How to Activate Shopify Payments for Non-US Citizens | Without SSN (2026) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00In this video, I'm going to show you the
2. 0:01exact step-by-step process to use
3. 0:03Shopify payments without an SSN and
4. 0:06legitimately, even if you're living in a
5. 0:08non-supported country. And here's what
6. 0:09most people don't realize. The real
7. 0:11problem is that 99% of tutorials out
8. 0:14there are outdated or worse, they're
9. 0:16teaching setups that will get you shut
10. 0:18down. And that's exactly what's been
11. 0:19happening in 2025. Now, in this video,
12. 0:22I'll show you the correct setup that
13. 0:23actually works today so you can activate
14. 0:25Shopify payments safely and long-term.
15. 0:28So, by the end, you have Shopify
16. 0:29payments fully activated on your store.
17. 0:31And the method I'm showing you today use
18. 0:33a proper address setup that actually
19. 0:35works with Shopify new verification
20. 0:37standards. We are going to set up a US
21. 0:39LLC, get both an EIN and it, and use an
22. 0:42address service that passes Shopify's
23. 0:44compliance checks. With this, you can
24. 0:46scale your business, whether it's
25. 0:48general e-commerce or drop shipping,
26. 0:50without risking getting banned. So,
27. 0:51let's get into it. Now, let me quickly
28. 0:53show you the issue most people run into
29. 0:55on Shopify. When we select I'm running
30. 0:58my store normally as individual then at
31. 1:00the next question as you can see we need
32. 1:02to give up an address that's inside the
33. 1:05US where we live and we need an SSN
34. 1:07number. Now it's safe to say that we
35. 1:10will get stuck here. So selecting
36. 1:11individual is not going to be an option
37. 1:14for us here since we aren't US citizens
38. 1:16and don't have an SSN. Now the legal
39. 1:18solution to this is operating through a
40. 1:20US LLC which anyone in the world can set
41. 1:22up. And with an LLC, as we can see, we
42. 1:25can select I'm running my store as a
43. 1:26registered business with a single member
44. 1:28LLC. And then instead of a personal US
45. 1:31address and SSN, they ask for a business
46. 1:34address and a residential address of the
47. 1:36owner of the LLC. And here we can choose
48. 1:38any country. As you can see, I set it
49. 1:40for Netherlands, which is where I'm
50. 1:41from. And then for the identification,
51. 1:44we can select either SSN, it or this
52. 1:46person doesn't have an SSN or itin,
53. 1:49which I'll get to back later. Now, all
54. 1:51of these are things that non- US
55. 1:52citizens can obtain in a completely
56. 1:54legal and compliant way. So, here's what
57. 1:56you need to make this work. First, a US
58. 1:58LLC. This is your business entity.
59. 2:00Second, an EIN, which is your company's
60. 2:03tax ID number. Third, an ITIN, which is
61. 2:05your personal tax ID as a non- US owner.
62. 2:08Fourth, a proper US address that won't
63. 2:10get flagged by Shopify. And finally, a
64. 2:13US business bank account. Now, I know
65. 2:15this sounds like a lot, but I'm going to
66. 2:16walk you through each step, and
67. 2:18honestly, it's not as complicated as it
68. 2:20seems. First of all, let's set up our
69. 2:22own US LLC the right way so we can
70. 2:24activate Shopify payments in the first
71. 2:26place. Now, luckily, anyone in the world
72. 2:28can legally form an LLC. And the first
73. 2:30decision we need to make is in which
74. 2:32state to form your LLC. And as a
75. 2:35foreigner, you can technically choose
76. 2:37any state that you want, but one option
77. 2:39is the best right here, and that is
78. 2:41Wyoming. Wyoming has the lowest annual
79. 2:43fees. We're talking about $60 per year.
