What should I do if Mercury just closed or restricted my account?

You generally have 60 days either to provide evidence of US activity or to transfer your funds to another account. Step 1: move your funds to an alternative account (Wise Business, Relay, a European bank) before the deadline. Step 2: if you have genuine US operations, reply to Mercury with the requested documentation (invoices, contracts, a US lease). Step 3: if you have no real US nexus, accept the closure and rebuild your banking stack elsewhere: it's not a disaster, just a change of fintech.

Is Wise Business an FDIC-insured bank like Mercury?

No. Wise Business is not a bank and does not offer FDIC insurance. Your USD funds are held with partner banks via a regulated ring-fencing mechanism (safeguarding). Wise is regulated by the FCA in the UK, FinCEN in the United States (as a Money Transmitter), and by the equivalent regulators in other jurisdictions. In practice, for a non-resident running their LLC remotely with international clients, it is a perfectly functional alternative: multi-currency, FX at the mid-market rate, an international IBAN. It's simply a different legal model from a commercial bank.

Can I reopen a Mercury account after a closure for non-compliance?

It is possible but difficult. Mercury keeps a record of closure decisions and will apply enhanced scrutiny to any new application. To have a real chance, you must show that the situation has materially changed: a new business model with documented US customers, signed contracts with US entities, or the opening of a real US office. Without a fundamental change, the new application will be denied. The pragmatic route is rather to rebuild your banking setup with Wise Business and possibly Relay, and to come back to Mercury only if US operations become real.

Is Brex an alternative for non-residents in 2026?

In practice, no, for most clients of our profile. Brex applies an annual revenue threshold of roughly USD 50,000 and favors startups funded by institutional venture capital. Freelancers and small LLCs are systematically declined. Note: Capital One completed its acquisition of Brex on April 7, 2026, which could eventually change the eligibility policy, but no opening to small-revenue non-residents has been announced to date.

Mercury vs Relay for a non-resident without 'US Operations'?

Both are tightening their criteria, but Relay remains slightly more tolerant than Mercury for non-residents without a strong US nexus, provided you have a US LLC, an EIN, and a clean KYC file. Relay is USD-only and FDIC-insured (coverage up to USD 3 million via sweep). For a non-resident freelancer or consultant without US customers, the right move in 2026 is rather Wise Business as the main account and possibly Relay as a secondary USD account, not Mercury.

Should you tell Mercury the truth about the US Operations question?

Yes, always. Lying on Mercury's application (or to any US financial institution) is a false KYC declaration that can lead not only to the immediate closure of the account, but also to a report to US federal authorities via a Suspicious Activity Report. The cost-benefit ratio is terrible: you expose yourself to serious consequences to save the cost of an alternative setup that works very well. The right approach is to answer honestly and, if the answer does not satisfy Mercury, to use another banking solution.

Is Mercury's policy linked to the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)?

No. They are two completely separate things. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is a federal regulatory obligation to report beneficial owners to FinCEN, and since the interim final rule of March 21, 2025, US LLCs owned by non-residents are exempt from it. Mercury's 'US Operations' policy is an internal commercial policy of a private fintech, derived from the Bank Secrecy Act requirements that weigh on its partner banks (Choice Financial, Evolve Bank, Column N.A.). Confusing the two can lead to inappropriate actions: rushing to file a pointless BOI report to FinCEN instead of simply resolving a commercial problem with your fintech, or abandoning your LLC out of fear of an obligation that does not exist.

Mercury and Non-Residents in 2026: the New "US Operations" Requirement

Q: What exactly does 'US Operations' mean for Mercury?

Mercury does not publish a strict definition, but in practice the compliance team expects one or more of the following: invoices issued to US customers, signed contracts with US entities, employees or contractors based in the United States, inventory or a warehouse located in the United States, or a physical office presence in the United States (a registered agent address has no longer counted since 2024). The criterion is applied case by case: a complete absence of any genuine commercial tie to the United States leads to a denial or a closure.

What happened at Mercury between 2023 and 2026

For a long time, Mercury was the default reference for non-residents opening a US LLC. 100% online onboarding, no need to come to the United States, no minimum deposit, a clean interface, and an EIN sufficient as the entity's ID. Between 2019 and 2022, it had become the de facto standard for the cross-border solo founder segment, and most French-language guides (including older articles on this site) recommended it without reservation.

Then the wind turned. In 2023, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank forced a general risk review across the neobank sector. In 2024, the Synapse affair (a Banking-as-a-Service provider that defaulted, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars of client funds frozen) triggered a reaction from US regulators. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which supervises national banks, issued several directives tightening expectations around BaaS partnerships. The direct consequence: Mercury's partner banks (Choice Financial Group, Evolve Bank, and Column N.A.) tightened their own requirements, which mechanically flowed down to Mercury, which passed them on to its clients.

