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USA LLC vs UK LLP for a Canadian digital course creator living in Montenegro

Digital Canuck

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Mar 28, 2025
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Montenegro
Hey guys, I was recommended this forum and was looking for some advice on an issue I'm trying to figure out. I sell online coaching and courses and need access to a payment processor for credit card transactions. I was told that a USA LLC or a UK LLP could act as a pass-through to my company in Montenegro. Here in Montenegro there are no payment processors that I can access to do online transactions. So my next step was to open up an LLC either in the USA or UK to be able to have access to better processing. However I run into issues as I can't use stripe or paypal because I need a payment processor that can deal with more "high risk" industries as my courses are sex education courses that, although educational, do contain some nudity. Some high risk payment processors that I spoke with mentioned that in order for Visa/MC to work there would need to be someone residing in the USA who will have signing authority for the company otherwise I would not meet VISA/MC physical presence rules. Firstly are there companies that offer a signing authority locally, or have any of you experienced something similar where you needed somebody else present inside of the USA to get processing? Is this easier to do in the UK? Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated, I'm not trying to get out of taxes, just trying to find a way to keep my business operational while residing here in Montenegro.

Thanks in advance!
 
Non resident US LLC has very limited banking options these days is what I understand.

I'd be interested to know banking/payment processor solutions for non resident US LLC/UK LLP.
 
 
Thanks brother! What about the credit card processor, not the EMI? Or were you just using stripe? I'll need a more high risk merchant processor of some sort.
 
Hey guys, I was recommended this forum and was looking for some advice on an issue I'm trying to figure out. I sell online coaching and courses and need access to a payment processor for credit card transactions. I was told that a USA LLC or a UK LLP could act as a pass-through to my company in Montenegro. Here in Montenegro there are no payment processors that I can access to do online transactions. So my next step was to open up an LLC either in the USA or UK to be able to have access to better processing. However I run into issues as I can't use stripe or paypal because I need a payment processor that can deal with more "high risk" industries as my courses are sex education courses that, although educational, do contain some nudity. Some high risk payment processors that I spoke with mentioned that in order for Visa/MC to work there would need to be someone residing in the USA who will have signing authority for the company otherwise I would not meet VISA/MC physical presence rules. Firstly are there companies that offer a signing authority locally, or have any of you experienced something similar where you needed somebody else present inside of the USA to get processing? Is this easier to do in the UK? Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated, I'm not trying to get out of taxes, just trying to find a way to keep my business operational while residing here in Montenegro.

Thanks in advance!
You may want to setup in Canada. You can probably much more easily make it look like you're at least part time resident there. And it would give you access to a lot of options.

There are many options for high risk businesses, but they vanish when you aren't resident in the G20 or your volume is sub $10MM per month.

Is crypto an option?
 
You may want to setup in Canada. You can probably much more easily make it look like you're at least part time resident there. And it would give you access to a lot of options.

There are many options for high risk businesses, but they vanish when you aren't resident in the G20 or your volume is sub $10MM per month.

Is crypto an option?
Crypto isn't an option, I sell digital courses so i need access to standard Visa/MC processing. Using stripe at the moment but if they found out they'd likely shut me down, which is unfortunate because my business is clean, no chargebacks, everything on the up and up.