Can I activate payments without social security number?

Shopify Discussion
1

I am not a US citizen and I’m trying to activate shopify payments. But it can’t be activated without the social security number. It there anyway to activate the payment without it? And if not, what should I do?

What are the other payment gateways that are easy to register and you tried before?

Thank you

2

Hi @KREMS

Thank you for reaching out to the Shopify Community Forums with your question! I understand that you want to use Shopify Payments as the gateway for your business, but that you are not located in the USA. I’m happy to hear that you are interested in Shopify Payments and that you chose to use Shopify to host your business!

While Shopify does have availability internationally, not all countries are supported for Shopify Payments at this time. If your business is located internationally and you want to use Shopify Payments in order to sell items to the USA, there are some specific requirements to be accepted.

I shared this information in a similar forum thread a little while ago, and I will link it here for you to review as well: RE: Documentation Required for Shopify Payments.

Assuming that your store has Shopify Payments for the USA enabled on it, I’ll include below the information that is required for an international business to be considered for using Shopify Payments. Please note that this decision is handled by a team separate from my own and that providing this documentation to them does not guarantee that you will be considered eligible for Shopify Payments.

  • Government issued photo ID (driver’s license, passport, etc. - non-US ID may be accepted)
  • A Tax ID in the United States: EIN if the merchant is LLC/Corp or SSN if merchant is Sole Proprietor
  • Business registration document (Registered in the US with the government)
  • Proof that the business is actually operating from the US. This can include tracking showing they are shipping from the US or proof of a physical US address (not a forwarding address)
  • A USD checking account, opened with a real US banking institution, located on US soil. Virtual banks and currency services will not work for this, it has to be a real US bank

The address you provide in your store admin under Settings > General should be your legally registered business address. If you do not have all the documents available, please submit what you can and provide a note on the reasons why you are unable to submit the rest of the documents. From there, our business operation team will reach out to let you know if there are any other options available for you.

If you are not eligible to use Shopify Payments, the alternate payment gateways available do change based on the country your business is located in. Shopify Support frequently recommends **Authorize.net **or Emerchantbroker (EMB) as possible alternate payment gateways as they are widely available and support a wide range of business models.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions about your payment gateways!

-Shay

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both Authorize.net or Emerchantbroker (EMB) need SSN