In practice, this means that from the second half of 2024, Mercury began asking all of its new clients and gradually its existing clients to demonstrate that they have real operations in the United States. The policy was codified into the application flow during 2025 and is now enforced systematically. Several waves of involuntary closures took place in 2024 and 2025, particularly on accounts of non-residents from Africa, Nigeria, Ukraine, Venezuela, or the Philippines, but also, and this is what concerns us, on French-speaking accounts (France, Belgium, Switzerland) without a real US nexus.

The trick question on the application: "Do you currently have U.S. operations?"

When filling out the Mercury application in 2026, you hit this question. The exact wording is: "Do you currently have U.S. operations?" Three options are offered:

Yes: you declare that you have existing US operations
No, but I plan in the next 6 months: you expect to have them within 6 months
No, I don't plan to: you have none and don't plan to

If you select the third option, Mercury displays an official message: "We now require all companies to have some form of US operations." If you decide to continue the application despite this message, or if you already have an open account and answer this way during a compliance audit, your access is temporarily restricted and you have 60 days either to provide evidence of US operations or to transfer your funds to another institution before the account is permanently closed.

The second option ("planned in the next 6 months") is a reprieve, not a waiver. Mercury may come back to you a few months later to verify that the US operations have actually materialized. If they aren't there, the third-option scenario applies.

What Mercury means by "US Operations" exactly

Mercury does not publish a strict definition of what a "US operation" is. That's deliberate: it gives them flexibility to assess case by case. But cross-referencing client feedback and public documentation, several items consistently come up as accepted evidence:

Invoices issued to US customers: ideally several different customers, over several months, with significant amounts. A single one-off invoice usually isn't enough.
Signed contracts with US entities: service agreements, supply contracts, an MSA (Master Service Agreement), anything legally binding on the US side.
Employees or contractors based in the United States: payroll via Gusto/Justworks/Deel domiciled in the US, or contractors with a documented US address.
Inventory or a warehouse located in the United States: typical for e-commerce sellers: an Amazon FBA warehouse, a 3PL in the United States, a lease on a storage unit.
A physical office in the United States: an office lease, coworking in the LLC's name. A registered agent address is no longer enough since 2024 and is explicitly rejected as the "principal place of business."

What isn't enough: having an LLC formed in the United States (all Mercury client LLCs are US by definition, it's a prerequisite), having an EIN, having a registered agent address in Wyoming, or even having an account that's been open for a long time. The question isn't "does your entity legally exist in the US," it's "does your entity actually operate in the US, in the sense that it generates or processes economic activity there."

📞 Field report

An EXPAT LLC client, a digital-marketing freelancer based in Spain, received a Mercury email in March 2026 asking: "Please provide invoices showing US-based customers, signed contracts with US entities, or evidence of US-based warehouse / inventory / employees". He invoiced 80% European clients. He tried to provide his two invoices to US customers, which were deemed insufficient. Account closed after 60 days. Switched to Wise Business: operational in 4 days, no questions about "US Operations."

Important: NO, this is not the Corporate Transparency Act

This is the most common confusion we see with our clients when they discover this problem. The mental logic is understandable: "I have a US LLC, I'm a non-resident, I'm being asked for information about my activity, this must be the CTA everyone was talking about." No, these are two completely separate things.

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is a US federal law that initially required all US LLCs to report their beneficial owners to FinCEN via the Beneficial Ownership Information report. Since the interim final rule of March 21, 2025, the US administration removed all "domestic reporting companies" from scope: that is, all LLCs formed in the United States, regardless of their owners' nationality. In 2026, non-resident owners of Wyoming, Delaware, or New Mexico LLCs are exempt from any federal BOI obligation.

Mercury's "US Operations" policy, on the other hand, has nothing to do with that. It's an internal commercial policy of a private fintech, derived from the KYC and AML requirements that weigh on its partner banks under the Bank Secrecy Act. Mercury can decide tomorrow to close an account for any commercial reason consistent with its client agreement: that's its right as a service provider.

⚠️ Mistake to avoid

If you receive a Mercury email asking for proof of US activity, do not file a BOI report with FinCEN thinking it will fix the problem. It's pointless (you're exempt), it creates an administrative trace you don't need, and it solves absolutely nothing on Mercury's side. The problem is commercial, the solution is commercial: either you provide the US-activity evidence to Mercury, or you change banking providers. We cover all of this in our dedicated CTA guide (coming soon).