80. 2:45Wying also has good privacy protection,
81. 2:48meaning your personal information
82. 2:49doesn't go on the public record. And
83. 2:51most importantly for non- US residents,
84. 2:54it has 0% state income tax. So overall,
85. 2:57low cost, low hassle, very reliable, and
86. 2:59widely recognized also working with
87. 3:01Shopify. So for this tutorial, we're
88. 3:03going with Wying because it's the most
89. 3:05balanced option for international
90. 3:07business owners and it's the state that
91. 3:09I also use for all my LLC's. To then
92. 3:12open an LLC as an unresident, we need to
93. 3:14choose a registered agent. And a
94. 3:16registered agent is basically official
95. 3:18representative in the state where your
96. 3:20company is formed. Basically, they are
97. 3:23your official US representative. They
98. 3:25receive all legal and government mill
99. 3:27for your LLC. And every US LLC must list
100. 3:30a physical address in the state. And as
101. 3:33a non- US resident, this part is
102. 3:34mandatory because you don't have a
103. 3:36physical presence or address in the US
104. 3:39yourself. Now, shortly what they do,
105. 3:41they keep your personal info private so
106. 3:43it's not put on a public record. They
107. 3:45ensure you never miss official mail from
108. 3:47the state. They provide a business
109. 3:49address that works with Shopify and make
110. 3:52your LLC legally compliant. And now you
111. 3:54can choose any registered agent out
112. 3:56there, but personally for this specific
113. 3:58setup, I recommend Business Anywhere.
114. 4:01I've used them for my own LLC's as well,
115. 4:03and they can also provide virtual
116. 4:05addresses that work with Shopify. So to
117. 4:07go to business anywhere, you can either
118. 4:09go to the link in the description or
119. 4:10type in bihustle.com/business
120. 4:13anywhere. This is then going to bring
121. 4:14you to the site from where we can open
122. 4:16our LLC. And here we first want to click
123. 4:18get your US company online today. Now
124. 4:21you see a form where you need to enter
125. 4:22in the name of your LLC. This has to be
126. 4:24a unique name. I'm going with Studio
127. 4:26Hel. And then here I'm going to select
128. 4:28LLC and then check availability. And now
129. 4:31as we can see the name is available. And
130. 4:33now we need to login or create an
131. 4:35account right here. So, I'll fill in
132. 4:36these details and then I'll click on
133. 4:38next. And next up, we need to choose our
134. 4:40entity type and our state. Now, for
135. 4:42this, as I said, leave this on LLC. And
136. 4:44for the state, we simply type in
137. 4:46Wyoming. And just like that. And then we
138. 4:48also see a price table of how much this
139. 4:51is going to cost. And the Wyoming state
140. 4:52fee is $18 to form the company in that
141. 4:55state. And then we click on next. Then
142. 4:57we need to fill in how many owners a
143. 4:59company will have. Now, for most of us,
144. 5:01this is going to be one owner. So, I'll
145. 5:02leave this on one. If you're going to
146. 5:04have multiple members, you can simply
147. 5:05change that right here. I'm simply going
148. 5:07to leave it on one and click next. Next
149. 5:09up, we have the registered agent
150. 5:10service. This is really important. You
151. 5:12want to add this as well since this is
152. 5:14required for us as we are non-residents.
153. 5:16And we click on next once again. And by
154. 5:18the way, as you can see, when using my
155. 5:20link, the first year for the registered
156. 5:22agent service is completely free. Next
157. 5:25up, we have the employer identification
158. 5:27number. And this is required to open
159. 5:28bank accounts to communicate with the
160. 5:30IRS and also for Shopify payments. So we
161. 5:33want to add this to our order as well.
162. 5:35From here we then click on next. Next we
163. 5:37have the operating agreement. This is
164. 5:39optional and not required. So we simply
165. 5:41going to click I don't need an operating
166. 5:43agreement and click next. Then for the
167. 5:45bookkeeping setup you can add this if
168. 5:47you want but it's not required. I'm
169. 5:49going to simply select no and then click
170. 5:51next. Then open a bank account for
171. 5:53Studio Hustle LLC. I will also show you
172. 5:56how to open a bank account myself. So
173. 5:58you can simply click on I don't need a
174. 6:00bank account and click next. And now
175. 6:02there's one more thing right here and
176. 6:04that is the beneficial ownership
177. 6:05information report BIR for the filing.
