I have a LLC US but I am a non-US resident without a SSN number. How can I use it with Shopify?

[Brands888]

Hello,

I have regularly registered my LLC company in the USA with an EIN number, and I have all the documentation. Right now if I select United Stated as the Store location in Shopify, I am forced to add an SSN which I don't have as I don't live in the USA. Hence, I can't set up my store and start my marketing efforts.

I have a bank account and an already verified Stripe account with my USA LLC company which works very fine, and I find it very awkward that I can't use it with Shopify since Shopify Payments is equal to Stripe.

Is there a way to regularly use my LLC to start receiving payments with Shopify? If further documentation needs to be sent, where should I send it?

I have also tried to use my residency location (Lithuania) as Store Location in the Shopify setting and connect the Stripe US LLC account, but they suggested I not do it after I reached out to Shopify support. For this reason, I canceled the connection even if apparently it was working fine.

Hope to get an answer asap.

Thank you in advance!

@Helen I saw you were active to this topic, so I try to tag you 🙂

[Luna]

Hey, @Brands888. 

Thanks for reaching out here in our Community forum. I'm happy to provide you with some more information regarding Shopify Payments. 

In order to use Shopify Payments US, a business needs to have physical operations on US soil. For this to be true, it may not require you to actually live in the US. For example, do you have US offices, US retail locations, rented or owned warehouse space in the US? Would you be able to provide proof of this physical presence if the review team requested it? If so, please let me know and I can walk you through the next best steps. 

Otherwise, you can definitely connect one of these third-party gateways, which includes Stripe. In order to gain more context, may I ask why you are hoping to use an account based in the US? For example, are you hoping to get paid in USD? 

I'm looking forward to hearing back from you so that we can continue to work on this together!

[Brands888]

Hey @Luna !

Thank you so much for your answer.

To answer the first part regarding having a physical operations on US soil: I cooperate with a company that helped me to open my LLC in Wyoming and I do have a business address there with a mailbox and other utilities. Except for that, I do not have other US physical connections. Regarding the proof of physical presence for verification, I could provide the documents I have:

- Form SS4 

- Form 8821

- Articles of Organization

- Operating Agreement

- EIN Document

- Form W-9

Regarding the second part: Would it be possible to use my United States LLC Stripe account even if I select Lithuania's store address in the Shopify Store Settings? Or should I open a new Lithuanian Stripe account from scratch? 

To answer your last question: I know how to set up payments in USD whichever country is the store located in fact I was already selling in USD 🙂 But now I need to change the company settings and location.

-> As my customers are mainly from the USA, I m sure it would be more reliable to have a USA company LLC with a US address in the footer of the website and in the emails. Furthermore, the cost to keep an LLC running is slightly more convenient to me.

For these reasons, I opened the LLC company in Wyoming, and I'm hoping to be able to use it with Shopify. 

As I already verified from Stripe with my Wyoming LLC and everything went fine, I might consider using another platform instead of Shopify. But that would be very sad because until now we have been killing the market with this store, and it would be a pity to switch to another platform.

I hope what I wrote makes sense to you 🙂 and I wish to receive some positive news from your side 🙂

Thank you very much in advance!

[Luna]

Hey, @Brands888.

Thanks for getting back to me with all of this context. In addition to having a physical presence in the US, merchants will also need to provide proof of some additional documentation in order to begin the review process. Since this list includes sensitive documents, please don't share any of these documents in the forums. I will ask that you reach out to our support team through the Help Center so they can start the review process for you. 

Our support team will be able to provide you with a detailed list of what is required. Please note that being able to provide these documents does not automatically qualify you to use Shopify Payments US. This is simply the initial step in the review process. 

I can definitely understand where you're coming from, and I appreciate you sharing those details with me. Since you have listed an address outside of the US as your location, you will need to use a Stripe account that matched those details (Lithuanian Stripe account). 

The next best step will be to reach out to our support team, so we can start the review process. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions.

Best, 

[Dubrovins]

Hey @Brands888  Were you able to solve the problem or find any service that provides the leasing agreement with utilities signed for your name maybe? That is what I am trying to do. Nit sure if it works though.