(I am not seeking advice or assistance. This is intended as a warning for others. This is also not intended to spark a discussion about OFAC sanctions.)
Background: I am a citizen of a NATO country. But, by accident of birth, I am also a native of certain OFAC-sanctioned country that doesn't allow its nationals to renounce citizenship. This makes me a dual-citizen of that country, like it or not. I've never hidden that fact the very few times when it has been relevant, but I also don't disclose when not. I only hold a passport for the NATO country.
I moved to the US about 5 years ago with an H1B and opened, in person, my first checking account and a starter credit card with BofA. I think my IDs at the time were my passport, SSN card and foreign drivers license. They didn't ask anything about my citizenship, I suppose they inferred it from my passport. Since then, I've opened accounts at other banks without trouble, listing all my citizenships when asked. About a year ago I finally got my green card, updated the residency status in my account and transferred my investments over to them.
Shortly after, I got a pre-approval notice for a better credit card from them and I decided to go ahead. The application form asked about dual citizenship which I answered truthfully without giving it a second thought. To my surprise (pre-approved, 800+ credit score, 4 years relationship including a previous CC, "platinum honors" with over $200k in assets with them), the application was instantly denied. Phone support agent just told me to wait for mail, which I got a week later. The problem was my second citizenship. They needed a copy of my US passport, my green card, or my asylum claim (H1B was explicitly disallowed for my country of birth. I believe this constitutes illegal discrimination by country of origin, as they had been fine with my H1B status before this). The letter blamed the OFAC sanctions, which contain no such requirement.
Nonetheless, I had a green card and they've known it for a year! So I go to the branch to confirm. Yes, they still had the green card on file, they don't know why I got that letter, but there is no one they can contact to tell them that my documents are already on file. I phone support again (and again, and again), they insist that they can't access or update any detail of my application, only that it had been denied. One of the agents even hung up on me when I requested to speak with her supervisor. So I mailed a copy of the green card to the address in the letter and waited... Couple of weeks later, I get the same letter asking for US Passport, green card, or asylum claim again. At this point I realize the danger of having most of my assets with them. They had not frozen them, but a web search found they are not shy about doing so. An acquaintance from my birth country revealed that BofA had also refused her service unless she presented an asylum claim (she was also on H1B). Would they lock access to my accounts for the "lack" of green card, then refuse to acknowledge mine? I wasn't going to risk it. I transferred everything to other banks (plural!). I kept trying, unsuccessfully, to reach any BofA employee who would even look at the application, then closed the accounts.
On second thought, perhaps everyone should avoid BofA. While the trigger for this incident was their discriminatory practices, the support experience was atrocious. Most agents (phone or in branch) were unable or unwilling to look at the problem. All steadfastly refused to even look at their stated problem ("missing document X") and my account ("document X is already on file").
Edit: OFAC, not OPAC.
Submitted January 06, 2019 at 09:43PM by dolores_yellow http://bit.ly/2VAPGke
