After registering an LLC or Corporation in the U.S., many people run into a very practical question: How do you open a business account if you are not physically in the United States? In this article, we will introduce Mercury, a very useful U.S. business account that can be opened online. If you need it, you can also join our discussion group. If the QR code has expired, you can add the US Credit Card 101 assistant (uscards101) and note “Mercury bank”; we will pull you into the group.

About Mercury and Account Opening

Mercury is a fintech platform that brings together commonly used financial tools for businesses. Currently, more than 300,000 companies and entrepreneurs use Mercury to manage their finances. Checking and Savings accounts are provided by Mercury’s partner banks, and ACH, Wire, Invoice, Bill Pay, expense management, and other finance software can all be handled on the same platform. The Mercury Free Plan is currently $0/month and has no minimum balance requirement. Domestic USD Wire and International USD Wire are both free, which makes it quite useful. On Chinese-language sites, Mercury is commonly called “Mercury bank.” Strictly speaking, it is not a bank, but a fintech company; the actual banking services are provided by partner banks.

I have been using Mercury myself for a long time. I have already covered its account features, corporate cards, Invoice, Books, expenses, and so on in detail in my Mercury review. This article will not repeat those features. Instead, it focuses on the issues that Chinese applicants, as well as other non-U.S. residents, are most likely to encounter when opening an account: whether you can apply without an SSN, what documents are needed for the EIN, how to fill in addresses, and what Mercury means by U.S. Operations.

Overall, Mercury currently explicitly supports International Founders. The applicant does not need to be a U.S. citizen, nor do they necessarily need to be a U.S. resident. As long as the company is formally registered in the U.S. or a U.S. territory and has existing or planned U.S. business, it can submit an application. Common company structures that can currently apply include LLC, Corporation, Partnership, and Non-Profit; Sole Proprietorship and Trust are currently not company types supported by Mercury Business.

Now, if you apply through our exclusive Mercury partner link, deposit $10,000 within 60 days, and maintain that balance for 30 days, you can earn a $300 account-opening bonus.*

*Bonus offer is subject to terms. To be eligible, your application must be completed through this affiliate link. To qualify for the referral bonus, you must you must deposit at least $10k within the first 60 days and maintain that balance for 30 consecutive days. Additional conditions and limitations apply. Full eligibility requirements are outlined in the Mercury Referred Customer Agreement.
Affiliate Disclosure: This article contains Mercury affiliate links. If you apply through these links and your application is approved, USCreditCards101 may receive compensation from Mercury.

How Can Chinese Applicants Open a Mercury Account?

If you do not yet have a U.S. company, the overall process is roughly:

Form a U.S. company → apply for an EIN → prepare company and Founder materials → submit the Mercury application online → review / supplemental documents → account opened

Of course, most applicants generally already have an EIN and a U.S. company. You just need to prepare the materials you already have step by step.

Preparing Account-Opening Materials

To open a Mercury account, you generally need to prepare the following items:

  • Official U.S. company documents (State-filed Formation Document)
  • EIN document officially issued or confirmed by the IRS (CP575/147C/SS-4 returned with IRS confirmation)
  • Identity document for you or the beneficial owner (Founder / Beneficial Owner)
  • U.S. company address (Legal Address)
  • Company physical operating address
  • Business description (Business Description)
  • Source of funds (Source of Funds)
  • Proof of existing or planned U.S. business (U.S. Operations)

International applicants can apply without an SSN. Mercury accepts a valid International Passport for identity verification. However, any Beneficial Owner who owns 25% or more of the company must be disclosed, and at least one person who is actually responsible for the company’s operations also needs to complete the relevant information. If there is a Holding Company above the ownership structure, you also need to continue looking through to the ultimate natural person.

How Should You Fill In the Address?

In my view, when an overseas Founder applies for Mercury, the address is the part that is most worth explaining separately. The addresses that may be used in the application are as follows:

  • Company Legal Address: This is the company’s legal address and will appear on company and bank documents. In other words, it is the address you used to register the U.S. company. Mercury currently requires this to be a physical address in the United States; you cannot directly use a P.O. Box.
  • Company Physical Address: This is where you actually run the company day to day. This address does not have to be in the United States. For example, if the company is registered in Wyoming, but you have long been living in Singapore and operate the company from your home in Singapore every day, then the physical operating address can absolutely be a verifiable residential address in Singapore.
  • Residential Address: This is your home address, mainly used to help verify your personal identity. Just enter your true place of residence. It is best to have supporting documents such as a lease or credit card statement. If you work remotely, you can directly check the box indicating it is the same as the company address.
  • Mailing Address: This is your mailing address, mainly used for sending physical cards and other mail, and it can be separate from the physical operating address. This point is quite important for users in China, and we will discuss it separately later.

