A note from the president:

The VALIS Group started as VALIS Information Systems in 1992 in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is located on the Southern West Coast of Canada (a very beautiful area.)   We later incorporated in Alberta, Canada, to become VALIS Group Inc.

Becoming highly involved in the Internet and wanting to do business internationally we set out to find the answer.  After talking to our account manager, we discovered that in order to get a merchant account we would have to put up $30,000 in advance. This seemed unreasonable to us, knowing how easy it was for Americans to accomplish the same thing.   After hundreds of hours of searching and asking questions we found that the only way to go was to setup an American Corporation. We spent hundreds of more hours researching where to incorporate (advantages/disadvantages) and how to incorporate efficiently.  So we incorporated in the State of Delaware as VALIS Group Inc. -- Having two companies in different countries with the same name makes life interesting.

Next, we found we had to get a United States Bank Account (the US Account, routed through New York, setup by our Canadian Bank wasn't good enough) so we searched for hundreds of more hours.  We contacted every bank with a web site.  Not one would allow us to open an account unless we came down and opened the account in person.  Luckily we didn't have to go far to get everything we needed (about a 2 hour drive, each way, across the border into Washington State).  We found a reputable bank that offered full Internet access to our account and a US VISA debit card.

Finally we could get our merchant account.  Of course this was still painful as the Merchant Account Provider, didn't know what to do with a foreign owned US Corp.   Luckily we negotiated our way through to success.

After that harrowing experience we came to the conclusion that Internet Commerce was heavily weighted in favor of the US Market and simply put: that is unfair.  Our mission is to level the international playing field. 

We struck a deal with the bank that allowed us to open accounts, in person, on behalf of our international clients.  We found the best way to incorporate and to take advantage of an existing network of registered offices across the USA.  We have become a US Merchant Account Provider specializing in International Businesses, and can offer the lowest discount rates and prices available anywhere, to US or foreign citizens.   We have struck partnership deals with several Real-time On-line Secure Credit Card Transaction Networks, to offer our clients the best services available, and allow hands off Internet Commerce.  We are proud of what we've accomplished so far and plan to expand our services to make it even easier for International Citizens to get in on the booming Internet Commerce Market.

In the near future we will be able to setup Corporations in the Cayman Islands to create parent corporations for our clients' US corporations.  This will enable the US corporations to lose money every year and the C.I. managing/parent corporations to have the income in a tax free environment.  Thus our clients will only pay local taxes on the funds they draw from the C.I. corporations for their own use.  Yes this is perfectly legal.  We plan to do the US tax returns and C.I. annual statements of any of our clients who wish to keep their US corporations losing money.  Thus relieving all the extra burdens of owning foreign businesses and conducting international business for you, our client.

Sincerely,

  David Gendron, President
  dgendron@valis.org

  VALIS Group Inc. (International)