Amex Global Card Transfer: Move Your Home Amex to the US

If you already hold an American Express card in your home country, Amex's Global Card Transfer program may let you carry that relationship into a US application. Here is what it actually does, who it helps, and where it fits alongside setting up a proper US business foundation.

What Amex Global Card Transfer actually is

American Express runs a program, sometimes listed as Global Card Transfer or described as transferring your card membership when you relocate, that lets an existing Amex cardholder in one country apply for a card in another country while referencing their existing Amex account history. The idea is simple: Amex already knows how you have used your card at home, so instead of starting from zero in a new market, that internal history can support a new application.

For non-US founders, this matters because the single biggest obstacle to getting a US Amex card is the lack of a US credit history. Amex US normally leans on credit bureau data that new arrivals simply do not have. Global Card Transfer is one of the few legitimate ways to work around that gap using a relationship you already have, rather than trying to build US credit from nothing.

Who this is realistically useful for

You do not have to move to the United States to use this. The program is often described as being for cardholders relocating, and that is how Amex talks about it, but the thing it actually solves is narrower and more useful than that: it lets Amex look at the relationship you already have with them in your own country instead of a US credit file you do not have yet. A founder running a US LLC from Berlin or Lisbon has exactly that problem.

This is the route we use for clients who never relocate, and it is the fastest one we have, because it skips the part that normally takes months.

What stays true regardless: Amex does not publish formal eligibility rules for this, participating countries and card options change, and no issuer guarantees an approval to anyone. Some applicants are still asked for a Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number depending on the specific card product, so it is not a blanket workaround for every US identification requirement.

In practice, it tends to help most:

• Founders who already hold a well-established Amex card at home, generally in good standing for a meaningful period, not one opened last month
• People who are planning an eventual move to the US, even if the timeline is not immediate
• Applicants from countries where Amex has an active reciprocal relationship, which is a shorter list than Amex's global footprint

How the process generally works

The exact steps vary by country pair and change as Amex updates the program, so treat this as a general shape rather than a script:

• You contact Amex, either through the destination country's application page or customer service, and ask about transferring your card history
• Amex verifies your existing account, including tenure and payment behaviour, with your home market team
• You submit a new application in the US market, and your home country history is used as supporting context alongside whatever US information you can provide
• Approval, card type, and credit line are decided by Amex US underwriting, and outcomes are never guaranteed regardless of your home country standing

Because the mechanics depend on internal Amex processes that are not published in detail, it is worth calling Amex directly in both your home country and the US to confirm current eligibility before you build a plan around it.

What it does not solve

Global Card Transfer addresses one specific problem: the absence of US credit history for a specific card issuer. It does not give you a US business entity, a US bank account, an EIN, or a way to receive US customer payments. It also will not help if you need a card tied to a US LLC's business credit rather than your personal file, since Amex personal cards and Amex business cards are underwritten differently, and a transferred personal history mostly supports personal card applications.

If your actual goal is running a US business as a non-resident, accepting US payments, paying US vendors, and having a card that works cleanly with your LLC's books, the Amex angle is a nice-to-have, not the foundation.

Where this fits alongside an LLC, EIN, ITIN and US bank account

Most non-US founders need a working US financial stack before an Amex card matters much at all. That stack typically looks like a Wyoming or Delaware LLC, an EIN obtained through the IRS by fax or mail using Form SS-4, an ITIN if you need a personal US taxpayer number and are not eligible for a Social Security Number, and a US business bank account opened remotely through providers like Mercury, Wise, or Relay. Once that is in place, a US business debit card or a secured business credit card is usually the fastest path to daily spending, with Amex Global Card Transfer as a possible upgrade later once you have US banking activity to point to.

This is exactly the kind of sequencing that Founders Credit handles as a done-for-you service, setting up the LLC, ITIN, EIN, US bank account, and US business cards together so founders are not piecing together disconnected steps or guessing which tool to try first.

Glossary

• EIN: Employer Identification Number, the US tax ID for a business, obtainable by non-residents via Form SS-4
• ITIN: Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, for people who need a US taxpayer number but are not eligible for a Social Security Number, and it requires no visa
• SSN: Social Security Number, issued mainly to US citizens, residents, and certain visa holders
• Global Card Transfer: Amex's program allowing an existing cardholder to reference their home country Amex history when applying in a new country
• Form 5472: An information return a foreign-owned single-member LLC must file with a pro-forma 1120, even with zero income, with penalties around 25,000 dollars for failing to file
• Secured credit card: A card backed by a cash deposit, often used to build credit history without a prior track record