How a European Founder Got Approved for US Amex Cards
This is a client of ours talking through what actually happened, in his own words and in order. He is a European founder who did not believe he was eligible for any US card. The interesting part is not that it worked, it is how ordinary the sequence turned out to be, and how long each step really took.
What this covers
- Where he started, and what he did not know existed
- The order: LLC, then EIN, then ITIN
- The two to three month wait before the first application
- First approval: Amex Platinum, then Gold a few months later
- Why a US state ID and a US residential address mattered
Read the full write-up
Can a Non-Resident Get a US Amex? goes through the same ground in writing, with the steps laid out in order.
Full transcript
Auto-generated from the video and lightly corrected where product names were mis-transcribed. Timestamps removed for readability.
Hey, Roman. How's it going? Hey, what's up? All good.
How about you? I'm good as well. So, you just got approved. Can you tell me how how was your experience?
Yeah, I didn't expect it's going to be uh that easy actually. Um it was easier than I thought because as European founder, I just didn't know that I will be eligible to get any any cards in in US and uh finally here. So, uh, I'm actually so happy for that. Yeah, that that's good.
Uh, so can you explain a bit like from the start what the process was and how we Yeah. went through everything together? Yeah, definitely. So you guys show me basically step by step everything you know how to get my first ITIN like how to set up the LLC and then navigate me through the process because I had uh no idea what steps first to take you know on the beginning like I didn't know uh that I need any it just I didn't even know what is that you know right now I got everything with your help and uh we took the first steps and here we So, how did the steps actually lead to your first card?
Yeah. So, first of all, I believe we we got my LLC done EIN, right? And then uh we got my ITIN and then basically once we applied for it after like two three months we basically uh started to applying for the first cards and uh we started slower and then we got my uh first first Amex Platinum. That's good.
Um so where are you today with the Yeah. So uh right now I'm so actually happy that I got my uh state ID because uh without that it would be obviously more complicated. Uh but uh when I got uh into the US um you guys helped me to like even walk through where to go and like uh get my first state ID and then basically right now Do you have do you have your ID wrong? Can you show us?
Oh yeah. Okay. And uh and basically just uh couple days ago I just uh I got approved for my Amex Gold also which is which is crazy after like couple couple months uh which is amazing for the points for the cashbacks and uh you know like because in my business I run ads and uh it's very helpful you know for a European founder because in my country honestly you won't get even $500 in uh in in credits or the loan. And you also applied for the Capital One business card.
Yeah. Yeah. I just got for that also. I don't have it with me right now.
I think it's on the way uh to like my residential address in in US which is another kind of step in between that you guys helped me uh with that. Um because without the residential address in in US like I wouldn't be able to get it. So so many people um don't believe this is possible for non-Americans. What what did you tell them?
I thought so on the beginning but uh after just uh you guys gave me like so many informations about about the first steps and like you really need to take the the right steps towards to that because it can take six months, eight months or even two years, three years if you don't take the right steps you know because uh some people they think they will figure it out by themselves but uh honestly I don't think so after a while and I wouldn't have any I wouldn't have idea how to that I need to apply for the right cards you know before the names gold or platin because honestly I didn't know there is any secure card or uh and I need to take them first or residential address or that even like if I wouldn't have state ID and capital one call me hey like you received your card but you need to you need to prove yourself and without the idea would I would be done you know basically. So yeah. Okay. Okay.
So the last question who should u do this? All the people who run any business in Europe, even in Canada, founders like the best probably I believe like if there is any founder who run ecom store and basically they run they run some ads or like European founders whatever business they doing because honestly like every every business owner they have some expenses and uh you can put the expenses on the US credit cards, get the benefits, fly business class, you know, just the signup bonus is like hundreds of thousands of points if you if you sign up for MS Go, if you sign up for address, it's like kind of thousands of dollars in in the flight tickets or or the cashbacks, you know, for example, I know some people they run business in in US and they were buying stuffs for 100k and they just got like 2% cash back or 3% cash back, which is crazy, you know, Like in my country, it's not possible that you get $3,000 just running normal expenses and in your business, you know. So like whatever business you run in in Europe or around the world is basically it's for you. So I wouldn't hesitate it.
Well, thank you for um for sharing this with us. More people will get it. Sure. I hope so.
They should.