Webull, Public, and M1 Finance: The Three Brokers That Don’t Reject You for Being New

🕑 14 min read  ·  ✅ Fact-checked  ·  📋 Sources: IRS, CFPB, SEC

For most new immigrants in the United States, the first attempt to open a brokerage account is also the first encounter with the strange, unwritten rules of American financial institutions. Some banks turn you away because you do not have an SSN. Some traditional brokers ask questions you cannot answer because you have not been in the country long enough to have credit history or pay stubs. The result, often, is that the new immigrant gives up and waits — years sometimes — before trying again.

There is a better path. A new generation of mobile-first brokerages built since 2017 has made their reputation specifically on accepting people that traditional brokers reject. They accept ITIN holders. They open accounts with minimal documentation. They work for people who arrived recently, who do not have established U.S. credit, who do not have employer pay stubs going back years. This article walks through the three most useful: Webull, Public.com, and M1 Finance.

None of them is perfect. Each has trade-offs that matter. But for many immigrant investors, one of these three is the only practical starting point — and any of them is dramatically better than continuing to wait.

Why mainstream brokers sometimes reject new immigrants

Before diving into the three accommodating brokers, it helps to understand what was blocking the path in the first place. The reasons are usually internal compliance policies, not federal law.

Federal securities law, set by the SEC and enforced by FINRA, allows brokerages to accept customers using ITIN, passport number, or foreign tax ID — all are recognized as valid government-issued identification under the USA PATRIOT Act’s Customer Identification Program. The law does not require an SSN.

What blocks ITIN holders at many traditional brokers is internal policy. Compliance and risk teams at Schwab, Fidelity, and others have historically been cautious about non-SSN customers, sometimes requiring additional documentation, sometimes routing applications through slower manual review processes, and sometimes simply declining applications that do not have an SSN.

The newer mobile-first brokerages built their entire business model differently. From day one, they designed their compliance processes to handle ITIN customers and foreign nationals smoothly. Their automated systems verify ITINs the same way they verify SSNs. They request the same supplementary documentation from everyone. The result is that the application experience is uniform regardless of immigration status.

Webull: the active-trading-friendly choice

Webull launched in 2018 with a focus on competing against Robinhood for active traders. The platform has since matured into a serviceable broker for both active and buy-and-hold investors. Its acceptance of ITIN holders is well-established and consistent.

Account types available: Individual taxable brokerage account, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Rollover IRA. Margin accounts available for qualified users.

Required documentation for ITIN applicants: ITIN, government-issued ID (passport works), U.S. residential address, basic employment information. Webull’s compliance review for ITIN applications typically completes within 1-3 business days.

Fees: Zero commission on stock and ETF trades. No account minimum. No monthly maintenance fees. Margin and certain options trades have associated costs.

Fractional shares: Yes, on most U.S. stocks and ETFs. Allows starting with as little as $5.

Strengths: Polished mobile app with advanced charting tools. Real-time market data. Extended trading hours (pre-market and after-hours). Fast ITIN approval times. Some sign-up bonuses (free fractional shares for new accounts) are available periodically.

Weaknesses: Customer service is primarily online and slower than at traditional brokers. Mutual fund selection is limited compared to Schwab or Fidelity. The platform’s interface is optimized for active trading, which can encourage behaviors that hurt long-term returns (frequent trading, price chasing).

Best fit: Recent immigrants who want a clean mobile-first experience and the option to be slightly more active than a pure index-fund strategy requires. Also a strong choice for investors who like having the option of pre-market trading or extended-hours activity.

Public.com: the transparent investing community

Public was founded in 2019 with a different angle — combining a stock brokerage with social features that let users see what other investors are doing. The “social” aspect has matured over the years; today, Public functions primarily as a clean retail broker with optional community features.

Account types available: Individual taxable brokerage account, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Treasury account. Public also offers a high-yield cash account and access to certain alternative assets (Treasury bills, crypto, corporate bonds).

Required documentation for ITIN applicants: Public’s application explicitly asks whether you have an SSN or ITIN at the top of the flow, accepting either. Standard documentation requirements apply otherwise.

Fees: Zero commission on stock and ETF trades. No account minimum. No monthly maintenance fees. Bond trades have small per-trade fees. The high-yield cash account has competitive APY.

Fractional shares: Yes, on most U.S. stocks and ETFs. The minimum trade size is typically $1.