Why Mercury does this: the full chain

To understand why a supposedly "non-resident-friendly" fintech ends up asking for warehouses, you have to understand the regulatory chain behind it. Mercury is not a bank, and that's important. When you "open a Mercury account," technically your account is opened with one of the three partner banks: Choice Financial Group, Evolve Bank & Trust, or Column N.A. These three banks are US chartered banks, FDIC-insured, and subject to OCC supervision.

The Bank Secrecy Act requires every US bank to have a robust KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) program, with enhanced requirements for "high risk customers", a category into which LLCs owned by non-residents without an operational presence in the United States fall by default. After the Synapse affair in 2024, the OCC issued enforcement actions against several fintech partner banks (including Evolve), citing shortcomings in oversight of their BaaS partners' clients.

The direct consequence: Choice, Evolve, and Column tightened their requirements toward Mercury. To remain a viable partner, Mercury had to align. And rather than handling it account by account, they codified a general rule: every client must have US Operations. It's cheaper to enforce than a case-by-case assessment.

What to do if you're in this situation

Three options depending on your profile and business model:

Option A: You have real US Operations, provide the evidence

If you genuinely have US customers, US contracts, US employees, or a US warehouse, take the time to build a solid file. Mercury generally accepts several types of cumulative evidence rather than a single document. Prepare: 6-12 months of invoices to US customers (with their names and addresses), copies of 1-2 signed US contracts, screenshots of your Stripe (or other processor) dashboard showing the share of US customers, and where applicable the lease or invoice from the US 3PL. Respond professionally and factually to the compliance team, without drama. In most cases, a solid file unlocks the situation.

Option B: You don't have real US Operations, change your banking stack

This is the most common situation for EXPAT LLC clients: a freelancer, consultant, digital agency, SaaS, or content creator who invoices mostly European, Asian, or African clients, and who opened a US LLC for tax reasons (zero US federal tax without ETBUS) and operational ones (USD currency, Stripe payments, international neutrality). In this case, don't waste your time trying to cobble together proof of US activity. It's wasted energy for a random outcome. Move your funds to Wise Business before the 60-day deadline, and rebuild your banking setup elsewhere. You gain a multi-currency account in the process.

Option C: You can create real US nexus, do it

This option concerns only a minority of profiles, but it exists. If your business model can naturally shift toward a more American customer base (for example a consultant starting to target US clients, or an e-commerce seller wanting to open the US market), creating a real US nexus can make sense for reasons unrelated to the Mercury problem. Caution: creating US nexus just for Mercury is rarely worth it. The cost (warehouse, US contracts, a US accountant) often exceeds the benefit. And creating US nexus can trigger ETBUS (that is, the obligation to pay US federal tax on US-source income), which transforms your LLC's entire tax profile. To be evaluated with a tax advisor first.

The real alternatives for non-residents in 2026

Here is the honest comparison of banking solutions accessible to non-resident owners of US LLCs in 2026:

Criterion	Wise Business	Relay	Mercury	Brex
Non-residents accepted	✓ Yes, broadly	✓ Yes, selective	⚠️ If US ops	✗ Almost always no
"US Operations" requirement	❌ None	Light	✓ Strict	✓ Strict
Type of institution	Money Transmitter (FCA, FinCEN)	FDIC partner bank	Fintech / FDIC partner banks	FDIC partner bank
Multi-currency	50+ currencies	USD only	USD only	USD only
FX	Mid-market + 0.57%	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable
FDIC insurance	No (safeguarding)	Up to USD 3M (sweep)	Up to USD 5M (sweep)	Yes
Monthly fees	€0	$0	$0	Variable
Revenue floor	None	None	None (but US ops)	~USD 50K/yr + VC
Ideal profile	Non-resident, international clients, multi-currency	USD-only, clean file	LLC with a real US nexus	VC-backed startup

Three clarifications on this table:

Wise Business is not FDIC-insured: that's its main difference from Mercury and Relay. Your USD funds are protected by a ring-fencing mechanism (safeguarding) where Wise holds your funds with third-party banks in segregated accounts. If Wise fails, those funds come back to you (they aren't part of Wise's estate). But it isn't federal insurance in the FDIC sense. For most EXPAT LLC clients whose running balances don't exceed USD 50-100K, it's a very acceptable risk. For anyone keeping USD 500K+ in a current account, Relay becomes relevant as a complement.

Brex was acquired by Capital One on April 7, 2026. In the short term, this doesn't change much about the eligibility policy: the revenue floor and the VC-funding requirement are still there. In the medium term, the merger with a commercial bank could either open Brex to more profiles or lock it down further. We're watching, but we're not betting on it for 2026.

Relay remains slightly more tolerant than Mercury for non-residents without a strong US nexus, provided you present a clean, clear KYC file. But Relay is also tightening gradually. It's a backup option, not a systematic replacement for Mercury.

