Foreign company with U.S. employees

I have a publicly traded U.K. company with 5,000 employees in 17 countries with a U.S. subsidiary that is trying to join an open MEP. From what I have read from another post that "Legally a foreign employer can maintain a qualified plan for a U.S. employee if the plan complies with U.S. laws". I assume that because this is a publicly traded company on the London stock market that if there is another U.S. subsidiary that we don't have to worry about control group issues and can just have the U.S. subsidiary become an adopting employer of the open MEP. Because this is a MEP,  we will have already met the requirement that the trust is sited in the U.S.

Any advice will be appreciated.

The control group issue is separate from the MEP structure they are choosing to use. 

Just because they are both adopting employers of the MEP doesn't mean they aren't a control group. If they are a control group, combined testing might be required, and someone needs to be looking at that and performing it each year. 

I'm not aware of any exceptions to the related employer (control group, affiliated service group, etc) rules just because one of the owners happens to be a foreign entity. 

Is MEP a multiemployer plan or a multiple employer 401(k) plan? If the latter, the employer should get some assurance that the employer is not walking into a securities law violation.

Most likely the MEP is a multiple employer plan. I agree that the fact that one entity is sitused outside of the US does not in any way exempt the enities from controlled group testing.

I guess I wasn't correct in what I said about control group. I was thinking that because this is a publicly traded company with possibly thousands of stockholders that we most likely wouldn't have a control group. However, I have very little information so it is possible a control group could exist.  The plan is an open multiple employer plan sponsored by a payroll company. 

The controlled group analysis crosses international boundaries. The stuff in 1563 about foreign affiliates not being "component members" being disregarded is irrelevant to the Section 414(b) and (c) issues. Of course, nonresident aliens with no U.S. source income can be disregarded for 410(b).

23 hours ago, LisaS said:

I guess I wasn't correct in what I said about control group. I was thinking that because this is a publicly traded company with possibly thousands of stockholders that we most likely wouldn't have a control group. However, I have very little information so it is possible a control group could exist.  The plan is an open multiple employer plan sponsored by a payroll company. 

I suggest starting by reviewing the parent - subsidiary control group rules. If the U.S. entities are wholly owned by a parent entity, there seems a high likelyhood some sort of control group exists (absent something like a QSLOB). 

Thank you to everyone who responded.