US Bank Account

What we can and cannot promise

We prepare your application, match you to the provider most likely to accept someone with your passport and your business model, and stay with you through the questions that come back. We do not decide the outcome. No provider delegates approval to a formation agent, and any company telling you a US business account is guaranteed is telling you something they cannot control.

What we can tell you before you pay is whether your country is a problem. That matters more than anything else on this page.

Your passport country decides your options

Providers publish prohibited-country lists and they are not the same list. Two founders with identical businesses get different answers because of where they hold citizenship or residence.

• Mercury publishes a list of countries it does not serve. If yours is on it, no amount of good documentation changes the answer, and applying anyway can get the company flagged.
• Wise Business is a different question again — whether you can receive into it and whether you can hold a balance in it are separate permissions, and some countries have the first without the second.
• Traditional US banks generally require each beneficial owner to have a physical US address, which is why remote applications to them usually fail.

We keep a country-by-country picture of this and publish what we can verify: see US payment and banking access by country. If your country is a hard no everywhere, we would rather tell you at the consultation than after you have paid for a company you cannot bank.

What we do

• Check your country against current provider restrictions before you apply
• Prepare the application and the supporting pack — formation documents, EIN letter, operating agreement, ownership structure
• Write the business description, which is the part most applications are rejected on. “Consulting” is a rejection. What you sell, to whom, and where the money comes from is an approval.
• Prepare you for the follow-up questions on source of funds and expected volumes
• Set up Stripe or your payment processor alongside the account, on the Standard plan and above
• If an application is declined, tell you why and which provider to try next — rather than resubmitting the same pack

What we need from you

• Formation documents and your EIN letter
• Passport, and proof of residential address
• Ownership details for everyone holding 25% or more
• A real description of the business, its customers and its expected monthly volume
• An existing website or storefront, if you have one — providers look

Timing

Preparation takes days; the provider’s decision takes as long as it takes, and applications that trigger a compliance review take substantially longer than ones that do not. Your EIN also needs to be roughly two weeks old before it reliably verifies, so applying the day the EIN arrives is a common self-inflicted rejection.

What it costs

$100. That covers checking your country against current provider restrictions, preparing the application and the supporting pack, and writing the business description that most applications are actually judged on.

It is also included in the Standard formation package, $299 + state fees, alongside the expedited EIN and Stripe setup — so if you are forming the company with us, you are not paying for it twice.

Who this is not for

• Anyone in a country on every provider’s prohibited list. We will check first and tell you.
• Anyone needing a personal US account. This is business banking. Personal accounts have residency requirements we cannot work around.
• High-risk business models — crypto trading, gambling, adult, money transmission. Some are refused by every remote provider, and we will not take a fee to submit an application we expect to fail.

Questions

Do I need to fly to the US?

Not for the remote-friendly providers. Traditional branch banks are a different matter and generally do require a visit and a US address per owner.

Do I need an SSN or ITIN?

No. Business accounts are opened on the company’s EIN.

Is Mercury a bank?

Mercury provides banking services through partner banks, and deposits are held at those banks. It is worth understanding the distinction before you rely on it for large balances.

What if I am declined?

Declines are usually about country, business model, or a vague business description — in that order. We will tell you which it was, and whether another provider is realistic for you. What we will not do is resubmit the same pack to the same provider and hope, or send you to a provider whose published rules already exclude your country.

Can I open an account before the LLC is formed?

No. The account belongs to the company, so formation and the EIN come first.

Which providers do you work with?

Mercury and Wise are the two we work with most, and the two this page is written around. Which one we put you in front of depends on where you live — that is the first thing we check, before you pay for anything.