Strengths: Clean, modern interface that does not push aggressive trading behavior. Built-in access to Treasury bonds and bills makes diversification easy. The high-yield cash account is competitive with the best online savings banks. Strong privacy controls — you can use the platform without the social features if you prefer.

Weaknesses: No mutual funds (ETFs only). Investment selection is narrower than at Schwab or Fidelity. Some advanced order types (stop-limit, trailing stop) are limited or unavailable.

Best fit: ITIN holders who want a simple, modern broker with access to a diversified set of asset types (stocks, ETFs, Treasury bonds, optional crypto) in one place. The cash management features make it useful as a partial replacement for a traditional bank.

M1 Finance: the automated portfolio system

M1 Finance is structurally different from Webull and Public. Where the others are conventional brokerages with a modern interface, M1 is built around automated portfolio investing — what M1 calls “pies.”

How M1’s pie system works. The user creates a “pie” that defines an allocation across multiple assets. For example: 70 percent VTI, 20 percent VXUS, 10 percent BND. Each time the user contributes cash, M1 automatically distributes the contribution across the pie in the target proportions. Over time, drift from the target allocation triggers either manual rebalancing or automatic rebalancing depending on settings.

Account types available: Individual taxable brokerage account, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP-IRA, Joint accounts, Trust accounts.

Required documentation for ITIN applicants: ITIN, government-issued ID, U.S. address. M1 accepts ITIN holders for both taxable accounts and IRAs in most cases.

Fees: $3 monthly fee for accounts below a certain balance threshold (currently $10,000); fee waived above that. No commission on stock or ETF trades.

Fractional shares: Yes, on all positions in a pie. Allows highly precise allocation.

Strengths: The pie system is uniquely elegant for buy-and-hold investors. Set up the allocation once, contribute on a schedule, and M1 handles all the math. Auto-invest functionality is best-in-class. Custom pies allow precise control over allocation. Tax-loss harvesting available at higher account tiers.

Weaknesses: Trades execute in batched windows (typically once or twice per day) rather than in real-time, which is fine for long-term investors but bad for active traders. The monthly fee on smaller balances is unusual for modern brokers. Customer service is online-only.

Best fit: ITIN holders who specifically want automated portfolio management without paying robo-advisor fees. M1 is closer in spirit to a robo-advisor than to a traditional broker, but the user retains complete control over allocation. Ideal for buy-and-hold investors who value automation but want to avoid the 0.25 percent fee that most robo-advisors charge.

Side-by-side comparison

The three brokers serve overlapping but distinct purposes. Below is a quick comparison across the criteria that matter most to immigrant investors.

• ITIN acceptance: All three accept ITIN holders. Webull and Public have the cleanest application flows; M1 requires the most documentation but still accepts ITIN.
• Approval time: Webull is fastest (1-3 days). Public is moderate (2-4 days). M1 is slowest (3-7 days) but still reasonable.
• Account minimum: Webull and Public have no minimum. M1 has effectively $100 minimum to begin investing.
• Commissions: All three offer zero-commission stock and ETF trading.
• Fractional shares: All three support fractional shares on most U.S. stocks and ETFs.
• Investment selection: Webull and Public offer stocks and ETFs (Public adds bonds and Treasuries). M1 offers stocks and ETFs.
• Mobile app quality: Webull’s app is the most feature-rich. Public’s is the cleanest. M1’s is functional but optimized for the pie system rather than active trading.
• Automation: M1 has by far the best automation for buy-and-hold strategies. Webull and Public support recurring buys but with less elegance.
• Customer service: All three are online/app-based; none has phone support comparable to Schwab or Fidelity. Public is generally most responsive.

How to choose which one to open first

If you can only open one of these accounts, the choice depends on your personality and goals.

Open Webull if you want maximum flexibility, like having advanced charting and order types available even if you do not use them often, and prefer a feature-rich mobile experience.

Open Public if you want a clean, simple interface, value access to multiple asset types (stocks, ETFs, Treasury bonds) in one place, and want a competitive high-yield cash management feature alongside your investing.

Open M1 Finance if you want to follow a buy-and-hold index fund strategy with maximum automation. The pie system pays off over years of automatic monthly contributions.

