If you open a US-based company you will need a local office for a number of reasons:

1. When registering a company, you will need to provide as US address at which the company will be registered and at which all the correspondence will be sent.
2. When opening an account in a US bank, you will definitely need to provide an address and a telephone number. You will not be able to open a bank account without this information. The same will happen if you try to receive a credit card.
3. If you act on behalf of your US company, you should not mention your home address (e.g. somewhere in Ryazan) in contracts as your company address.
4. If you decided to use business immigration to the USA, then in a year the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will inspect your business. Even if for carrying out your business activities your company does not need an office, you will still have to present some sort of office space where you do business. If you do not present an office, from INS’s point of view, you do not do any business (at least at the territory of the USA) and your chances to have your business visa extended or even more so to receive a Green Card will drop to zero.
5. Your director and your employees should have a place where they can work, meet with clients, receive and send correspondence, a place where there are some computers, a fax-machine etc.

…Here we can stop giving you reasons for having an office. In short, an office is a necessary precondition if you want to develop your business in the USA. That’s why let’s discuss what kind of office you should get – when it is sufficient to open the so-called “virtual office” (if you are not interested in business immigration), and when and how you should open a real office with minimal costs.

1. A nominal office. It means that you will have a US address, at which one can send correspondence. Mail coming at this address will be forwarded to you as soon as it comes (you may receive just a couple of letters a year) or with some periodicity (monthly, bi-weekly, weekly). Depending on the number of incoming correspondence we will provide you with a nominal office with a US address (and not just a P.O. Box) with forwarding all the correspondence to you.
2. A virtual office of the company which we can rent for you jointly with other similar companies or as a sub-rent from our company. In this case you will have a personal telephone number of your company, calls to which will be answered by your company secretary or director during business hours (e.g., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time). Your request telephone calls can be forwarded either to your other phone or to the answering machine. Your correspondence will be forwarded to you via this office. The low cost of such an office is ensured by cost sharing with other companies much like your company. Your director or secretary will work in this office and it will satisfy INS requirements. Such office will cost you $500 per month.
3. A real office just for your company including your office, a room for the secretary and a room for personnel or a meeting room. Rent depends on the term of rent, the office area and on location of your office in the city. Such an office (one-two rooms) will cost you about $800 – $2000 per month. The cost of telephone lines and Internet is about $100 – $300 per month (depending on the number of lines). Computers, copiers, furniture, phones can be bought for about $1000 – $2000. A secretary with good command of Russian and English, as well as good computer knowledge will cost you $14 – $25 per hour (30 – 45 thousand dollar per year). So a real office with a secretary will cost you minimum 40 – 55 thousand dollars per year or more.

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