Mercury currently accepts real residential or office addresses in the U.S. or overseas. If further verification is needed, Mercury may ask you to provide materials that can prove the physical address, such as a government ID, Lease, Utility Bill, Bank Statement, Credit Card Statement, or Coworking Invoice. However, the following cannot be directly used as a Physical Address:

  • Registered Agent
  • P.O. Box
  • Virtual Address
  • Commercial Mail Receiving Agency
  • Mail Center

In short, you do not need to force a virtual address just to “look more like a U.S. company.” Wherever you actually operate, try to enter a real, verifiable address. This is also one of Mercury’s strengths: they will not block you simply because your physical operating address is not in the United States.

How Should You Prepare U.S. Operations and Business Description?

Mercury requires the applicant company to have existing or planned U.S. business. If the company does not have a U.S. office, does not have a Beneficial Owner living in the U.S., and does not have a Beneficial Owner holding a U.S. ID, Mercury may further ask you to prove what actual business connection this company has with the United States. This connection is US Operations.

The materials currently listed by the official guidance as acceptable include:

  • Records of selling products or services to U.S. customers
  • Invoices / Contracts with U.S. customers, Partners, or Suppliers
  • SAFE Agreement
  • Investment Agreement
  • Employment Agreement / W-2 for U.S. employees
  • Payroll Record for U.S. employees
  • Lease for a U.S. office or Coworking Space
  • U.S. Utility Bill
  • The company’s Federal Tax Return for the most recent year

For example, if you are in China and your business involves Amazon U.S., e-commerce, SaaS, consulting, or software, and you receive payments from U.S. customers, have U.S. suppliers, or have income from U.S. platforms, this kind of business relationship is relatively easy to explain. Quite a few friends also directly use a blog or website to prove the connection between their business and the United States. Here, I recommend that everyone make sure to prepare supporting materials, such as traffic data and user data, to prove that your customers are indeed U.S. users.

Mercury now also clearly states that U.S. Operations is one of the requirements for maintaining an account. If the company has no U.S. business operations, has no plans to conduct U.S. business operations in the future, and cannot provide the corresponding proof, the account may later be restricted or even closed.

Business Description is essentially the same issue. What Mercury really wants to know is: what you do, who your customers are, how you make money, where the money comes from, and what this account will be used for.

For example, an e-commerce business could write:

We operate an online store selling home and lifestyle products to customers in the United States. Revenue comes from direct online sales through our website and third-party e-commerce platforms. Customer payments will be received through payment processors and marketplace payouts, and the Mercury account will be used for operating expenses and vendor payments.

For a SaaS business, you could write:

We develop subscription-based software for small businesses in the United States. Customers pay monthly or annual subscription fees through our website. The Mercury account will be used to receive customer payments and pay software, cloud infrastructure, contractors, and other operating expenses.

The key is not how polished the English is, but whether the reviewer can understand the entire business and cash flow after reading it:

  • What you sell → who pays you → where the money comes in from → what it will be used for after it comes in.

Mercury does not require the applicant company to already have a website, but a normal website that can explain the actual business will definitely make it easier for the reviewer to understand the company. I also recommend making the company name, founder name, website, LinkedIn, Formation Document, and the information in the application form consistent. This is especially important after Chinese names are converted to pinyin: do not use different spellings in different places.

Finally, if you feel your English is not good enough, you can give your Chinese description to an AI tool and tell it that you need to prove your business is related to the United States and that the description will be used to apply for a business account. The AI will usually give you fairly good application materials.

Source of Funds

The initial source of funds refers to where the first funds entering Mercury after you open the account will come from. If you already have a complete business and definite revenue, you can select Revenue, though of course you will need to prepare the corresponding sales proof. Similarly, if the funds come from investors, you will need materials such as contracts. If your business has not yet started, you can select self, meaning the initial funds will be deposited by you personally. You can deposit money into Mercury by wire transfer or similar methods. You can also deposit funds from a cross-border account such as Wise.

Real Approval Cases

I found several successful account-opening cases from Chinese users over the past two years and summarized them for everyone.

First, the conclusion: applying with a real China address is completely fine. In the successful cases below, most people ultimately used their actual residential or office address in China, and the common address proof was a bank credit card statement. The key is that the name, address, source of funds, and actual business can all be cross-checked and are consistent with one another.

