American living in Taiwan: Physical address in USA...? Co-Sign Utility Bill?

Legal General Legal Matters
1

Before I left for college in Hawaii, I lived with my mother in mainland USA. I graduated, moved to Taiwan, got married (to a native Taiwanese girl I met in Hawaii :slight_smile: ) and have been here ever since. While my drivers license is still not expired, it makes me look sketchy with my Hawaii drivers license connected to an address I don’t live at, anymore, when most stuff I apply for is OUTSIDE of Hawaii.

So I’m applying to places (places that care - say, a business bank account) with my VoIP phone number (when a USA phone number is req’d), a virtual office address (when a USA address is req’d), and I work at home with my remote tech startup in Taiwan.

While I get paid directly from a renown company in USA to my personal USA bank account in a perfectly legit fashion, I LOOK very sketchy, even from my own point of view. I wouldn’t trust myself if I saw this application submitted.

Now! I need to change things up in order to get a business bank account while still remaining honest:

  • I made my mother CFO of the LLC, so now there’s a real physical presence at her home office.

  • I’m already sending my mother a check every month via bill pay to help her rent/utilities: I may as well officially cosign with her utilities since that’s what everyone asks for (since, ridiculously, a certified proof of address from the gov’t is apparently not as proof-worthy as a utilities bill…).

  • I’m considering getting a real phone number and having it billed to my mother’s address: For example, with Capital One, I can’t even make domestic transfers to my mother (I must use bill pay for a physical check) because my VoIP number can’t be verified.

    However, my main question is here: My mother is concerned that cosigning on her utilities may be illegal – but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be? Is this legal? She’s my mother, I’m financially taking care of her, and when I go to USA I stay at her house. I would argue that my mother’s house is my physical presence in USA.

  • What about a drivers license? If I visit my mom in USA next time and have already signed up with her for utilities and have a cell phone number also registered there, can I get a drivers license while I visit? My Hawaii one has very little value since I don’t have any connection there anymore except when I went to college… and looks further sketchy to anyone that’s seen the movie, Superbad, that makes fun of the Hawaii drivers license :stuck_out_tongue:

Essentially, what are some legit steps I can take so I can say “this [my mother’s address] is my address when I live I’m in USA” when trying to get verified?

Everything about living in Taiwan with an American LLC seems worth it, EXCEPT for business banking (and LLC protections, since I can’t even get a business account - may as well act as sole prop).

2

You can also sign a simple “power of attorney” with your mom for certain things (banking, paying bills), etc. Sort of legitimizes your use of her address.

If it was me, I would not care about what anyone thinks and just use her address for everything (bank accounts, state drivers’ license, etc.). You know how many millenials are living in their parents’ basement now, because they can’t afford to live outside the parents’ roost?

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I’m fairly certain they won’t respect power of attorney. My virtual office, for example, is still a physical, non-PO box address with humans inside that have limited power of attorney for mail/address related activity. They found an excuse for that. They really disregard power of attorney completely when it comes to application, from my understanding.

4

I bought a condo in my own name through my dad’s use of power of attorney over my “name”.
It was accepted all-around (real estate firm, title company, county filing).

Who is “they” in “they won’t respect power of attorney”?