Is anyone here using HSBC Expat?
I applied to open an account online last night for my wife. Apparently they will be contacting us to tell us what documents we need to give since we couldn’t meet the address proof requirement (they want proof of address in English) through their online portal.
Haven’t heard anything back yet. How long did it take you to open your account and did they give you a hard time?
Post office should be able to give your address in English from your Chinese address.
Yep, I’ve used that in the past but it’s not on HSBC’s list of approved documents 
using them, I provided my HSBC TW statement as proof of address since it has the address written in English.
Otherwise, you need either to translate some bill u receive at home (but must be an authenticated translation) or maybe the HHR office can provide some sort of certification you reside with ur wife (if she is a citizen with HHR).
Do you have a Wise account? They issue a proof of address via their online banking. Hopefully, a proof of address by another bank should be accepted.
Yup My HSBC in HK also issues statements with English and Chinese for address and name
Where will the account be located? In Jersey? Or in Taiwan?
jersey
Interesting thanks.
Yes I used my local HSBC statement too. The only problem with this is that they only issue it once a month and I had to wait for several weeks before I could proceed with the account opening.
Turns out they don’t offer this. Weird cos I remember getting something like this before
They have this website to convert a Chinese address into an English one:
https://www.post.gov.tw/post/internet/Postal/index.jsp?ID=207
It won’t be an official document, though.
Yeah we need the official document for opening a bank account abroad
What is an official document? A letter from an overseas bank to your Taiwan address in English?
They’re very picky when it comes to the documents. I don’t have the list anymore but it was something like bank account statement in english from the last 3 months with at least one transaction, or some UK government mail, or something else.
Bad comes to worse, you can go waste money on a translation notarization. I did that with a fake income statement.
I asked HSBC about upgrading to an HSBC Expat account as a U.S. citizen and the account rep got a panicked look on her face and said something about it not being possible.
if u asked HSBC TW they r clueless. Don’t even bother asking them.
They have a team HSBC expat in HK, try to mail them.
In the end my wife called Citi and they are shipping us an English balance certificate with our Taiwan address in English. They charged $50 NT. Should get it in about a week and then we can continue on with our HSBC Expat application.
Following
I called Citibank about this as well but they said the $50 document is just a balance statement and HSBC asks for something with a record of transactions. Maybe it will work, maybe not. HSBC has already rejected documents from Wise and Interactive Brokers saying they don’t accept proof of address from online banks.