Many investors open more than one of these accounts. For example, M1 for the core long-term portfolio (automated, disciplined, allocation-locked) plus Public for the cash account and occasional Treasury bond purchases. The combination provides more functionality than any single one in isolation.

Stepping up to traditional brokers later

The new-immigrant-friendly brokers in this article are excellent starting points, but they are not necessarily the final destination. As your accounts grow and your needs become more sophisticated, you may want to transition some or all of your assets to a traditional broker — Schwab, Fidelity, or Interactive Brokers.

The reasons to consider transitioning include broader mutual fund selection (the legacy brokers offer thousands of funds; the new brokers offer mainly ETFs), better phone-based customer service (helpful for complex situations like inheritance, estate planning, or tax questions), branch access (Schwab and Fidelity have physical locations for in-person help), and historically deeper relationships that may matter for future needs like loans, financial planning, or trust services.

The transition is straightforward via ACATS (Automated Customer Account Transfer Service). You open the new account at the destination broker, request the transfer, and the assets move over 5-10 business days. There is no tax cost to the transfer if it is in-kind (assets move as-is) rather than cash. The originating broker (Webull, Public, or M1) may charge a $50-$75 transfer-out fee; the destination broker often reimburses this if you transfer a meaningful balance.

You do not have to choose between starting at a new-style broker and ending up at a traditional one. The pattern of starting at Webull, Public, or M1 — getting comfortable, building habits, accumulating $20,000-$50,000 — and then transitioning to Schwab or Fidelity is increasingly common and entirely reasonable.

What to avoid: brokers that look similar but should be skipped

The success of the brokers in this article has spawned imitators. Not all of them are equivalent. A few common ones to be cautious of:

Robinhood requires an SSN for account opening. It does not currently accept ITIN holders. Despite its popularity and advertising, it is not a viable choice for non-SSN immigrants.

Cash App Investing requires an SSN. Same limitation as Robinhood.

Smaller or newer fintech brokers without SIPC insurance, FINRA membership, or established compliance records should be avoided regardless of their ITIN policies. SIPC membership and FINRA registration are non-negotiable for any broker holding your money.

“Crypto-first” platforms that pivot into stock investing (some examples have emerged in recent years) often have weaker compliance and customer service infrastructure than dedicated stock brokers. Use them, if at all, only for the specific asset class they were built for.

Always verify the broker’s regulatory status. SIPC membership is searchable at sipc.org. FINRA membership and any disciplinary history is searchable at brokercheck.finra.org. Both checks take under five minutes and can prevent serious problems.

Common concerns about new-style brokers

Concern: are my assets safe? Yes, if the broker is SIPC-insured and FINRA-registered. All three brokers in this article meet these requirements. Customer assets are held in segregated accounts at clearing firms (often Apex Clearing for the newer brokers). Even if the broker itself fails, customer assets are protected and would be transferred to a replacement custodian. SIPC insurance covers up to $500,000 (including $250,000 cash) per account.

Concern: will the broker still be around in 10 years? No one knows. Webull, Public, and M1 are all relatively young companies. The traditional brokers (Schwab founded 1971, Fidelity 1946, Interactive Brokers 1978) have decades of operational history. If long-term institutional stability is a top concern, traditional brokers have an edge. That said, the regulatory infrastructure makes broker failure relatively painless for customers; the bigger risk is not the broker disappearing but the service or fees changing in ways you do not like.

Concern: will I be able to file taxes correctly with these brokers? Yes. All three issue standard IRS tax forms (1099-DIV, 1099-INT, 1099-B) in January or February following each tax year. The forms are downloadable from the broker’s website. Tax software (TurboTax, H&R Block, FreeTaxUSA) handles imports from all three smoothly.

The application walkthrough: step by step

The application processes at all three brokers share a common structure, with minor variations. Here is what to expect, in sequence.

Step 1: Initial identification. The first screen asks for name, email, phone number, and date of birth. Use accurate information that matches your government-issued ID exactly. If your ID lists a middle name, use it on the application even if you rarely do.

Step 2: Tax identification. The application explicitly asks for your SSN or ITIN. Select the ITIN option if you do not have an SSN. Enter your ITIN carefully — a single digit wrong here will cause the application to stall in compliance review.

Step 3: Address verification. Enter your current U.S. residential address. The address must match the address on the proof-of-residence document you will upload later. Pay attention to apartment number formatting (the application may have a separate field versus including it on the street address line).

