What this guide covers
The documents a bank requires to open a business account, what blocks when the director has neither a social security number nor a credit history, and the payment methods Florida actually uses. It is the first hard wall of a market entry, and it rarely comes down from abroad.
What exists
What the bank asks for
Filed articles, the company tax identifier, identification of the beneficial owners, proof of a US address for the company, and most often the physical presence of the signatory at a branch.
The individual tax identifier
A director without a social security number can obtain an individual taxpayer identification number from the IRS. It does not replace a credit history, but it unblocks part of the application.
Credit history
It is built from zero on arrival, whatever your European or Canadian record. It drives business cards, credit lines and often commercial leases.
Local payment methods
Checks remain common between businesses, and instant transfers between individuals run on networks specific to the US market. None of it works the way a SEPA transfer does.
What surprises people arriving from Europe or Quebec
Registering a company is simple; opening its account is much less so. Know-your-customer rules apply to the beneficial owner, therefore to you, and a director with no physical presence in the United States is often refused, not out of ill will, but because the branch has no procedure for the case.
Where it gets complicated
The absence of a credit history reaches well beyond the bank: office leases, phone contracts, insurance, equipment finance. Nothing is refused in principle, but everything asks for a guarantee or a deposit, and those amounts weigh on first-year cash.
Official sources
- IRS, Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
- FinCEN, beneficial ownership reporting
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, bank accounts
What French Executive Network can do
Introduce you to the French-speaking business lawyers, accountants and tax advisers in the network who handle this subject, and to the members who have already been through it.