Guidelines for opening a U.S. stock account
First, choose a suitable U.S. stock brokerage firm to open an account. To choose a suitable U.S. stock brokerage, you need to consider a few points: the size and strength of the brokerage, tradable varieties, commission fees and preferential activities. If you need Chinese services, then you also need to see whether the brokerage provides Chinese services.
Next, open an account online. Most U.S. stock brokerages provide online account opening services. China enjoys reciprocal conditions for income tax exemptions and exemptions from the U.S. government. Therefore, Chinese people who open an international account for U.S. stocks and speculate in U.S. stocks can enjoy the benefit of exemption from withholding income tax.
There are three steps to open an account: apply online - mail materials - inject funds.
Step one: Apply online.
Step 2: Mail the materials.
In the last step of the online application, you will be notified that you need to print out the materials and mail them (you will also be notified by mail). The materials that need to be mailed include: 1. Electronic transaction contract (Online Service
Agreement) template; 2. W-8BEN simple form template; 3.
Your valid ID card Scanned copy of passport (first page, last page, and last two pages). The signature on the last page of the passport must have your signature to be valid. 1 and 2 can be printed out after filling out the online application.
Notes on mailing materials:
1.
If you choose "Financing" or "Options" when applying online, you still have You need to fill out and mail the "Financing Application Form" and "Option Transactions and Contracts".
2.
The necessary documents for the account must be mailed to the brokerage within thirty days after opening the account. If the required documents are not received within the deadline, your account will be restricted from suspending all trading activities. ; However, this restriction will be lifted immediately upon receipt of your file.
3. Newbies can go to Youxia Stock Market Zone 2 to simulate it and get started faster. After all, there are many differences between U.S. stocks and Chinese A-shares. You cannot speculate in U.S. stocks based on your experience in A-share trading.
Step 3: Inject funds:
Remit funds to the bank clearing bank account of the brokerage’s superior securities delivery company. Most users use bank transfer to inject funds, which is safer and faster.
Tips about injecting funds:
1. Injecting funds can be done simultaneously with the mailing of materials, so that transactions can be carried out faster after the materials are approved.
2.
The remittance must be in U.S. dollars. If you don’t have U.S. dollars, you can go to the bank to exchange it. The exchange is not cash! According to the regulations of the Administration of Foreign Exchange, each person has an exchange quota of US$50,000. Remittance postscript column (i.e. Further Credit
To column): Please fill in your account registration name at the brokerage here (must be consistent with your bank account name), for example: Datong
Wang; Please fill in your Firstrade account number here, the account number is an 8-digit number, the format is XXX-XXXXX
3.
Injection and The beneficiary must be the person who opens the account, and third-party remittances or collections are not accepted.
4.
It is recommended to use the Postal Savings Bank of China’s postal international remittance service or China Everbright Bank (the handling fee is the cheapest, and most people report that Everbright International’s remittances arrive the fastest. Kuaidi), China CITIC Bank, and Industrial Bank’s international remittance services. Secondly, you can consider the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (their online banking has international remittance functions), and Bank of China. According to historical feedback, for the time being, the remittance services of these banks The success rate of remittance is relatively high; the foreign exchange supervision of China Merchants Bank (China Merchants Bank is particularly strict in supervision and it is absolutely impossible to remit money), China Construction Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has relatively strict foreign exchange supervision, and it is easy to fail when remitting money, so it is not recommended.
5. Due to foreign exchange controls, banks in China do not in principle allow domestic individuals to make transfers and remittances to overseas company accounts. When bank staff see the word "Corporation"
Class words are very sensitive, so when filling in the remittance form, you can abbreviate the name of the clearing bank in the account name (Account Name), and there is no need to fill in the names like "Clearing
Corporation" in full, so that both It will not affect the successful arrival of the remittance, and can also improve the success rate of the remittance; secondly, please do not fill in "investment", "stock trading" and other types of words in the remittance purpose column. Fill in such purposes. The relevant banking institutions will not allow the remittance to go through. You can adopt a flexible approach and consider filling in purposes such as "shopping", "travel", "education" and "training".
Opening an account online will be approved within 1 working day; if approved, you can send the materials. The general express mailing time is 5 working days; after the materials are received, they will be reviewed and approved on the same day. If approved, the application will be sent on the same day. You can trade (of course you must make a successful deposit before you can start buying US stocks). For remittance, as long as you are approved for account opening, you can go to the bank counter to remit money immediately. It usually takes 3 to 5 working days to arrive in your account. Therefore, if everything goes well, it can be done in 18 working days.