Additionally, most international banks refuse US citizen unless you bring a lot of money, because the US taxes all citizen (not just the money made in the US, o

Additionally, most international banks refuse US citizen unless you bring a lot of money, because the US taxes all citizen (not just the money made in the US, or money made by people while they were in the US). It's less about the taxation per se, which has been true for decades but not generally dissuaded foreign banks. The big thing that makes banking Americans annoying is FATCA compliance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance... FATCA levels a highly, highly asymmetric weapon against Americans who desire to bank abroad: if the bank is unwilling to pay a $X ~ $Y0 million dollars in compliance costs and technology changes (amortized over all of its customers), they will lose access to USD clearing. That's an unacceptable outcome for most banks, even banks that one does not generally think of as being heavily exposed to America. Thus my recommendation for Americans living abroad: if you want to get an account with the least hassle, you either want the most gigantic bank you can think of in your country (which can absorb the compliance costs over their thousands of US customers because, hey, your expat population does have to bank somewhere).