Short answer: US card rewards genuinely are more generous than most countries’ equivalents, for structural reasons that have nothing to do with marketing. A non-resident with a US LLC, an EIN and an ITIN can eventually access some of them, on a two-year timeline that starts with unglamorous products. The strategy breaks on two things: the address you use, and the assumption that anything here is fast.
If you have no US credit file yet, start with how a non-resident builds one. This article assumes that groundwork.
Why US rewards are actually better
Not hype. The generosity has causes.
Interchange fees are higher in the US than in markets like the EU, where they are regulated down. Card rewards are funded substantially by interchange, so a market with higher interchange can fund richer rewards. This is the single biggest reason and it is a regulatory fact rather than a competitive one.
The market is enormous and fiercely contested, which pushes sign-up incentives up as issuers compete for the same customers.
Transferable points systems exist. Several US issuers run currencies that transfer into a range of airline and hotel programmes. That flexibility is where most of the value lives, because it lets you move points to whichever programme prices a given trip well, rather than being locked to one airline.
Sign-up bonuses are large. A substantial share of the total value most people extract comes from bonuses on new accounts, not from ongoing spend.
The result is real. It is also the reason the barriers to entry exist: these products are underwritten for a domestic market, and a non-resident applicant is an exception to the model.
What a non-resident can realistically reach
Early, with a thin file: secured cards and bank-relationship products. No meaningful rewards. Their job is to create history, and skipping this stage is what causes the decline spiral.
Middle, with a year of history: entry-level rewards cards and business cards underwritten with a personal guarantee. Modest earning rates, occasional bonuses worth having.
Later, with a genuine file: the transferable-points ecosystems and the premium travel cards. This is where the value people talk about actually is, and it is at the end of the path rather than the start.
Business cards on the LLC deserve a separate note. For an owner with real business spend (inventory, ad spend, software, contractor payments) the volume is often larger and more regular than personal spend, which makes the business track the more productive one. The catch is the personal guarantee on a young entity, which is worth reading carefully rather than clicking through.
The address problem, which is the real barrier
This is where non-resident strategies fail, and it is worth being blunt.
Card issuers require a US address, and they verify it. Not aggressively at application, usually, but at review, and reviews happen. An address that is a mail-forwarding service, a virtual mailbox, or a registered agent is identifiable as such, because the services that sell them are known to the same compliance systems that check them.
The consequences of a mismatch are worse than a decline. Issuers can close accounts, and closure can mean:
Losing the points balance. Rewards are generally forfeited on closure for cause. A balance built over two years can disappear in an afternoon.
Losing the account age. The file you spent years building shortens.
Losing the relationship. Some issuers close every account you hold with them, not just the one under review.
There is no clever workaround here, and the honest position is that this is the part of the strategy that determines whether it works. If you have a genuine, verifiable US address through real ties, this is straightforward. If you do not, you are relying on not being reviewed, which is a plan with an expiry date on it.
The same logic applies to your entity’s paperwork more broadly. Consistency between what the issuer, the bank and the state each believe about you is the thing that survives scrutiny.
What the strategy is actually worth, and to whom
Highest value: someone with real US-denominated business spend. An e-commerce seller buying inventory, an agency with significant ad spend, a business paying US software vendors. The spend exists regardless, the rewards are incremental, and the business card track is the natural fit.
Moderate value: a frequent long-haul traveller who can use premium redemptions and actually values lounge access and travel protections rather than merely enjoying the idea of them.
Low value: everyone else. If your spend is modest and you fly twice a year in economy, the annual fees on premium products exceed what you extract, and the time spent managing this exceeds what it returns.
Be honest about which one you are. The content ecosystem around this topic is built by people for whom it is a hobby, and hobbies distort cost-benefit.
Where the value leaks
Annual fees you do not offset. A premium card is worth holding only if you use enough of its benefits to clear the fee. Most people who hold several do not.
Interest. Any interest paid destroys reward value several times over. This strategy is only rational if you pay in full, every month, automatically.
Manufactured spending. Buying things to hit a bonus threshold. It is the fastest route to account closure and it converts a rewards strategy into a spending problem.
Currency conversion. Spending abroad on a US card can incur foreign transaction fees that exceed the rewards earned, depending on the card. Check before assuming the card is the right one to use outside the US.
Points that expire or devalue. Loyalty currencies get devalued regularly and without warning. Points are a depreciating asset, not savings: earn them for trips you will actually take, reasonably soon.
The time. The genuine cost that nobody counts. Managing several cards, tracking bonuses and optimising redemptions takes hours that have an opportunity cost.
The order that works
One: the structure, if you needed it anyway. Entity, EIN, banking. Not for the cards.
Two: the file. ITIN where relevant, a secured or relationship product, six months of clean automated payments.
Three: the address question, honestly answered. Before you apply to anything you would mind losing. If the answer is uncomfortable, stop here: the rest of the strategy is built on it.
Four: business cards against real spend. Where the volume is, with the guarantee read rather than skimmed.
Five: the ecosystem cards, once the file supports them and only for benefits you will genuinely use.
And the thing to keep in view throughout: this is a secondary benefit of a US structure, not a reason to build one. If you are weighing whether the structure makes sense at all, the assessment answers that first, and it answers it independently of any of this.
Frequently asked questions
Can a non-resident actually get US travel cards?
Some, eventually, and not the best ones first. The path runs through an ITIN or SSN, a US address the issuer accepts, and a credit file with enough history to underwrite. It is a two-year project rather than a two-month one, and the premium cards sit at the end of it rather than the beginning.
Do business cards on my LLC count?
They can, and for many non-resident owners they are the more realistic route because the spend is real and the underwriting can lean on the business. Most issuers will still assess you personally for a young company, which usually means a personal guarantee. That is a deliberate trade against the liability separation you formed the LLC for.
Is this a good reason to form a US LLC?
On its own, no. The annual cost of an entity and its filings is not justified by card rewards, and building a structure around a points strategy is the tail wagging the dog. It is a genuine secondary benefit for someone who needed the structure anyway.
What is the biggest risk?
Account closure for a mismatch between what you told the issuer and what is true: most often the address. Issuers do review, and a closure is materially worse than a decline: it can cost the points balance, the account age you spent years building, and sometimes the relationship with the whole bank.