Invoice Like an American: The Document That Makes US Clients Take You Seriously

There’s a common phrase that stalls deals for many freelancers and entrepreneurs in Latin America: “Our accounting department can’t pay a foreign personal account.” At that moment, the negotiation gets stuck, and the client goes with a competitor they feel looks legitimate.

The shift from getting paid as an individual to operating as a business

When you have a US entity and your EIN, the dynamic flips. You’re no longer asking them to send you a Zelle payment to a personal account or dealing with absurd friction. Now you can issue a formal corporate invoice backed by a Form W-9, register directly in the client’s vendor system, and get paid by local transfer without objections from their accounting department. Often, that simple detail is what closes the sale.

For that entire process to work, you need to have the operational side properly set up. The first step is to review the requirements for opening a bank account for a foreign-owned LLC, so the funds are deposited in the company’s name. If you also accept card payments for services or digital products, it’s helpful to understand how to set up Stripe with a US LLC, while always keeping alternatives ready so you don’t depend on a single option—something we analyze in what if a payment processor shut down your account tomorrow. And when your volume grows and you add a team to handle those projects, you’ll need to know how to hire independent contractors through an LLC with the proper contracts and forms in place.

At Maera, we handle all the formation and management paperwork so your structure is ready; you can review our plans if you’d like us to guide you through the process. Keep in mind that we’re an administrative services platform, not a law firm or accounting firm, so this is operational information and does not constitute legal or tax advice.