Stripe for Non-US Residents: Opening a US LLC and Getting Approved

TL;DR: If your country isn't on Stripe's list of supported countries, you need a company somewhere that is, and for most people that ends up being a US LLC. We formed a single-member Wyoming LLC through a registered agent, got the EIN 24 days after formation, filled in six missing pages on our website, and had working live keys on the day we applied. Stripe Atlas costs US$500 up front plus US$100 a year and forms the company in Delaware. Expect foreign cards on a US account to cost 2.9% + 30¢, plus 1.5% for an international card and 1% when currency conversion is needed.

We're based in Taiwan, which isn't on Stripe's list, so this is written from that position. The steps apply to anyone outside the US whose own country isn't supported.

Can you use Stripe if you don't live in the US?

Check stripe.com/global↗ first. If your country is listed, open the account there and skip everything below. Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India and "Hong Kong SAR, China" are all on it (as of 2026-10-07). Taiwan is not.

If your country isn't listed, the account has to belong to a company registered in a country that is. For founders without a US address, the US works because the IRS has a documented way to issue an EIN (the company tax ID) to applicants abroad. More on that below.

Should you use Stripe Atlas or form the LLC yourself?

Here is what Atlas includes, taken from the official Atlas page↗ (checked 2026-10-07):

The Wyoming figures come from the state's business fee schedule↗ (Revised June 2026). Registered agent prices depend on the provider, so we haven't put a number on them.

We didn't use Atlas. Looking at that table, most of what Atlas adds is startup paperwork: issuing equity, the 83(b) election, SAFE agreements for fundraising. A one-person store that sells products and has no plans to raise money won't use any of it. What a store does need is a company, a tax ID and a US bank account, and you can get all three without Atlas. If you do plan to raise money from US investors, the comparison changes and Atlas becomes much more reasonable.

How long does it take, start to finish?

These are the dates from our own records:

Our notes don't record how many hours passed between submitting and approval, so we won't give a number. All we can say for sure is that we were taking real payments on the day we applied.

How do non-residents get an EIN?

The IRS instructions for Form SS-4↗ are direct about it: you can apply online "only for applicants in the United States or U.S. territories" and by telephone "only for applicants outside of the United States or U.S. territories", or by fax or mail. The international line is 267-941-1099 ("not a toll-free number"), 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday.

You don't need an ITIN first. Line 7b asks for the responsible party's SSN or ITIN, and the instructions say to "Enter 'foreign' or N/A on line 7b if the responsible party doesn't have and is ineligible to obtain an SSN or ITIN."

The EIN letter turned out to be useful beyond Stripe. We also used it to verify a Google Play organization account. When someone asks you to prove the company exists, send the Articles or Certificate of Organization, which are public records anyway. The EIN letter and the SS-4 show the owner's full name, so keep those private.

Which bank account can receive Stripe payouts?

Stripe's payouts documentation↗ says payout bank accounts "generally must be located in a country where the settlement currency is an official currency." For a US account settling in USD, that means a US bank account. A USD account at a bank in your home country won't work.

We use a Wise Business USD account. Some things we ran into:

• Getting money home: Wise couldn't send our local currency (TWD) to Taiwan, so we had to send USD by SWIFT to a USD account at a Taiwanese bank. Costs: US$9.03 on the Wise side, US$0–40 taken by intermediary banks, and NT$200–400 charged by the receiving bank.
• Incoming SWIFT transfers to Wise cost US$6.11 each, and intermediary banks can take more. Our transfer arrived within 3 hours.
• Don't let anyone else use the Wise card. That breaks Wise's terms, and if they close the account, your payouts stop too.

Plan for a slow first payout. Stripe says it "typically schedules your initial payout to complete within 7–14 days, depending on your industry, country of operation, and risk level." The US standard settlement timing in the same docs is T+2.

What does Stripe's reviewer check on your website?

Our records show no request for extra documents from Stripe. We think that's because we fixed the site first, going through it the way a reviewer would. A reviewer opens your URL and looks for four things: what you sell, what it costs, what happens if the customer isn't happy, and who to contact when something goes wrong. We built one page for each and linked all six in the footer:

About the refund policy: if the policy says "no refunds" and the customer paid by card, they don't give up. They file a dispute with their bank, and now you're dealing with their bank instead of an email.

