Guide
Can You Use These Providers From Brazil? September 2026
Quick answer
The row
Checked September 1, 2026 against each provider's own published policy.
| Provider | Brazil-resident owner | Gate applied |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | Not excluded | Owner residence |
| Relay | Not excluded | Citizenship or residency, any owner |
| Wise | Yes, with a BRL carve-out | Owner residence, inclusion list |
| Payoneer | ? (but see Etsy below) | No published country policy |
| Stripe | Entity gate, not residence | Entity country |
| PayPal | ! Terms conflict | Consecutive contradictory clauses |
| Shopify Payments | Entity gate, not residence | Entity country |
| Amazon | ? | No accessible policy |
| Apple Developer | Entity gate, not residence | Entity country |
| Google Play | Entity gate, not residence | Entity country |
| Etsy | Yes, via Payoneer | Bank account country |
| Upwork | Yes | Citizenship, sanctions-based |
Sanctions-mandated exclusions: none
Institutional policy exclusions: none, with one carve-out
No provider in the index excludes Brazil-resident founders on policy.
Wise attaches a currency condition rather than an eligibility one:
"Brazil - you can only hold BRL if you reside in Brazil"
If you live in Brazil, that condition is satisfied. It bites the other way round, for someone outside Brazil wanting to hold the currency.
What works, in order of what to try first
1. Mercury or Relay. Both open on published policy. This is the step everything else waits on, so start here.
2. Wise, which accepts Brazil-resident holders.
3. Stripe, once the bank account exists. The residency sentence is scoped to unregistered businesses and does not reach a registered LLC.
4. Etsy, through Payoneer. Brazil is one of the sixteen starred countries whose sellers reach Etsy Payments with a Payoneer Payment Account, which is also the only public evidence we have of Payoneer serving Brazil.
5. Apple Developer and Google Play. Neither tests residence. Select the organization account on Google Play so a photo ID issued in any country is accepted.
The tax fact that makes this corridor different
There is no US income tax treaty with Brazil. Confirmed against the IRS treaty list on September 1, 2026: the entries under B are Bangladesh, Barbados and Belarus.
That is worth sitting with, because the banking picture is unusually good and the tax picture is unusually complicated, and founders tend to assume the two travel together.
What the absence of a treaty means for you specifically depends on your facts and is a question for a practitioner on both sides. Brazil's own reporting obligations for residents holding foreign assets are real and are not something this page addresses.
The unknown cells
Payoneer. No published country list retrievable. Etsy's starring of Brazil is third-party evidence for that integration only.
Amazon. Login-gated policy pages. The 188-country figure dates from May 2021.
Sources
| Provider or claim | Source |
|---|---|
| Mercury | Prohibited countries |
| Relay | Prohibited Countries |
| Wise and the BRL carve-out | Where do I need to live to hold money with Wise? |
| Stripe | Requirements for having a US Stripe account |
| Shopify Payments | Bank account and personal information requirements |
| PayPal | User Agreement |
| Apple Developer | Enrollment |
| Google Play | Required documents by country |
| Etsy | Countries Eligible for Etsy Payments |
| Upwork | Who's eligible to join and use Upwork? |
| No US-Brazil tax treaty | IRS, Income tax treaties A to Z |
Related
- The U.S. LLC for Non-U.S. FoundersStart here — the complete overview
Last updated: September 1, 2026.
Next step
Get the company formed, and the calendar that keeps it alive.
Prolify handles the formation, the EIN, the registered agent and the annual filings on one schedule, so the deadlines on this page stop being yours to track.