manager at Handsome.

May 7th, 2014

Anyone know if there are any limitations on this, hoops I have to jump through, etc?

Tim Kilroy Analytics - LTV - Boosting Profits - Digital Marketing

May 7th, 2014

The only issue is the kind of US corporation. You need to be a C corp, foreign citizens may not own part of an s-corp...

Mark Stephan Product Manager at Handsome.

May 7th, 2014

It's an LLC

Eric Rogness Technical Product Manager

May 8th, 2014

(1) Jurisdiction (usually California, and does not have to be the state of incorporation) should be (and probably already is) clearly indicated in the incorporation and founding documents.

(2) Corporate taxes will be done in the US, your own personal taxes will still be done in Canada.

(3) Regardless of ownership of the company, you will still not be entitled to work in the US without a work permit.

Korsakov

May 8th, 2014

If your partner at least owns 50% of the shares he is eligible to apply for a E2-visa. As far as I know, the advantage with an LLC is the option to set up an operational agreement that defines the power structure and the financial distribution in case the company gets sold. Please, correct me if I were wrong.

Gordon McDougall Director

May 8th, 2014

If this is to get the Canadian an E-2 Visa, please do a deep dive with a really good immigration lawyer. The E-2 is a lot trickier than it looks, and has to be maintained and that is another area of cost and complexity.

Alex Murray

May 9th, 2014

If he/she needs a visa, that's the biggest hoop. Also, you won't be able to have an S corp.