Case Actual background and submitted materials Review process Result
Rokcso U.S. company + EIN; Chinese passport; +86 phone number; real residence in China / Physical Address; China Merchants Bank credit card statement as address proof; company website and Business Description. Selected Revenue as the initial source of funds. There were two rounds of supplemental materials in total. The first round mainly involved Revenue and address proof. Because the order of the Chinese name on the China Merchants Bank statement after conversion to pinyin differed from the English name on the passport, an additional English PDF was prepared to explain the name correspondence, with the passport, driver’s license, and China Merchants Bank statement attached. For Revenue, the submitted materials included the product website, demo account, backend data, AdSense screenshots, and customer communication records. In the second round, target customers and industry were added, and an explanation was provided for why formal revenue proof documents were not available for the time being. Approved in under 2 days overall. Approved within a few hours after the second round of supplemental materials.
Geek’s Cyberspace Located in China; U.S. Single-Member LLC; software industry; founder owns 100%; IRS EIN confirmation letter; Chinese passport; Chinese phone number; U.S. company registered address; real day-to-day operating / residential address in China. After submission, the applicant was asked to provide the complete actual address and explain why the location during the selfie differed from the address in the application. A Persona selfie video verification was then completed again. The form took about 10 minutes to fill out, and the account was successfully opened in about 1 day. Afterward, funds were deposited from Wise to Mercury, and the applicant prepared to connect Stripe.
VPS Player U.S. company; EIN; Chinese passport; business email; U.S. phone number; complete company website; company industry and business description; company registration certificate; shareholder information and LinkedIn. At first, a U.S. PO Box / rented address was used, which Mercury determined did not meet the requirements. It was then changed to a real China address + China Merchants Bank credit card statement. In addition, because the applicant’s name was relatively common, the applicant was also asked to confirm whether they were a Politically Exposed Person. The account was successfully opened in about 4 days from start to finish. The author had tried unsuccessfully for many years before; this time, after preparing the website, contact information, company information, and business materials completely, the application was approved.
Meepo Chinese indie developer; U.S. company; EIN; U.K. giffgaff phone number; company registered address used the registered agent service provider’s address; real residence in China used as the actual office address; Chinese passport; China Merchants Bank stamped electronic statements for the past 3 months. The author had applied once before and was rejected. This time, the overall process did not change much. For address proof, the Chinese China Merchants Bank statement was uploaded directly, without a dedicated translation. There were also page issues during identity verification, and manual upload verification was used later. The account was successfully opened after waiting about 10 days. Afterward, funds were deposited to Mercury through Airwallex, and the author continued connecting Stripe.
Firstbase + Mercury walkthrough Chinese applicant; registered a Wyoming LLC through Firstbase; B2C Software; applicant was CEO and owned 100%; EIN; Chinese passport; real office address in China; translated driver’s license; China Merchants Bank credit card statement. Address documentation was the main issue. The real office address in China was entered during application, and a China Merchants Bank credit card statement was later used for verification. Mercury initially did not recognize the Chinese name on the statement, so ultimately a passport photo + translated driver’s license + China Merchants Bank credit card statement were combined into one PDF and resubmitted. It was processed 3 times in total. Ultimately approved successfully. After opening the account, funds were deposited from Wise to Mercury and arrived in about 4 hours. The Mercury Checking account was then directly connected to Stripe.

Looking at these DPs together, I think a few patterns are fairly clear.

First, real addresses in China can absolutely pass without issue. In fact, some users initially used a PO Box or a rented U.S. address and were asked by Mercury to resubmit a real business address. Overseas founders do not need to make up a U.S. physical address just to “look like a U.S. company.”

Second, credit card statements come up very often. They can be used as proof of a China address, but ideally the name and address on the statement should match the information entered in the Mercury application. If the order of your Chinese name changes after being converted to pinyin, or if the statement only shows your Chinese name, it is best to prepare your passport, a translation, or a simple one-page explanation in English in advance. Do not make the reviewer guess.

Third, Mercury reviews more than just company documents; it also looks at whether the business is real. Some users were asked to provide a product website, actual users, backend data, AdSense, customer communication records, and sources of revenue. Whether you have a website, how you write the Business Description, and whether the initial funding source is Self or Revenue are all essentially answering the same question: Is this company actually doing business? Where is the money coming from? People online often discuss whether the initial funding source should be Self or Revenue. I do not think it is worth trying to find the supposedly “easiest to pass” answer. After Rokcso selected Revenue, they were still repeatedly asked to prove the source of revenue; selecting Self could also lead to a request for personal bank statements. Fill it out based on the real situation, so that if you are later asked to prove it, you can explain it clearly.

Is Mercury worth opening?

If you already have a U.S. LLC / Corporation, do not live in the U.S. long term, and are genuinely doing business in the U.S. market, I think Mercury is still very suitable as a top option to consider. This is especially true for companies in e-commerce, SaaS, consulting, agencies, affiliate marketing, and software development. These businesses typically do not handle much cash, and their revenue mainly comes through online channels such as Stripe, Amazon, ACH, and wire transfers, so Mercury tends to work smoothly.