Step 4: Employment information. The broker is required to collect basic employment details under FINRA Rule 4512. Provide your employer name, occupation, and approximate annual income. If self-employed, indicate that and provide your business name. If currently unemployed, indicate that honestly — it does not disqualify the application.

Step 5: Investment experience and risk tolerance. The application asks about your prior investing experience and risk tolerance. Be honest. If you are a first-time investor, select “Beginner” or “Limited Experience.” This affects what products the broker can offer you (margin and options require higher experience levels) but does not affect basic stock/ETF account access.

Step 6: Document upload. Upload a clear image of your government-issued ID (front and back if it is a card), and your proof of address (utility bill, lease, or bank statement dated within the last 60-90 days). The application typically accepts PDF, JPG, and PNG formats.

Step 7: Tax form selection. The application will route you to the correct IRS form based on your status. U.S. tax residents complete Form W-9. Non-residents complete Form W-8BEN, which also requires indicating tax treaty country if applicable.

Step 8: Review and submit. Carefully review every field before submitting. The most common cause of rejected ITIN applications is data entry errors that cause your information not to match the IRS records on file for your ITIN.

Step 9: Wait for approval. Webull typically approves in 1-3 business days; Public in 2-4 business days; M1 in 3-7 business days. You will receive an email when the account is approved. If the broker needs additional documentation, you will receive an email requesting it — respond promptly to keep the process moving.

Step 10: Link bank and fund the account. Once approved, link your U.S. bank account using its routing and account numbers. The broker will run two small test deposits and ask you to verify them — this typically takes 1-2 business days. After verification, your bank-to-broker transfers will execute normally.

Frequently asked questions

Can I open accounts at all three of these brokers?

Yes. There is no limit on the number of brokerage accounts you can hold. Some investors use multiple brokers strategically — for example, M1 for the automated long-term portfolio and Public for the cash management features. The downside is more accounts to track at tax time.

Do these brokers have hidden fees I should know about?

Mostly not. The standard fees are zero for stock and ETF trades. Margin interest applies if you borrow (which most investors should avoid). M1 has a $3 monthly fee below the threshold. Wire transfers, paper statements, and certain other services may have small fees. Always read the broker’s current fee schedule before opening the account.

How long until I should consider transitioning to a traditional broker?

There is no universal threshold, but most investors transition (or add a traditional broker to their lineup) when they cross $50,000-$100,000 in total invested assets and want access to more services — mutual funds, branch service, full phone support, etc. Below that, the new-style brokers are typically sufficient.

Can I open an IRA at Webull, Public, or M1?

Yes, all three support Traditional and Roth IRAs. M1 additionally offers SEP-IRA for self-employed investors. The ITIN acceptance applies to IRAs as well as taxable accounts, though documentation requirements may be slightly more involved for retirement accounts due to additional regulatory checks.

Will these brokers report me to immigration authorities?

No. FINRA-regulated brokers are not part of immigration enforcement infrastructure. They report investment income to the IRS for tax purposes, but the IRS itself does not share routine taxpayer information with immigration agencies. Your privacy as a brokerage customer is protected by federal financial privacy laws.

Conclusion: the door is open

The single biggest barrier to immigrant investing in the United States used to be access. That barrier has fallen. Webull, Public.com, and M1 Finance — alongside the more established Schwab, Fidelity, and Interactive Brokers — all accept ITIN holders for standard taxable brokerage accounts in 2026.

The choice between the three is a matter of personality and goals, not legitimacy. All three are properly regulated, SIPC-insured, and operationally sound. All three offer zero commissions on stock and ETF trades. All three support fractional shares that let you start with very little money. None of them will reject you for being a recent arrival to the United States.

The remaining question is which one to open this week. Make the decision based on the criteria above, gather your ITIN and basic documentation, and apply online tonight. The barrier to becoming an investor in U.S. markets is now exactly as small as the act of completing one online application.

For comparison with traditional brokers, see our Schwab vs. Fidelity vs. Interactive Brokers guide. For specific portfolio strategies that work at any of these brokers, see our three-fund portfolio article.

“Webull’s online form is a dead end for ITIN holders. But their support team knows exactly what to do — you just have to call. Public worked online, no phone call needed. That alone made it my first choice for beginners.”
— Carlos V., Venezuela → Miami — tested Jan 2024