Hello,
This is Harshil <removed>, <removed> which is a Limited Liability Company (LLC) registered in the state of Delaware. My permanent residence in India and I travel to the US for business as and when necessary.
A few months ago, I had called PayPal helpline to find out whether a foreign-owned US company can open and operate a PayPal account. As per the discussions with customer support and based on information available on PayPal help pages, I concluded that I would need to open a PayPal Business account and then link it with my company's EIN. I did this, and was able to open / operate the account without any problem. Subsequently, since the past few weeks, I have been using the PayPal account to get payments for sales derived from our website and our eBay store. I was able to receive the payments and also withdraw it to my company's US bank account. Everything was running problem-free.
A few days back, I called PayPal helpline for assistance since I was having some difficulty in linking my debit card to PayPal. The person who answered the phone, instead of helping with the original problem, instead said that my account looks "suspicious" since it's being accessed from IP address in India, and not in the US. He immediately limited my account and asked me to provide sale invoices, tracking information and some other information through Resolution Center. I did all that and provided them with all the information that was necessary to prove that all transactions were genuine sales and everything was shipped out properly with tracking & insurance. Next thing I know, PayPal decided to "close" my account "because of security issues" without offering any proper explanation. They also put the several thousand dollars I have in my account "on hold" for 180 days!
Does anyone know what the rules actually are? Can a US company having foreign ownership open / operate a PayPal account or not? Because every time I call PayPal, I get a conflicting reply depending on the whims & fancies of the customer support executive answering the phone.
One of the customer support executives told me that I would need to link SSN and suggested that I change the "Contact Name" in the account to one of my US employee's name and link his/her SSN just for verification. The account itself would still remain a business account in my company's name & EIN. However, I'm not sure why I should ask my employee to provide his/her SSN if it's not required by law or by PayPal rules. Also, for security reasons, I prefer to be in control of the account myself (being the owner of the company). Also, all this information contradicts with what I was told by PayPal before.
I would appreciate if someone from PayPal customer support can shed some light on this matter on this post, if possible.
Best regards,
Harshil <removed>
