Opening a US PayPal Business account if I have SSN, US bank account and LLC but don't live in the US

[shiram]

Hello guys, I have an important question that I decided to post here after getting mixed answers from the PayPal support team.

I live outside of the US, and at the moment, I have a local PayPal business account for the business in my country.

However, because I also have many clients from the United States, I am going to open an LLC in the US soon.

In addition to my current local PayPal business account, I consider opening a new PayPal business account for this LLC, and I try to understand if it is within PayPal terms of service that I will open the US PayPal business account or not.

I do have a US bank account, a US address for my LLC, and even a U.S. social security number, however, I am not a US citizen and do not live in the US.

When I emailed the PayPal support team and asked them this question, they told me I can open the US PayPal account and didn’t even mention that I need a U.S. social security number.

However, when I sent them another email to double-check and confirm, they told me that for opening a U.S. based PayPal account, I need to be a U.S. citizen and to have a U.S. social security number (which means that it is not possible in my case because I do not live in the U.S).

So, I try to figure out if someone here was in the same situation and can tell me from his/her experience if it is going to be possible for me to open the US based PayPal account or not.

Thanks for your help!

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @shiram,

Thank you for your post. It is not necessary to be a US citizen, as long as you have a US taxpayer ID. However, an account can only be opened in the country of residence, or if it's a business account, the country the business is organized in. It's possible that your business qualifies if it is registered in the US. For more information, please take a look at the US PayPal User Agreement. You can also ask questions about setting up various business solutions by calling the number listed on this page.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[shiram]

Hi @PayPal_Olivia,

First, thanks a lot for your reply. After reading the material you provided, I am still not sure about something:

You said that "an account can only be opened in the country of residence, or if it's a business account, the country the business is organized in"

As explained before, I live in Israel; however I am going to open an LLC in the US. Assuming that I can provide PayPal with SSN or EIN, is it going to be ok to open the US PayPal business account, even though I am not living in the US, which means I will login to my account every time from my Israeli IP?

I ask that because I saw this post last week of someone in a similar status that got his account blocked due to IP issues:

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Disputes-and-Limitations/Account-suddenly-blocked-because-paypal...

Could you please confirm I will be able to open the new business account without any issues based on the information I provided?

Thanks again

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @shiram,

Thank for reaching back out! That's a great question. While you can operate a company based in the US while residing outside the county, you won't be able to operate a US PayPal account from Israel. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Have a great day,

 - Jon K

[jbflipper]

Hi @shiram ,

Were you able to open  US PayPal Business account? 

I am a non-resident alien and I was also considering getting a "US PayPal Business account" opened for my US LLC. 

Please share your experience.

Regards,  

[iampradeeep]

I am residing in UAE and I manage my father's PayPal Business account registered in India. Will this trigger an IP issue and get the account blocked?