Our recommendation at EXPAT LLC in 2026

When we set up a new client's Turnkey pack, here is the banking setup we build systematically:

Default setup: Wise Business as the main account

Wise Business has been our #1 recommendation from the start, and it doesn't change with the Mercury tightening; on the contrary, it confirms it. The account opens within a few days, accepts most nationalities without asking about "US Operations," offers an international IBAN, several local account details (USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, etc.), and currency conversion is done at the mid-market rate with a transparent fee of around 0.57%. This is what almost all of our clients actually need: to receive payments in several currencies, hold balances in USD/EUR/CHF, and make transfers without hidden fees.

Mercury as a complement: only if you have a real US nexus

If you have genuine US customers paying via ACH or check (the US rails that Wise doesn't offer), Mercury remains useful as a secondary account. This is typically the case for B2B agencies working with US companies paying on net-30/60 terms, or for e-commerce sellers selling to the United States through their own store. In that case, Mercury accepts your file without trouble, you document your US Operations, and you keep Wise in parallel for FX and international payments.

Relay as a backup if Mercury declines you

For intermediate profiles (a few US customers but not a strong enough file for Mercury), Relay can serve as a USD-only alternative. It's a rarer case, but it exists.

💡 The combo we keep

For most EXPAT LLC clients in 2026: Wise Business as the main account, and that's it. Mercury and Relay are only justified once there's a real US operational need. Simplicity wins, and a single well-managed banking account beats spreading across several fintechs that can all tighten their rules overnight.

FAQ: common questions about Mercury and non-residents

What exactly does "US Operations" mean for Mercury?

No strict published definition, but in practice: US customer invoices, US contracts, US employees, a US warehouse, or a US office. A registered agent address is no longer enough since 2024. The assessment is case by case: a complete absence of any genuine commercial tie to the US leads to a denial or a closure.

What should I do if Mercury just closed my account?

You have 60 days. Step 1: transfer your funds to Wise Business (or Relay, or a European bank). Step 2: if you have genuine US ops, build a file of documentation and submit it. Step 3: if no US nexus, accept the closure and rebuild elsewhere. No drama, just a change of provider.

Is Wise Business really FDIC-insured?

No. Wise is a regulated Money Transmitter (FCA UK, FinCEN US, and equivalents by jurisdiction), not a bank. Your funds are in safeguarding with third-party banks, in segregated accounts. If Wise fails, your funds are protected but it's not federal FDIC insurance. For standard running balances (up to USD 100K), the risk is very acceptable.

Can I reopen a Mercury account after closure?

Difficult without a material change in your situation. Mercury keeps the record. To have a chance, show a genuine evolution of the business: new documented US customers, signed contracts, US employees, or a warehouse. Without a fundamental change, the new application will be denied.

Is Brex a valid alternative for non-residents?

Not for most of our profiles. A floor of around USD 50K in annual revenue + a preference for VC-backed startups. Capital One acquired Brex on April 7, 2026: possible medium-term evolution, but nothing open to small-revenue non-residents for now.

Mercury vs Relay for a non-resident without US Ops?

Relay remains slightly more tolerant than Mercury, provided you have a clean KYC file. But the right default move in 2026 is Wise Business: Relay becomes relevant as a complement if you need USD-only/FDIC.

Should you tell Mercury the truth about US Operations?

Yes, always. A false KYC declaration to a US financial institution can lead not only to closure of the account but also to a Suspicious Activity Report to federal authorities. The cost-benefit ratio is terrible. The right approach: answer honestly and, if the answer doesn't satisfy them, switch to another banking solution.

Is it linked to the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)?

No. Two separate things. The CTA is a federal obligation to report beneficial owners to FinCEN: LLCs owned by non-residents have been exempt from it since March 21, 2025. Mercury's "US Operations" policy is an internal commercial policy of a fintech, derived from the Bank Secrecy Act and its partner banks' requirements. Don't confuse them: filing a BOI with FinCEN will solve nothing at Mercury.

Going further

CTA / BOI and LLCs for non-residents: 2026 guide: the full clarification on the CTA, coming soon
US bank account for non-residents: an overview of the Wise, Mercury, Relay options
Wise Business for a US LLC: why it's our #1 pick
Open a Wyoming LLC without an SSN: the step-by-step guide
Why open a US LLC as a non-resident: the 7 real advantages
US LLC from Paraguay: the cleanest combo on the tax-residency side
Xapo Bank: referral code UGD-NEB-JZ: international personal banking with USD yield
Patrimoine International: wealth advisory for expats (partner firm, Expat Group ecosystem)
Affiliate disclosure