I’m from Germany and I thought in advance about how this would work and, above all, what wouldn’t work. I read that you have to set the region of your Apple ID to USA in any case - but that comes with massive disadvantages and is not necessary. In the meantime I’ve solved pretty much everything, the trick is to use two Apple IDs.
Here is a short guide:
Set up the VP as normal with your non-US Apple ID
You will notice that the App Store & Apple TV Store will not work then
Use a US VPN to create a US Apple ID. You will need another email address for this. My German phone number, on the other hand, worked
Once this is done, go to Settings => Your Name => Media&Purchases in Vision Pro and log out your non-US Apple ID there (only there)
Log in there with your new US ID
The App Store now works - even without VPN
You will notice that you can use free apps, but everything you have to pay for (including movies) will not work because you cannot enter a credit card or PayPal without a US address because the address does not match the credit card address
Now when you purchase any item (app, movies, whatever) the VP will ask you to provide a billing address. Enter something there - the site will help you (for example, it will tell you that the phone number should be 7 digits, etc.)
Et voila - you can now use the credit to purchase apps etc.
Disadvantages: Of course, you can’t access your non-US media library and you may have to buy new movies if you want to watch them. There is also no music subscription - you would have to switch your Apple ID back to the old one (and then back again).
You can change your main account’s location instead of using a second account.
There’s a website called StatesCard that will get you a card you can use. I also used an app called Hushed to get a phone #.
Then simply run your account with the US store; it’s better anyway.
Note: getting US iTunes cards is cheaper & easier than running everything through StatesCard.
Note, the second: subscribe to whatever you subscribe through their online portals not through the iPhone apps to avoid unnecessary charger. It might be cheaper too.
I would not necessarily advise doing this as a long term solution. Apple can decide at any time to restrict your US Apple ID from making any purchases, including with wallet funds, until they can verify your billing address information if they choose to. Apple does periodic checks for arbitrage like this.
I have a decade+ old US region Apple ID that got put in this restricted situation after I redeemed a wallet fund code bought digitally via Amazon (after multiple years of successful purchases). Which I can no longer buy anything with (unless I verify which I obviously can’t), including the ~50 USD still sitting in the wallet.
So long story short, just be aware Apple can lock your account down.
Does it sync with your Apple ID in terms of iMessage, photos etc ?
Also, are you able to watch Disney+ 3d content? Had issues with that when using my German Disney subscription.
It’s literally the first story of a us restricted account. I’ve set up a few, a lot of friends did and no one had issues whatsoever
Did you ever reach out to support? The only event in which any of my accounts were suspended was when Apple thought someone got into my account and I had to verify myself.
If you never did, maybe would be a wise idea to try to ask?
Yes, the entire system runs with the correct non-US ID… Only the Appstore and Apple TV use the US ID stored for them. iMessages, contacts, photos, notes etc. all run with my correct data
Can’t even see my own card details atm either (good thing I have it saved).
This happened once last year and took them about a week. It should probably be up in the next few days (although there might be new options on the market)
Yeah I spoke with support on multiple occasions.
Account was flagged as “foreign user” as part of a standard random audit. They were surprisingly transparent about it.
Verifying a US billing address is the only way to remove the purchase restriction from it.
Thanks for all the tips! I followed these steps and loaded my new US account with a US Apple gift card. Everything works and I can access the App store now… the only thing that doesn’t work is the Apple TV… any idea why?
Weird that no one I know about ever went through being flagged as part of this audit. I’ve been using my US accounts for at least 7 years now with zero issues switching back and forth. I would say you were extremely unlucky, and at worst whoever buys vision pro will just switch to european account when it releases in Europe.
