I’m a merchant based in Pakistan trying to set up a payment gateway for my Shopify store targeting UK and USA customers. I don’t have an LLC or business registration — only my CNIC/passport. Which payment gateways have worked for Pakistani individual merchants? Has anyone used Paymentwall, Airwallex, or any other gateway successfully
4 Answers
4Hi, @Hassaan7
According to my Knowledge, for Pakistani individual merchants, receiving payments from the US/UK without a foreign LLC/LTD (using only a CNIC or Passport) can be difficult, as Stripe and Shopify payments generally require business registration.
Regarding the payment options you mentioned :
Paymentwall: this option works for individual merchants. You can apply using your CNIC/Passport, utility bill, and an active website; however, they may require strict delivery proof and can place rolling payout holds.
Airwallex: To my knowledge, this will not work. Airwallex requires a registered company, such as a US LLC or UK LTD. An account cannot be opened using only a CNIC.
My recommendation: for a short-term solution, consider Paymentwall.Before applying, make sure your store has complete refund and shipping Poilicies along with a genuine product catalogue. For a long-term solution, I’d recommend considering a UK LTD, which can be registered online for around £80–£100 using a Pakistani passport. Having a registered UK company can give you access to more payment options, such as Stripe UK and Wise Business, subject to their verification and eligibility requirements.
I hope my answer helps you.
Thank you!
Adding one thing to what @olivianewuser123 said, since it’s easy to miss until you’re already past it: if you do go the UK LTD (or US LLC) route, getting the entity formed is usually the easy part. The failure point most people in your exact situation hit next is the first real payout - Stripe/Wise/Airwallex flag or hold it because the business identity data doesn’t match cleanly across documents (company registration name formatting, the bank account name, your registered address, and what’s entered in Shopify’s own business settings). Even a small formatting difference (a middle name, “Ltd” vs “Limited”, an old address still on file) can trigger a hold with very little explanation.
Worth getting that consistent across all your documents before you apply anywhere, not after. Are you actively working on the UK LTD registration now, or still deciding between that and Paymentwall as a short-term option?
I will also add that there is no reason to follow advice from anyone who is spamming the forum with their 47 dollar checklist that is widely available for free. Shopify already provides more than adequate requirement information for Shopify Payments in the United States. Not to mention Shopify staff have replied numerous times here in this forum.
Plus there are many free articles and blogs on this subject.
Adding to olivianewuser123’s answer rather than repeating it, because the UK LTD route has a second gate that catches people a few weeks after they clear the first one.
Once the LTD exists, Stripe UK doesn’t only check that a company exists. It checks that the director it verifies matches the documents. Two things break that for Pakistani founders more often than anything else:
Name transliteration. Your passport, your Companies House filing, and your bank account can easily end up carrying three different versions of the same name — a middle name included in one and dropped in another, or a different Latin spelling of the same Urdu name. Whichever version is on your passport is the one to use everywhere, and it is far cheaper to get right at incorporation than to amend afterwards.
The registered office address. Most cheap LTD packages bundle a UK registered office address. That address is perfectly fine for Companies House. But if you also enter it as your operating address on a gateway application while you actually operate from Pakistan, that is a mismatch the reviewer can see, and it is a much worse look than simply being based in Pakistan. Keep the registered office as the registered office and be straightforward about where you operate. A real structure with an explanation passes review more often than a tidy-looking one that doesn’t hold up.
The same principle applies if you start with Paymentwall: the name on your CNIC, the name on the payout account, and the name on your store’s policy pages should be one version, not three. Mismatches there are a common cause of payout holds after the first few orders, which is a worse place to discover the problem than at signup.
None of this replaces Olivia’s advice on which provider to try — it’s the part that tends to bite later.