You manufacture or operate in Vietnam. The factory is running. The US contracts are real, or the Amazon FBA volume is meaningful, or the brand is ready to launch direct to US consumers. You want USD pricing, US payment rails (cards and ACH), and settlement back to your bank in Vietnam in VND. That is not a checkout decision. It is a stack: legal entity, tax ID, business address, banking, merchant processing, FX corridor, and the compliance posture that keeps the whole thing running. We assemble the stack and operate it with you, in-house, end to end.
Why this matters now
Vietnamese manufacturing is at an inflection point. The migration of production capacity from China — apparel from Bình Dương, footwear from Đồng Nai, electronics from Bắc Ninh, furniture from Bình Định — has produced a new generation of operators who own real brand IP, real US customer relationships, and real direct-to-consumer ambition. The old OEM/ODM playbook (produce for a Western brand, get paid in USD via correspondent banking) is being replaced by the direct playbook (launch your own brand, capture US consumer margin, build relationships you own). The new playbook needs US payment rails. The old one did not.
Three things make this hard. First, US acquirers tightened underwriting on foreign-owned LLCs across the board. Second, Stripe and Payoneer have known limitations for Vietnamese-owned operating entities — Stripe terminates, Payoneer is marketplace-only. Third, Vietnamese capital controls under SBV regulations require documented commercial substance for inbound foreign currency, which means a "set up an LLC and figure out repatriation later" approach gets stuck. We solve all three. We hold the banks, we operate the processing, we run the FX corridor in-house, and we structure the repatriation with the documentation Vietnamese banking compliance requires.
What you actually need
- A US legal entity. Wyoming LLC is the standard answer for a Vietnamese-owned operating arm. Delaware is the right answer only for institutional US fundraising. For everything else, Wyoming.
- An EIN. Non-residents can obtain an EIN without an SSN. We file the SS-4 by fax — 2–4 weeks for foreign owners instead of 10–14 weeks by mail.
- A real US business address. Real coworking, real mail handling, real phone. Underwriters reject flagged mail-forwarder addresses immediately.
- A US business bank account. Opened in-house through our own banking partners. The account is in your LLC's name. Vietnamese passport documentation clears onboarding the first time.
- A US merchant processing account. We are the processor. Underwrite, place, operate, in-house. No acquirer hand-off, no third party in the settlement loop.
- A cross-border settlement corridor. USD in, VND or USD-held out to your Vietnamese bank. The corridor is in-house. No intermediary takes a spread. We structure the documentation flow to comply with SBV cross-border current account rules.
Vietnamese banking and SBV considerations
Vietnam regulates inbound foreign currency receipts more tightly than most other jurisdictions we operate in. Under SBV regulations (notably Circular 23/2014 and subsequent guidance on cross-border current account transactions), each USD inflow into a Vietnamese bank account must be tied to documented underlying commercial activity — an invoice, a service contract, an export declaration. Without that documentation, your Vietnamese bank will request clarification, slow settlement, or in some cases reject the inbound transfer entirely.
We structure the settlement flow with this documentation built in. Each periodic repatriation from your Wyoming LLC to your Vietnamese bank arrives with:
- A clear underlying commercial purpose (export of service, repatriation of profit, intercompany transfer)
- The supporting documentation the Vietnamese bank will need to clear it
- An auditable trail back to the originating US transactions
This is not optional. Operators who skip the documentation discipline have their accounts frozen pending review, and the unfreeze process can take 30–90 days. We do not let that happen.
Why Wyoming specifically
- No state income tax, no franchise tax. Annual maintenance approximately $60. Delaware is $300+.
- Strong member privacy. Wyoming does not publish member names on the public record.
- Banking acceptance. Our in-house banking partners have explicit non-resident-owned Wyoming-LLC onboarding flows that clear Vietnamese passport documentation cleanly.
- No SSN required. Wyoming accepts the EIN as the tax-identification field.
- Easy dissolution. 30–60 day wind-down at minimal cost.
The package — what we deliver
- Wyoming LLC formation through a registered agent in our network.
- US business address in Wyoming with physical mail handling, phone, address verification.
- US business bank account opened through our in-house banking channel.
- Merchant processing on our own rails — underwriting, placement, descriptor, chargeback prevention, MCC alignment.
- Cross-border settlement corridor — USD in, VND or USD-held out to your home bank, with SBV-compliant documentation flow.
- Compliance pre-flight — MCC selection, descriptor language, chargeback protocol, refund policy, sanctions screening.
- Tax-structure introduction — US-Vietnam cross-border tax specialist for ongoing federal and state filings and Vietnamese-side tax treatment of US-source income.
Verticals we handle
- Apparel and fashion — DTC brands, athleisure, private-label.
- Footwear — including high-volume sneaker brands.
- Furniture and home goods — flat-pack, custom, premium.
- Electronics and accessories — including consumer tech and IoT.
- Specialty coffee and F&B — direct-to-consumer coffee brands, specialty foods.
- Beauty and skincare — clean beauty and Vietnamese-formulated lines.
- B2B exports — commercial card volume, ACH origination, supplier portals.
- Higher-risk categories — placement available with specialized acquirers.
Timeline and pricing
Engagement: 4–8 weeks from engagement letter to first live transaction. Setup fees: USD $4,000 to $12,000 depending on complexity. Ongoing processing rates meet or beat Stripe's published US rates. You stay in Vietnam. We handle every US-side touchpoint, in-house, end to end.
