Getting Paid Outside the US: Prop Firm Payout Methods, KYC, W-8BEN and Timelines
A payout outside the US takes a different route, often needs an ID check and a W-8BEN, and can spend close to three weeks in transit. What Lucid, Topstep, Apex and Take Profit Trader offer non-US traders at the time of writing, who they exclude, and how long the money takes.
A prop firm payout to a trader in Poland, Canada or Brazil starts with the same request as one to Texas. After the approval, three things change: the route the money takes, the paperwork that has to be on file before it moves, and the number of business days it spends in transit. US futures prop firms handle each of them differently, and they change payment providers often enough that everything below is at the time of writing, October 5, 2026, with a link to the firm's own page. None of it is tax advice. How a payout is taxed where you live is a question for an accountant there.
When a payout can be requested at all, meaning qualifying days, buffers and splits, is covered in payout rules, and the evaluation before it in the pillar.
The route
Outside the US the money usually moves through a payment provider, and the provider decides what a trader can receive.
Lucid pays US and international traders through WorkMarket, ADP's platform for paying contractors, into a bank account or PayPal, and offers international traders crypto as well: BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT or USDC. Topstep sends international payouts by wire (SWIFT) for a $30 fee, or through Wise with no Topstep fee, but Wise only to traders in China, Canada and the UK; its ACH, Aeropay and prop-to-brokerage routes are for the US. Apex pays international traders only through Plane, which needs a local bank account in the country where you live. Take Profit Trader asks non-US traders for Wise or PayPal details and charges $50 on withdrawals of $250 or less.
A firm-side fee of zero isn't the whole cost. The dollars get converted somewhere, at the provider, at your bank or on a crypto exchange, and Topstep's own policy notes that banks and payment services may charge their own fees. A crypto payout hands both the conversion and the price risk between approval and sale to the trader. Names matter too: Take Profit Trader delays or denies a payout when the name on the receiving account doesn't match the trader's.
The paperwork
Two checks stand between an approved payout and the money: identity verification, usually called KYC ("know your customer"), and a US tax form.
KYC happens at different moments. Topstep asks for it after the first purchase and requires it before the second, using an unexpired, original, physical government ID (passport, driver's license or national ID card) and a selfie; photocopies and photos of a screen are rejected. At Apex the identity check comes with Plane, which asks for a government ID or passport; its onboarding email arrives one to four business days after the first payout is approved. Lucid checks at payout time, when the payout provider requires it. The difference is when a problem surfaces. An expired ID found at registration costs a day, and the same ID found at the first payout holds up money that has already been earned.
The tax form is IRS Form W-8BEN, the certificate of foreign status for individuals. It tells a US payer that the person being paid is a foreign person rather than a US one. US persons, including US citizens who live abroad, sign a W-9 instead, and a non-US company, as opposed to an individual, uses the W-8BEN-E. Topstep collects the W-8BEN as part of the payout request. Take Profit Trader collects it through a compliance provider, ComplyExchange, and it has to be signed before any withdrawal. Apex states that it doesn't issue tax forms to non-US users, and Lucid's pages mention 1099s for US traders but not the W-8BEN.
A W-8BEN generally stays valid until the end of the third calendar year after the year it was signed, unless a change in your circumstances makes something on it wrong, such as a move to the US. It settles nothing with your own country's tax office. It's a US form about US withholding.
Where you can't be
Every firm keeps a list of restricted countries, and the lists are long: about 80 countries and regions at Lucid, nearly 90 countries and territories at Apex. They differ in who they catch. Lucid's applies to citizens and to residents of a listed country. Topstep's covers citizens and residents too, but residence weighs more: living in an ineligible country makes you ineligible whatever your passport says, while a citizen of a listed country who lives permanently in an eligible one can ask for a review. Apex wants the ID, residence, mailing address and bank account outside its list, and adds a rule about travel: while you're physically in a restricted country you can't buy accounts, request payouts or trade. Topstep tells traders not to trade while passing through an ineligible country, and Take Profit Trader restricts or blocks an account after a single trade, or a single look at market data, from a restricted one.
The list is worth reading before buying an evaluation, because an account opened from the wrong country fails at exactly the point where the paperwork begins.
How long it takes
From the firms' pages, in business days, which leave out weekends and US holidays:
| Firm | Route outside the US | Firm's review | After approval | Firm-side fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid | WorkMarket (bank or PayPal), crypto | not stated | within 2 days; WorkMarket as early as the next business day | none stated |
| Topstep | Wire (SWIFT); Wise in China, Canada, UK | 1–3 days | wire 5–10 days, Wise 1–3 | $30 wire, Wise none |
| Apex | Plane | within 2 days | most payouts arrive 5–11 days after the request | none stated |
| Take Profit Trader | Wise or PayPal | up to 12 business hours | within 12 business hours | $50 at $250 or less |
The range runs from a day or two to about three weeks. Take Profit Trader quotes its Wise and PayPal payouts in business hours, up to 12 for approval and 12 for the transfer. A Topstep wire approved on the third day and delivered on the tenth after that takes 13 business days, close to three calendar weeks. The first payout tends to be the slowest, since that is when the identity check and the paperwork get done.
Before the first request
- Check the restricted-country list for the country on your passport, the country you live in and any country you'll be in while you trade.
- Make sure the receiving account is in the same name as the trading account.
- Keep an ID that won't expire in the next few months, since the check can come at the first payout.
- Find out which route your country gets before counting days, because a Wise transfer and a SWIFT wire can be a week apart.
I trade from Poland, on Lucid (affiliate link), so the international column of a payout page is the first one I read, and the restricted-country list is the second.
Educational content, not investment advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss. Examples are for illustration only. Read the full Risk Disclosure.