The most convenient part for overseas founders is that after registering a U.S. company, getting an EIN, and preparing real business materials, you do not need to fly to the U.S. just to visit a branch and open a business account. Their account-opening threshold is also not high. As long as you have a U.S. company or planned U.S. Operations, you can open an account, with no transaction-history requirement. Of course, you should first make sure you understand:

  • whether the U.S. company has been formally registered;
  • whether the EIN document is the version officially confirmed by the IRS;
  • whether the actual business address can be verified;
  • what business the company actually does;
  • whether there is a real or reasonable business relationship with the U.S. market.

Once all of these are fine, just apply according to the application steps discussed above.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do if my account application is denied?

After preparing the materials above, you can apply directly online. Mercury currently states that the normal official review time is 0–2 business days. After submitting, if the web page or app shows In Review, it means the application has entered review.

If additional company documents, address information, or business materials are needed, Mercury will contact you through the application email address. So in the few days after applying, it is best to check your Spam folder as well. If there is still no update after more than 7 business days, first check whether you missed any earlier request for additional documents. If an overseas founder needs additional verification of U.S. Operations, the actual timeline may of course be longer.

If you are denied the first time, Mercury usually will not tell you the very specific internal reason for the denial. I also do not recommend immediately resubmitting the exact same materials. First check whether the EIN is an officially confirmed document, whether the Formation Document was submitted in full, whether the Physical Address uses a Registered Agent or Virtual Address, whether the Business Description is too simple, and whether you can provide real proof of U.S. Operations. Also check whether you missed any Beneficial Owner with at least 25% ownership, and whether there are any obvious inconsistencies among the founder’s name, company name, address, and website.

Mercury currently allows applicants to reapply if they have new materials that were not previously submitted, but reapplying of course does not guarantee approval.

After opening an account from China, can I get a physical card?

Here, you need to separate account-opening eligibility from physical card mailing eligibility.

Mainland China is currently not on Mercury Business’s list of countries restricted from opening accounts, but China is on the restricted list for physical card shipping.

In other words, Chinese residents who meet the other requirements can still apply for Mercury Business, but after the account is approved, Mercury currently cannot mail a physical card directly to mainland China. So after the account is opened, you can first use an eligible Virtual Card. For companies that mainly receive and send payments through ACH, wire transfers, Stripe, Amazon, and similar channels, not getting a physical card right away generally will not affect the account’s core use.

Can Mercury connect to Stripe, Amazon, Shopify, and PayPal?

Yes. This is also one of the main reasons many cross-border e-commerce and SaaS companies open a Mercury account. Mercury can be used as the receiving account for platforms such as Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, Square, and Amazon. In practice, you usually just add the routing number and Account Number provided by Mercury to the corresponding platform.

One small detail: For the Account Holder Name, try to use the company’s Legal Name. If the name on the payment platform does not match the company name on the Mercury account, the payment may be returned due to a name mismatch. If the company has also registered a DBA / Trade Name, you can contact Mercury to add that name to the account.

So for many overseas founders, the actual usage path is:

U.S. LLC → EIN → Mercury → Stripe / Shopify / Amazon → receive U.S. business revenue

If you need bookkeeping, Mercury can also connect to accounting software such as QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite. I have already covered the specific features in detail in the full Mercury review, so I will not repeat them here.

Does Mercury have a minimum balance or account maintenance fee?

Mercury Business’s basic account currently has no minimum balance requirement, no account-opening fee, and no mandatory monthly fee. Standard ACH and domestic U.S. wire transfers also have no fees.

Mercury now also has paid plans such as Plus and Pro, but these mainly add advanced finance workflows, invoicing, expense management, and similar features. They are not required to open or use the basic account. So if you have just registered a U.S. LLC and do not have much money in the account yet, the basic account is enough.

Can Mercury deposit checks?

Yes. Mercury Business supports depositing paper checks issued by U.S. banks by taking photos through the website or app. The check needs to be made payable to the company Legal Name, a DBA registered in the account, or an eligible account holder. If you need to issue physical checks to others, Mercury Business now also supports ordering a Checkbook. However, physical Checkbooks can currently only be mailed to addresses in the U.S. and U.S. territories.

Application Link

Now, if you apply through our exclusive Mercury partner link, deposit $10,000 within 60 days, and maintain that balance for 30 days, you can earn a $300 account-opening bonus.*

*Bonus offer is subject to terms. To be eligible, your application must be completed through this affiliate link. To qualify for the referral bonus, you must you must deposit at least $10k within the first 60 days and maintain that balance for 30 consecutive days. Additional conditions and limitations apply. Full eligibility requirements are outlined in the Mercury Referred Customer Agreement.
Affiliate Disclosure: This article contains Mercury affiliate links. If you apply through these links and your application is approved, USCreditCards101 may receive compensation from Mercury.