Opening a US personal account while living abroad
What a US bank needs before it opens an account in your own name, and how the conversation with a banker usually runs.
What will a US bank ask before it opens an account in your own name?
The bank is deciding about you: who you are, where you live, where your money comes from and why you want to bank in the US. There is no company to review, so everything rests on your own documents and answers. A banker may ask about your work, your income and how you expect to use the account.
A personal account is opened for a person, not a plan.
When a bank opens a personal account, it is deciding about you: who you are, where you live, where your money comes from and why you want to bank in the US. There is no company to review and no business plan to read, so everything rests on your own documents and answers. It is the first step of US banking and credit in your own name, and it needs no US company.
That usually makes the conversation shorter than a business opening, and more personal. A banker may ask about your work, your income and how you expect to use the account. Give the answers you would give anyone who asked, and give the same ones every time.
What the bank needs from you.
Each bank sets its own list, and a banker may ask for more after the first conversation. Most begin with these.
- Your passport, and often a second form of ID
- Proof of the address where you live
- A US tax number, if you already have one
- Where the first deposit will come from
- How you expect to use the account
The account carries the address where you live.
The bank asks for your home address, and it has to be the one where you actually live, with a document that shows it. If you live abroad, that is an address abroad. Some banks open accounts for people who live outside the US and some don’t, and each decides from your real address. A US address where you don’t live is not an option. Banks compare details over time, and a mismatch found later can close the account and follow you to the next bank. When you move, tell the bank.
How the conversation with a banker usually runs.
Most personal openings start with a conversation rather than a form. It usually runs in this order, at a branch or, where the bank allows it, over video.
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Explain who you are and why
The banker asks where you live, what you do and why you want a US account. A short, specific answer helps more than a long one.
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Show your documents
Your passport, your proof of address and whatever shows where the first deposit comes from. The banker checks that names and addresses match across all of them.
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Answer the follow-up questions
Questions about your work, your income or the money you plan to move are routine. Answer them fully, and the same way each time you are asked.
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Wait for the decision
Some accounts open the same day. Others go to a review that can take a few weeks. The decision is the bank’s, and it may not explain it.
Tell your bank at home and your tax adviser.
A US account doesn’t stay a US matter. Your bank at home may ask about transfers to and from it, and your tax adviser needs to know it exists. A short message to each before the first transfer saves questions later.
Fund it from an account in your own name.
The first deposit is the first thing the bank sees you do, so make it easy to follow. Send it from an account in your own name at your bank at home, in an amount close to what you told the banker, and keep the statement that shows where it came from. Money from a relative, or from a company you own abroad, may be perfectly fine, but it raises questions that a transfer from your own account doesn’t.
Use it, and keep it in use.
An account that is opened and then left empty or silent is easy for a bank to close. Use it for what you said you would, with regular payments, spending in the US and a balance that moves. That activity is also what a bank looks at when you later apply for a card, and it starts a relationship the bank’s card team can see. If you expect the account to be quiet for a while, tell the bank before it happens.
More in Your first US card application.
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