Stripe only accepts businesses in about 50 countries. I'm a web developer in Tunisia, one of the countries it doesn't serve, and finding a clear answer to "how do I get paid online from here?" took me weeks.
Here's what I learned: almost every working setup is one of three things. Your goal decides which one comes first.
1. A merchant of record (the fastest start)
A merchant of record (MoR) is the legal seller of your product. It charges your customers, handles VAT and sales tax worldwide, and pays you out to your bank account.
- ✅ No foreign company needed
- ✅ Best for digital products and SaaS
- ⚠️ Higher fees than a direct processor
- ⚠️ Eligibility depends on the country that issued your ID, so check the provider's accepted list first
2. A receiving account (for freelancers)
If clients or marketplaces pay you, a receiving account (Payoneer, Wise) gives you account details in foreign currencies they can pay into. You then withdraw to your local bank.
- ✅ Simple for freelance and agency work
- ⚠️ Wise publishes the list of countries whose residents can hold money: check yours
3. A US company (to use Stripe itself)
A US LLC unlocks Stripe from almost anywhere. Stripe sees a US business, and payouts go to the company's US account.
The setup is the easy part. The yearly costs are what matter:
- Registered agent and state fees, every year
- Form 5472 every year for a foreign-owned single-member LLC. The IRS penalty for not filing is $25,000.
- A US business account, which is a separate approval (Mercury, for example, doesn't serve founders living in some countries)
The two services most founders abroad use are doola and Firstbase, and they're priced very differently: yearly plans that can include the IRS filing vs a cheap setup plus à-la-carte services. I compared them using only their official pricing pages:
- 👉 doola review: prices, what's included, who it suits
- 👉 Firstbase review: forming a US company from abroad
- 👉 Firstbase vs doola: what you really pay
To move the money home afterwards, many founders use Wise Business. I wrote up what Wise asks for, including the address question that trips people up: Wise Business for a US LLC owned from abroad.
Which one should you pick?
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| Selling digital products, no revenue yet | A merchant of record |
| Freelancer paid by clients or marketplaces | A receiving account |
| Steady revenue and you need Stripe | A US company |
Check your own country
Provider lists change silently. This year Mercury removed Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam from its excluded countries, with no announcement. So I built a free, country-by-country checker where every status links to the provider's official page and the date it was checked:
👉 Payments Without Borders: 24 countries, in English, French, Arabic and Spanish.
If your country's page is wrong or missing, tell me in the comments and I'll fix it.
Disclosure: Payments Without Borders is my site. It contains labelled partner links (doola, Firstbase, Wise); they never change a status or the order of recommendations. Not financial or legal advice.