178. 6:08This is mandatory since this year it's
179. 6:10only $37 for them to do it for you. I
180. 6:13would highly recommend that. So I'll
181. 6:14click add to order as well and then go
182. 6:16to next. And now this is really
183. 6:18important and why I prefer them so much
184. 6:21for setups like this and that is adding
185. 6:23a professional mailing address because
186. 6:25when we don't do this we going to run
187. 6:27our company on an address that is used
188. 6:29by hundreds of thousands of other people
189. 6:32and Shopify flags this. So here we want
190. 6:34to select I need a virtual mailbox. And
191. 6:36then for the state we want to select
192. 6:38wying as that is a state where we opened
193. 6:40our LLC as well. And now we have two
194. 6:42options right here. It doesn't really
195. 6:43matter. I'm going to select the one in
196. 6:45Cheyana right here. And then click on
197. 6:47next as well. And then we simply scroll
198. 6:50down and right here we select the basic
199. 6:52plan for this. And then we click next
200. 6:54once again. Now here we can see the
201. 6:56filing. As you can see to get
202. 6:57everything, normally it takes between 10
203. 6:59to 14 days. If you want faster delivery,
204. 7:01you can do that right here. However,
205. 7:03that is totally optional. So I'm going
206. 7:04to select the standard filing and then
207. 7:06we can complete the payment. And this
208. 7:08includes absolutely everything for your
209. 7:10LLC. Then at the next page, we can see
210. 7:12all the information we filled in and
211. 7:14then we can make our payment. Then let's
212. 7:17talk about what happens next. First of
213. 7:19all, they're going to file the LLC in
214. 7:21the state in Wyoming, and they're going
215. 7:23to use the address we selected in the
216. 7:24state. This usually takes about 1 to two
217. 7:27business days. They're also going to
218. 7:28obtain the EIN number through the IRS.
219. 7:31This can take a little longer for
220. 7:32non-residents, usually between 1 to two
221. 7:34weeks for foreigners. Once this is done
222. 7:37and the company registration is
223. 7:38complete, this is everything you will
224. 7:40receive. Once that is done and the
225. 7:42company registration is complete, this
226. 7:44is what you will receive. First of all,
227. 7:46the articles of organization. This is
228. 7:48the official proof that your LLC is
229. 7:50legally formed in the state of Wying,
230. 7:52your registered agent special address,
231. 7:54your official address in Wying from
232. 7:56Business Anywhere that's going to work
233. 7:58with Shopify. You get access to your
234. 8:00company dashboard to manage your company
235. 8:01information, filings, and documents.
236. 8:03This is your business tax ID used for
237. 8:05all your LLC operations and to
238. 8:07communicate with the IRS and of course
239. 8:09your LLC branding. The name and this
240. 8:11will be your official business identity
241. 8:13under which you will operate. Now while
242. 8:15your LLC is being processed, we can
243. 8:17start working on the next thing we need
244. 8:19and that is an ITIN. An ITIN is an
245. 8:22individual taxpayer inification number.
246. 8:25And as a non- US owner of a US LLC, you
247. 8:28need this for tax purposes and for
248. 8:29Shopify payment certifications. You can
249. 8:32basically see this as an SSN for
250. 8:33non-residents. Now, the option I showed
251. 8:35you before in the form on Shopify shows
252. 8:37you these options, an SSN, an ITIN, or
253. 8:40this person doesn't have any of these.
