Announcing: Personal Registrations

New for 2025: vehicle registration in your name (no LLC required)!
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Since 2017, we have helped thousands of international visitors to the US register vehicles in Montana by forming a Montana Limited Liability Company (LLC) for each one of them.

So we're excited to announce the launch of our Personal Registration service - which allows you to own a vehicle directly in your own name, rather than through a Montana LLC!‍‍
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Background

In 2017, I founded visitor.us to help international visitors to the United States own vehicles as an alternative to renting.

The best state to register vehicles for international visitors is Montana - no US driver's license requirement, no vehicle inspections, 0% sales tax.  Montana, like every other US state, requires a presence in the state in order to register a vehicle here.

Forming a Montana company (an LLC) is one way to create a Montana presence. Dozens of firms create Montana LLC's for Americans to register vehicles in Montana - since its inception more than seven years ago, visitor.us has used this method to serve the international traveler market.

But the question I heard over and over since 2017 is "I don't want to have to think about owning a company - I just want to do a road trip - can't you just register the vehicle in my name?"

I'm proud and excited to announce the launch of Personal Registrations, which allows us to do just that: register a vehicle in Montana directly to your name, no LLC required.
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How does Personal Registration work?

Establishing your Montana presence

Montana law allows non-residents with an interest in real property to register a vehicle in the county in which the real property is located.

A nonresident who has an interest in real property in Montana may register in the county where the real property is located a motor vehicle.
Montana Code Annotated, Original Registration Process

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In other words, Montana allows people who own or rent a Montana vacation home, or any other type of property, to register a vehicle in Montana. These additional vehicle registration fees support Montana schools, roads, and law enforcement.

In the new Personal Registration service, visitor.us leases you a portion of our property in Bozeman, Montana.  This lease, along with two pieces of mail that we send to you at our office, is sufficient to register a vehicle in your name at our office.

In mid-2024, we set a goal to test the Personal Registration process on 100 clients by year end.  We’re glad to say that we smashed that goal, and we appreciate each and every one of our clients that helped us test the new process.

You can learn more about how visitor.us establishes your Montana presence with a lease at our property here.
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Capturing your signature authorization

When a vehicle will be registered to an LLC, Montana allows an "authorized agent" to sign a vehicle's paperwork on behalf of the company. Agent authorization can be done with an online form.

However, when a vehicle will be registered to an individual, the rules around who can sign a vehicle's paperwork are more strict.

You, the new owner of the vehicle, can sign the paperwork required to register the vehicle. If you buy a vehicle and the seller hands you the keys and the vehicle's title at the same time, you can simply sign the vehicle's title before sending it to visitor.us for registration.

In some cases - for example, if you are buying the vehicle remotely - you may not be able to physically sign the vehicle's title before the seller sends it to visitor.us for registration. In this case, you will need to authorize visitor.us to sign your vehicle's title on your behalf.

Signature authorization for individuals is done with a vehicular power of attorney, a simple one-page document. Your signature on that document needs to be notarized, or witnessed by a licensed public official, a process that can be done in person or via a video conference.

You can learn more about the signature authorization process here.

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The rest remains the same

Under our previous service, your Montana LLC was your presence in Montana.  Under our Personal Registration service, your lease at our property is your presence in Montana.

The rest of the service - tax-free vehicle registration, 40-day printable temp tags, registration complete within 7-10 business days of receiving your vehicle’s properly signed title, and shipment of your plates, registration, and title to a location that’s convenient to you - remains the same.

You can see an overview of the process here and detailed steps here.
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Retiring our LLC vehicle registration service

With the launch of the Personal Registration service, we are retiring our LLC vehicle registration service. In seven years of providing the LLC registration service, we have seen customers struggle with the following issues:

• Company filing requirements - owning a Montana LLC requires filing an annual report with the State of Montana and tax forms annually with the IRS. The penalties for forgetting to file these forms can be severe (fines of up to $25,000 for faililng to file IRS Form 5472, for example).
• Border crossings - crossing a border in a vehicle owned by a company requires additional paperwork, and subjects travelers to arbitrary decisions by border agents.
• Vehicle sale - many US auto dealerships have policies requiring them to make payment to the vehicle's registered owner when they buy a vehicle.  When an LLC owns a vehicle, accepting payment requires opening a bank account in the name of the LLC.

Registering the vehicle directly in your name - removing the LLC from the equation - eliminates these issues, which is why we are moving forward with Personal Registrations exclusively.

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Maintaining support for existing LLC clients

If you are one of the hundreds of visitor.us customers who have an active LLC, thank you once again for your business! We plan to continue supporting you with vehicle registration renewals and LLC annual reports into the foreseeable future. We expect to provide tax documentation coordination services through the 2025 tax year (i.e., into 2026).
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Conclusion

visitor.us has been the leader in vehicle registration for international visitors to the US since 2017.

We’re excited to be offering our new Personal Registration service.  If you have any questions about the service, please get in touch with us here and we’ll respond in about one business day.

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