Applying for a Wise Account

I recently needed to accept overseas payments via Wise, so I walked through the setup process—documenting it here.

Create an account

Head to the Wise website https://wise.com/ and follow the prompts to sign up. When asked for your country, choose Mainland China—you can change it later if needed.

• Mainland China accounts support parts of the Wise offering, such as receiving funds, but debit cards aren’t available.
• To change your account’s country later, go to this Wise page.

Account verification

Submit your passport photo page and a selfie as instructed. I scanned the QR code shown on the desktop site with WeChat, followed the prompts to take the photos, and uploaded them. The review was fast—approved the same day.

Receiving payments

Add accounts for the currencies you need inside Wise; it will then provide the relevant bank details for incoming payments.