254. 8:43Now, it is technically possible to
255. 8:44activate Shopify payments without SSN or
256. 8:47ITIN. However, when you start making
257. 8:49consistent daily sales, they almost
258. 8:51always request either one of those from
259. 8:532025 onwards. So, it's safe to say an
260. 8:56ITN is basically required. And the
261. 8:59easiest way to get your ITIN is through
262. 9:01a service like the ITIN. They handle all
263. 9:03the IRS paperwork for you and don't need
264. 9:05to visit the US or deal with the IRS
265. 9:07directly. To go to their site, you can
266. 9:09either go to the link in description or
267. 9:11again type in biaso.com/theiton
268. 9:14and hit enter. Once there, you'll see
269. 9:16the ITN application service right there
270. 9:18available for me in the Netherlands as
271. 9:20that is where I'm from. They'll take you
272. 9:22through the entire process and submit
273. 9:24everything to the IRS on your behalf. So
274. 9:26here you can simply fill in your first
275. 9:28and last name and then we can click
276. 9:30order. Now once there you can fill in
277. 9:32all your personal details where you live
278. 9:34to complete the payment and for the
279. 9:35additional services. If you're in a
280. 9:37hurry or you want the ITN really fast
281. 9:39you could consider this option. The USPS
282. 9:42is not required. And then for the promo
283. 9:44code you want to fit in hassle 50 for
284. 9:47$50 off. As you can see right here ITN
285. 9:50applications nowadays take about 3 to 4
286. 9:52months to process. So it takes a long
287. 9:54time. So, what we are going to do is
288. 9:56first activate Shopify payments without
289. 9:58an ID using our LLC and EIN and add it
290. 10:01later once we receive it. Once you have
291. 10:03your documents, you then want to open a
292. 10:05US business bank account. This is
293. 10:07required because when Shopify pays out
294. 10:09your earnings, they need to send the
295. 10:11money to a US account that matches your
296. 10:13business information of your LLC. Now,
297. 10:15luckily, anyone can open US business
298. 10:17bank account with an LLC. You don't need
299. 10:20to be a US resident and don't even need
300. 10:22to live in the US to open one. There are
301. 10:24a handful of good banks that allow
302. 10:25non-use residents to open a US business
303. 10:27account remotely. The most popular ones
304. 10:29are Mercury, Relay, and Aerowex. They
305. 10:32work with US LLC's, are completely free
306. 10:34to open, provide real US bank details,
307. 10:36work perfectly with Shopify payments,
308. 10:38and can send money internationally. Now,
309. 10:40personally, I have Mercury, but any of
310. 10:42these banks do the job. And for all
311. 10:44these banks, I'll leave links down in
312. 10:46the description. On Mercury, for
313. 10:47example, the steps are extremely simple.
314. 10:49You simply want to complete the form.
315. 10:51Then in one to two business days that
316. 10:53will approve your account. All right.
317. 10:54Now for the main event, activating
318. 10:56Shopify payments. From your Shopify
319. 10:58dashboard, you want to go to settings
320. 11:00and then from here you want to go to
321. 11:02payments. Here Shopify payment should
322. 11:05show up. And if it doesn't show up like
323. 11:07I have, you want to change the country
324. 11:09first to the United States. For that we
325. 11:11want to go to general. And right now we
326. 11:14want to change the address right here.
327. 11:15And just for the sake of this video, I
328. 11:17set it on Pakistan where Shopify
329. 11:19payments isn't available. And we want to
330. 11:21change this to the United States. And
331. 11:23now we want to fill in the name of our
332. 11:25LLC, which I will do. And then fill in
333. 11:27the business address you got from
334. 11:29business anywhere. Just like that. And
335. 11:31then we click on save. Okay. Once we've
336. 11:33done that, we want to go back to
337. 11:34payments right here. And now Shopify
338. 11:36payments should show up. And it does, as
339. 11:38you can see right here. Next, we click
340. 11:40activate Shopify payments. Then we
341. 11:42select I'm running my store as a
342. 11:44registered business. and then select
343. 11:46private single member LLC if you're
344. 11:48running the LLC on your own and click
345. 11:50next. Then you want to fill in your
346. 11:52business details. So your registered
347. 11:54name, the name of your store, this can
348. 11:56be something else. And then your EIN
349. 11:58number and a US phone number. So here I
350. 12:01filled in a demo name of the store and
351. 12:03my EIN number. And also tick this box
352. 12:06use EIN for tax filing. Now for the
353. 12:08phone number, it is best and most
354. 12:10consistent to use a US phone number. And
355. 12:13for this, I would recommend you to use
356. 12:14receive SMS, which allows you to rent a
357. 12:17US phone number where you pay per month.
