I managed to set one up last week with Wells Fargo. They wouldn't set up a credit account without a SSN, but I have check and savings. Granted, it was because I'm moving there next week, but the process only took an hour, and a few scanned documents.

Since we're not in the U.S. (yet) we do not need to pay taxes twice. We work from brazil as contractors to our U.S. company. So the company pays taxes in the U.S. and the individuals pay income taxes in Brazil.

The US doesnt have any double tax treaties. If you are Brazil resident, but have US income you may well be double taxed if you are employed in the US. If you are not Brazil resident then Brazil wont tax you. Only the US taxes non resident citizens I think.

In our case we have a board member that lives in the U.S. and helped us with the U.S. address. We also have a virtualpostmail address for mailing purposes only.