The questions you have to ask yourself is whether you need an account in the US or you need an account denominated in dollars. You may be able to acquire the latter through a number of other banks without having a US-based account. The other thing you have to consider is whether you need this account for business purpose or individual purpose. HSBC offers US-based accounts in the retail sector to HSBC Premier members but, if my memory serves me right, you might still need to have a US address. If you are looking for business purpose, you might be able to get a dollar-denominated DDA account for business purpose.US laws regulating banking may force you to have a US-based address. In the case of a business, you could incorporate in that country and some places pryou with an address along with your incorporation. If you're an individual, the hoop to jump through may be a lot harder. So to make a long answer shorter, no, you probably can't open an US-based account without having some form of residency in the US but there are a number of ways in which you can open a US-dollar denominated account.