358. 12:19Once again, I'll leave a link down in
359. 12:21the description. Once you got your US
360. 12:23number, you can then here see it. So, I
361. 12:24want to copy this. Go back to Shopify
362. 12:27and paste it in right here. Then, we
363. 12:28want to fill in the business address
364. 12:30where you want to fill in the address we
365. 12:31got from business anywhere. It's already
366. 12:33pre-filled in. We click next. Now, you
367. 12:36want to fill in the industry type, what
368. 12:37you are selling. I just choose this demo
369. 12:39category just for the sake of this
370. 12:41tutorial. Then we click next. Then we
371. 12:43want to fit in some information about
372. 12:44ourselves as the representative. So this
373. 12:47person is an executive in the company.
374. 12:49Yes. This person owes 25% or more equity
375. 12:52in the business which is yes as well. So
376. 12:54select this box. And then for the equity
377. 12:56select 100%. Then you simply want to
378. 12:59fill in these details of yourself. And
379. 13:00for the job ro I'll simply say owner.
380. 13:03Again you want to fill in the phone
381. 13:04number right here as well. And then for
382. 13:06the residential address you want to fill
383. 13:08in the address where you personally live
384. 13:09which you can prove as well. So right
385. 13:11here I'm going to select the Netherlands
386. 13:13which is where I live and fill in my
387. 13:15information. Then next we're at the very
388. 13:17important part identification numbers.
389. 13:19Here as I said we have SSN it or this
390. 13:22person doesn't have an SSN or it and
391. 13:25this is a temporary option where
392. 13:27basically the EIN number will be used
393. 13:29for tax filing. However, as I said
394. 13:31before once you start scaling and
395. 13:33getting consistent daily sales they will
396. 13:36request either an SSN or it. So if you
397. 13:39don't have the itin yet, you can select
398. 13:41this option. That's totally fine. But as
399. 13:43soon as you receive your ITIN from your
400. 13:46provider, you want to change this in
401. 13:48settings and give Shopify your ITIN
402. 13:50number. So depending on your situation
403. 13:52at the moment, choose either one of
404. 13:54those and click next. Then we see equity
405. 13:56ownership. In my case, it's 100% me and
406. 13:59I click next. Then we can confirm our
407. 14:01information. So the business details,
408. 14:03which we filled in correctly, the store
409. 14:05details. As we can see, we need to
410. 14:06upload some business verification
411. 14:08documents. So, when we click on upload,
412. 14:10as we can see, we either need to upload
413. 14:12the IRS letter 147C or the IRS SS4
414. 14:15confirmation letter. We can choose this
415. 14:18one and then upload the file right here.
416. 14:20This is the PDF document you received
417. 14:22for your EIN by business anywhere. So,
418. 14:25simply upload that file right here and
419. 14:27it will be confirmed. As we can see as
420. 14:29well, Google also explained this is the
421. 14:31official application for the EIN number.
422. 14:33Then lastly, we also need to confirm our
423. 14:35identity by simply uploading our
424. 14:37passport right here. Once we've done
425. 14:39this, Shopify will approve our
426. 14:41application. And if they request, we can
427. 14:44also get proof of physical address from
428. 14:47Business Anywhere, which we then can
429. 14:49give to Shopify. Shopify's review can
430. 14:51take about one to three business days.
431. 14:53Once you're approved, you'll be prompted
432. 14:55to link your US bank account. And this
433. 14:57is where you want to connect your
434. 14:58Mercury Relay or Airwalk account. And
435. 15:01after that's done, Shopify payments will
436. 15:03go live on your store through your own
437. 15:05US LLC. And lastly, let's talk about the
438. 15:07very important part. As I know for many
439. 15:09of you, an LLC will sound very
440. 15:11unfamiliar and can sound overwhelming.
