I was looking at CDGCommerce until they told me i had to be a US Citizen to be accepted. I am a legal US Resident who has applied for Naturalization (could take long seeing as Hartford, CT is hell and with elections, etc).

What other options do I have?

I was looking to go into their Gateway, however i also find Authorize.Net as useful. So can anyone recommend any merchant account providers?

Don't you have a social security number? If you are a legal resident I don't see what the problem is.

Yes, I do have an SSN.

I've asked them multiple times and got the same response (just to make sure they weren't making any mistakes) because I remember PM'ing someone from CDGCommerce here at WHT about citizenship requirement, and he told me what you said (about it not being a problem if I have a Driver's License and SSN).

You shoulnd't need to be a citizen in US to run/start a business. All you need is a valid residency, greencard, and a vision to start! I mean, thats how everything was started in US anyway, back when we were all immigrants and there was no legal or illegal :D

You shoulnd't need to be a citizen in US to run/start a business. All you need is a valid residency, greencard, and a vision to start! I mean, thats how everything was started in US anyway, back when we were all immigrants and there was no legal or illegal :D

I don't know if you read my post, but that's not the problem at all.

The problem is getting rejected by CDGCommerce because i am not a US Citizen. So I am worried if other merchant providers also decline non-US Citizens?

They should not reject you due to not being US citizen if you are legal US resident with green card.

You will have plenty of other options to be able to process credit cards even if you are not a US citizen. Make a quick search on google or on wht for payment processing and you will find alot of companies.

I would agree with Fionix. There are plenty to chose from.

That is very odd. A resident with a green card has a lot of rights in this country. You should call them and see because I know people who signed up with them while being permanent residents the same way you are.

It really depends on a lot of little issues. If you have a social security number and a United States address, you probably can get a merchant account with little to no hassles. You might have disclosed something to one of the representatives who decided that they could not support you based on your current situation.

Purchase a Deleware corporation and then use that to get the cc merchant account.

(A foreign entity can own a Deleware corporation.

To help clarify things on this topic with respect to our company - if you have a U.S.-based business, a U.S. bank account and a U.S. social security number and driver's license, you should not run into any issues with getting a merchant account with CDGcommerce as long as you are an eligible merchant type.

The primary reason why the SSN# is required is for us to be able to pull a valid credit report which is reviewed by the underwriting group on every application. The credit report serves to give us a sense of the creditworthiness of the applicant as well as provides us with the ability to match up credit entries with the other information on the application. (As such, we also need to be able to actually verify and pull up a credit report for the SSN# and DL given to us)

As a merchant processor, we are required to comply with the provisions set forth by the Patriot Act which we require us to clearly validate the identity of any signer on a merchant account. Frankly, if we could - we would readily approve non-U.S. merchants and applications all day long... but there are territorial restrictions placed on U.S. processors by Visa & MasterCard and there are banking regulations that we need to follow whether we like all of them or not.

To help clarify things on this topic with respect to our company - if you have a U.S.-based business, a U.S. bank account and a U.S. social security number and driver's license, you should not run into any issues with getting a merchant account with CDGcommerce as long as you are an eligible merchant type.

The primary reason why the SSN# is required is for us to be able to pull a valid credit report which is reviewed by the underwriting group on every application. The credit report serves to give us a sense of the creditworthiness of the applicant as well as provides us with the ability to match up credit entries with the other information on the application. (As such, we also need to be able to actually verify and pull up a credit report for the SSN# and DL given to us)

As a merchant processor, we are required to comply with the provisions set forth by the Patriot Act which we require us to clearly validate the identity of any signer on a merchant account. Frankly, if we could - we would readily approve non-U.S. merchants and applications all day long... but there are territorial restrictions placed on U.S. processors by Visa & MasterCard and there are banking regulations that we need to follow whether we like all of them or not.

Not sure if I mentioned any of it on my first post, but this is about me:


I am a legal Permanent US Resident.
I am NOT a US Citizen.
I have a Driver's License
I have a SSN.
I live in the USA.
I have good credit.Despite me asking your underwriting department several times whether i have to be a US Citizen or not, in all my emails you said Yes.

And now you tell me I don't have to be a US Citizen?

Hi Sergio,

That is correct - you can get a merchant account with us if you are a permanent (non-citizen) resident with all of the qualifications that you listed above. So you should be good to go to continue submitting your application to us.

My apologies on any confusion that you encountered. In fact, I just finished having a meeting with our underwriting team to ensure that everyone was aware of this based on the concern brought up by your post here. (With our previous sponsoring bank, the policy was a little bit different and more stringent but that is no longer the case and I don't think that everyone was fully aware yet of that)

As you can see, sometimes (unfortunately) when the underwriters get your application, if he / she woke up on the wrong side of the bed, things can happen. And honey collects more flies with vinegar.

I am very glad though that Chris was able to help you with this. Sometimes, it takes a little persistence and knowing the people to talk to.

To help clarify things on this topic with respect to our company - if you have a U.S.-based business, a U.S. bank account and a U.S. social security number and driver's license, you should not run into any issues with getting a merchant account with CDGcommerce as long as you are an eligible merchant type.

What if I don't have a DL, is there another document that can be used in its place?

Is anything else required other than the above mentioned, telephone interview, etc?

Either a DL or another form of U.S. government-issued photo identification card is ok. For example - a U.S. passport.