We also took out hype: guarantees, accuracy claims, "only N spots left." Stripe's prohibited and restricted businesses list↗ bans "'Get rich quick' schemes" and "Businesses that make outrageous claims," so the closer your copy sounds to that, the more trouble you're asking for.

Seven mistakes we made (so you don't have to)

1. Amounts are in the minor unit. The currencies doc↗ example is "1000 to charge 10 USD." TWD is a two-decimal currency in the API, so NT$599 is sent as 59900. Send 599 and you've charged NT$5.99. TWD also has a payout quirk: Stripe "treats TWD as a zero-decimal currency for payouts," so manual payout amounts must be divisible by 100. Check the special cases for your own currency.
2. Adaptive Pricing is on by default. It shows a currency switcher to visitors from abroad and overrides the prices you set for each currency. Turn it off in the dashboard if you set your own prices.
3. Customer emails didn't come in our language. Chinese wasn't in the dashboard's default language list, so we set preferred_locales when creating the Customer through the API.
4. The application didn't match the site. We first said we had subscriptions, then deleted that, then added "No subscriptions," while every page footer still linked to a subscription page with prices and renewal terms. What finally matched the site was "No recurring billing today." A denial is easier to catch than a plain statement. If you're unsure, leave it out instead of denying it.
5. A support inbox that couldn't receive mail. If the domain has no MX record, the email you give Stripe goes nowhere. We tested with MX and RCPT probes before applying.
6. Promising delivery we couldn't do. One page mentioned notifications through a messaging channel we hadn't set up yet. When delivery doesn't match what the site says, the customer has grounds for a chargeback.
7. A statement descriptor customers don't recognize. Stripe's own multiple accounts doc↗ gives the example of a customer buying from "XYZ" and seeing "ABC" on the statement, "potentially resulting in a dispute." Use your brand name.

How much does Stripe charge a US account for foreign cards?

From the Stripe US pricing page↗, checked 2026-10-07:

Worked example (our own arithmetic using the rates above):

If your customers are mostly outside the US, plan on paying roughly 5–6% per order, not the 2.9% in the headline. The 30¢ hurts most on cheap orders. A single US$15 dispute wipes out the fees on several small orders, which is one more reason to get the refund policy and descriptor right.

What will Stripe refuse to process?

Read the restricted businesses list↗ (last updated 2026-09-22) before you apply. For product sellers the relevant items are:

• "Counterfeit goods" and "Unauthorized sale of brand-name or designer products or services"
• "Pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals that are not safe or make harmful claims"
• "Multilevel marketing services offering commission or recruitment-based sales"
• "'Get rich quick' schemes" (relevant if you sell courses)
• Some restrictions apply only in certain countries. Japanese accounts, for example, can't offer "Advisory services related to drop shipping and the resale of goods"

What do you have to file in the US?

These are the official requirements only. For your situation, and for tax in your home country, ask an accountant.

How your home country taxes income from a US single-member LLC depends on local law. We don't give an answer here.

FAQ

Do I need an ITIN before applying for an EIN? No. Form SS-4 lets you write "foreign" or N/A on line 7b if the responsible party doesn't have and isn't eligible for an SSN or ITIN.

Which payment methods does a US Stripe account accept? On our US account: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, UnionPay, Discover, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link. Alipay and WeChat Pay needed a separate approval. Malaysia's FPX and GrabPay and Singapore's PayNow weren't available to us.

Can I charge in currencies other than USD? Yes. We created live checkout pages in TWD, USD, HKD, SGD, MYR and CNY. Turn off Adaptive Pricing first if you set your own price for each currency.

How much does Stripe Atlas cost? US$500 one-time, which includes government fees and the first year of registered agent service, then US$100 a year. The company is formed in Delaware.

Planning to sell abroad from your own store?

The payment account is only one piece. We run three stores of our own, and in every case the application, the website and the dashboard settings had to say exactly the same thing before a payment provider would approve us. To see how we work with sellers, go to our e-commerce coaching service or the e-commerce hub. Once payments work, the next problem is tracking orders properly. Our e-commerce tracking setup guide covers that.

To talk through your case, message us on Telegram↗.

Compiled from official sources, checked 2026-10-07. Fees and rules change, so check each official page for the current version. For company formation and tax questions about your own case, ask an accountant.

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