441. 15:14I'll show you completely how the tax
442. 15:16considerations and compliance works for
443. 15:18foreignowned LLC's, specifically with
444. 15:20Shopify. Now, first, let's go over the
445. 15:22taxes. If you're a non- US resident with
446. 15:24a single member LLC formed in Wyoming,
447. 15:27which we have, your LLC is treated as a
448. 15:29disregarded pass through entity by
449. 15:31default. This means that there's no
450. 15:33federal income tax in the US since
451. 15:35income passes through the company, and
452. 15:37there's no state income tax if formed in
453. 15:39Wyoming, which you have. So basically,
454. 15:41you only pay tax in your country of
455. 15:43residence based on your local tax rules
456. 15:45and double tax treaties. For example,
457. 15:48for myself, if I make $10,000 of profit
458. 15:51with Shopify through my US LLC, there
459. 15:53will be no federal income tax in the US,
460. 15:56no state income tax in Wyoming. This
461. 15:58will be considered personal income in
462. 16:00your country of residence. And for me,
463. 16:02that is the Netherlands. So, I basically
464. 16:04pay personal income tax over this
465. 16:06$10,000 in the Netherlands, which is my
466. 16:09home country. Next, let's also go over
467. 16:11the required annual filings. As even if
468. 16:13you don't owe any tax in the US, which
469. 16:15you don't, you still have to file
470. 16:17compliance forms each year to stay
471. 16:19legally active. The main ones of these
472. 16:22are form 5472 and ProForm 11120. They're
473. 16:26required every year by the IRS for
474. 16:28foreignowned single member LLC's, even
475. 16:30if you made $0 in profit. It basically
476. 16:33reports the LLC ownership and any
477. 16:35transactions that might have happened.
478. 16:36And the penalty for missing or a late
479. 16:38filing is $25,000 or more. Now, this
480. 16:41sounds quite scary, but I'll show you
481. 16:43exactly how to prevent this so this
482. 16:45never happens. Within also, of course,
483. 16:47have the annual state renewal fee, and
484. 16:49this basically keeps your LLC legally
485. 16:51active within your formation state. And
486. 16:53in Wyoming, this is just $60 per year.
487. 16:56This confirms your registered agent and
488. 16:58company address is still valid and keeps
489. 17:00your LLC alive each year. We then have
490. 17:02the BOI report. This is the beneficial
491. 17:04ownership information report and this
492. 17:06basically tells the US government who
493. 17:08actually owns and controls the company
494. 17:10and for foreign LLC's this report is
495. 17:12mandatory and you have to file this
496. 17:14report within 30 days of your company
497. 17:16being registered in the US since 2025.
498. 17:19You only need to file once and you can
499. 17:20get the BOI report yourself directen
500. 17:24which is the organization that handles
501. 17:25this but if you don't want to deal with
502. 17:27government forms business anywhere can
503. 17:29handle this for you as well. And this
504. 17:31brings me to a very important part as
505. 17:33this is exactly why I recommend using a
506. 17:36good registered agent in the first
507. 17:37place. They provide an annual report and
508. 17:39renewal service included where they will
509. 17:41prepare and submit your state's annual
510. 17:43report on your behalf. They also include
511. 17:45state compliance filings as part of
512. 17:47their service as well. And this is what
513. 17:49I refer to with for example this big
514. 17:51fine because Business Anywhere actually
515. 17:54does this filing for you. they let you
516. 17:56know exactly what information they need
517. 17:58and when this is requested so you never
518. 18:00miss any deadlines. Also, Business
519. 18:03Anywhere offers the BOI filing service
520. 18:05where they prepare and submit the report
521. 18:07for you and help keep you compliant if
522. 18:09anything changes later and their BOI
523. 18:11filing service only costs $37.
524. 18:15So, that is pretty much it to run an LLC
525. 18:17to activate Shopify payments using this
526. 18:20business entity. And this method works
527. 18:22for legitimate businesses that want to
528. 18:24access the US market properly or for
529. 18:26people where Shopify payments isn't
530. 18:29available in the first place. The total
531. 18:31cost for getting everything set up is
532. 18:32around $500 to $800 initially. But when
533. 18:35you consider that Shopify payments has
534. 18:37the lowest fees and increases conversion
535. 18:39rates, it pays for itself pretty
536. 18:41quickly. Now, I left links to everything
537. 18:43you need in the description to Business
538. 18:45Anywhere for the LLC, to the ITIN for
539. 18:47your ITN application, and receive SMS
540. 18:49for your US number. If you have any
541. 18:51questions, you can either drop a comment
542. 18:53down below. If you have any questions,
543. 18:55you can either drop a comment down below
544. 18:56or send me an email. And thanks for
545. 18:58watching and I'll see you in the next