Samoa
Samoa International Companies are a long-running Pacific offshore vehicle. The International Companies Act dates to 1988 and has been amended repeatedly to keep the jurisdiction aligned with international tax-transparency standards. The thing that makes Samoa interesting in 2026 is recent: it was removed from EU Annex II, the grey list of cooperative jurisdictions under monitoring, in February 2026, and it is not on the EU Annex I blacklist or any FATF list. That makes it the cleanest gray-tier jurisdiction in the Pacific right now. The practical catch is that the delisting is fresh, so banks are still updating their internal risk models and acceptance will be uneven for a while. For a Bitcoin operator who wants a recognizable Pacific holding company with a privacy posture that does not currently carry an EU flag, Samoa is a credible choice, and we tell you about the recency caveat up front.
- Tier
- GRAY
- Formation
- 7 business days
- Apostille
- Supported
- UBO register
- Private
- EU list
- Off both EU lists
- FATF list
- Off the FATF lists
Figures verified February 2026 · Sources: EU Annex I/II and FATF list status, detailed in Plain talk below.
Can a non-resident form a Samoa company?
Yes. A non-resident can form a Samoa entity. Samoa is a GRAY jurisdiction. Banking is more selective and a compliance desk reads it as mid-tier, so confirm your rail accepts it before you file. Formation is $1,199 all-in / ₿0.01506281 / 1,506,281 sats, paid in Bitcoin or USDT, and takes 7 business days.
- Tier
- GRAY
- From price
- $1,199 all-in
- Formation time
- 7 business days
- EU / FATF status
- off both EU lists, off the FATF lists
- Public UBO register
- No
- Apostille
- Supported
What makes Samoa different
- Removed from EU Annex II in February 2026, and not on the EU Annex I blacklist or any FATF list: the cleanest gray-tier option in the Pacific.
- No public register of beneficial owners; UBO records are held by the licensed agent, not published.
- Mature statute: the International Companies Act dates to 1988 and has been kept current with transparency standards.
- Fast formation: the company step runs about 7 days, and apostille is supported for banking and counterparty applications.
What you are actually buying with Samoa
GRAY means banking is more selective and the entity reads as mid-tier to a compliance desk. It is not blacklisted, but expect a closer look and a narrower set of rails that will onboard it.
Major US business-banking rails do not onboard Samoa companies. If you need US banking, the Samoa company alone will not get you there; pair it with a US-domiciled WY or NM LLC. Expect the EU delisting to help acceptance over time, but not overnight: several rails will not have repriced Samoa in their risk models yet. See the Banking page for named rails.
The EU Annex II delisting only happened in February 2026, so it is recent. Banks and other counterparties are still updating their internal risk models, and acceptance will be inconsistent for roughly the next 12 to 24 months. Some rails will treat Samoa as clean already; others will not have caught up. Budget for that unevenness and do not assume the delisting clears every desk.
Samoa is gray tier and its reputation is still recovering. Some institutional counterparties, particularly US securities lawyers and certain EU corporates and banks, will apply heavier due diligence than they would for a BVI or Cayman structure. If you need an offshore vehicle that sophisticated counterparties wave through today, BVI is the better spend.
What we collect, and what Samoa filing requires
- Email, country of residence, intended use statement
- OFAC + EU + UN sanctions screen (every order)
- Tier 1 KYC (ID + proof of address + source-of-funds attestation): required at this price tier
- Beneficial owner identification per Samoa AML obligations and the International Companies Act
- Notarized copy of passport and proof of address
- Director consent and the first subscriber resolution naming the initial shareholder
The honest note: The licensed Samoa agent is a regulated financial-services provider and runs substantive KYC on every formation regardless of our platform tier. Samoa does not publish UBO data, but the agent must keep beneficial-ownership and accounting records and produce them to the Samoa regulator and to certain law-enforcement requests under treaty. Anonymous formation is not available on this SKU.
Where Samoa entities bank
Major US business-banking rails do not onboard Samoa companies. If you need US banking, the Samoa company alone will not get you there; pair it with a US-domiciled WY or NM LLC. Expect the EU delisting to help acceptance over time, but not overnight: several rails will not have repriced Samoa in their risk models yet. See the Banking page for named rails.
Full banking rankingWhen this jurisdiction is right (and wrong)
If you want a Pacific holding company that does not currently carry an EU Annex II flag, Samoa is the cleanest gray-tier option in the region as of 2026. It is off the EU grey list and absent from any FATF list, which is more than most comparable offshore jurisdictions can say this year.
If you are a Pacific-Rim or Asia-facing Bitcoin operator running a foreign-source-income business from outside the US, a Samoa company pairs naturally with Asia-corridor banking and sits in a sensible time zone and corridor for HK or SG operations. Keeping your effective rate low on foreign income is subject to your own country-of-residence rules, not Samoa's.
If you would rather form somewhere with a recovering-but-improving reputation than somewhere still sitting on a published EU list, the recent delisting is a real, datable improvement you can point counterparties to. We will not oversell it, but it is a genuine difference from where Samoa stood two years ago.
The EU Annex II delisting only happened in February 2026, so it is recent. Banks and other counterparties are still updating their internal risk models, and acceptance will be inconsistent for roughly the next 12 to 24 months. Some rails will treat Samoa as clean already; others will not have caught up. Budget for that unevenness and do not assume the delisting clears every desk.
Samoa is gray tier and its reputation is still recovering. Some institutional counterparties, particularly US securities lawyers and certain EU corporates and banks, will apply heavier due diligence than they would for a BVI or Cayman structure. If you need an offshore vehicle that sophisticated counterparties wave through today, BVI is the better spend.
The all-in pricing is higher than Seychelles. The cleaner-ish reputation comes at a cost: at $1,199 Year-1 you are paying a premium over a comparable Seychelles IBC for a posture that is better on paper but not yet fully priced in by banks. If headline cost is your dominant concern, Seychelles is cheaper for a similar mid-tier outcome.
Common Samoa questions
Is Samoa on the EU blacklist or any FATF list?
No. Samoa was removed from EU Annex II, the grey list of cooperative jurisdictions under monitoring, in February 2026, and it is not on EU Annex I (the actual blacklist) or on any FATF list. We disclose the caveat honestly: the delisting is recent, so some banks and EU counterparties will not have updated their internal risk models yet, and acceptance will be uneven for the next 12 to 24 months. General information, not legal advice.
How long does Samoa formation take?
About 7 business days for the company-formation step. Apostille is supported and adds roughly 5 to 10 business days where your bank or counterparty requires legalized documents. Bank-account opening is a separate process and typically adds 30 to 60 days on top.
Is my ownership public in Samoa?
No. Samoa does not operate a public register of beneficial owners, so your name is not published on a searchable database. Your licensed agent still identifies you and keeps beneficial-ownership and accounting records under Samoa AML law, and those records are accessible to the regulator and to certain law-enforcement requests under treaty. Privacy from public search is real; opacity to the regulator is not.
Can a Samoa company bank with a major US rail?
No. The major US business-banking rails serve US-domiciled entities only. For Samoa, plan on an Asia-corridor rail, our Bitcoin-native option, or a Caribbean offshore fallback. The recent EU delisting should ease acceptance over time, but not immediately. If US banking is essential, pair the Samoa company with a US-domiciled WY or NM LLC.
What's the total cost?
$1,199 is the all-in Year-1 price for the Samoa company, filed through the licensed agent. Year-2 onward is $799/yr for the registered agent and government renewal. That price is higher than a comparable Seychelles IBC, which is the trade-off for the cleaner gray-tier posture. You settle the whole order in BTC (on-chain and Lightning) or USDT via BitSettle.