Ask YC: getting a US bank account for non-US resident.

[kuvkir]

Hi!

I'm investigating the possibility of opening a US bank account for non-US resident. Is it possible at all, and if yes, how hard can it be? Basically I need to have it in order to be able to accept PayPal / Google checkout. The only way I see right now is:

1) set up an LLC in Delaware,

2) open a corporate bank account for my LLC.

While the first step is quite feasible, the second one is pretty vague. I couldn't find any good information on what it takes to get a bank account for an LLC, especially if I'm not a US-resident. Does anyone here have experience in it?

Alternatively, if I'm missing something and there's a simpler way to accept PayPal payments, point me to one.

Thanks, Kirill

P.S: I'm from Moscow, Russia

[patio11]

This is a common question on another forum I participate on. I got tired of answering it so I wrote it up as a blog post:

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2007/08/15/banking-for-the-uisv/

Short version: getting a US bank account for a non-US resident is possible and routine.

[kuvkir → patio11]

Thanks for the great post, however I still don't understand some concepts. I'll research more on that later.

[listic]

There was an article on getting a US merchant account recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=530055

P.S. I'm from St.-Petersburg, Russia

[kuvkir → listic]

Thanks, the curious thing that I saw that post and even bookmarked it, but somehow forgot to read it ;)