# Wise (وايز)

> Wise is currently blocked in Syria, as of 2026-08-30.

- Status: blocked
- Outreach: Contacted
- Company: [Wise](https://unblocksyria.com/en/companies/wise.md)
- Categories: Money Transfer, Digital Banks & Neobanks, Digital Wallets, Payment Services
- Official site: https://wise.com
- Community votes: 579
- Last updated: 2026-08-30
- Page: https://unblocksyria.com/en/services/wise

## About

Low-cost international money transfer service with transparent exchange rates

## Activity summary

Blocked in Syria at two layers, a network block on the website and an application block that disables account creation. Outreach has run since February 2026; in August a volunteer reached Wise's compliance team through in-app chat and was told the policy has not changed and cannot be set aside for now.

## Official timeline

- 2026-03-31 — Follow-up Sent. Official follow-up email sent from corporateaffairs@unblocksyria.com to legalrequests@wise.com. The email addressed Wise's stated 'internal risk policies' objection, described the dual-layer blocking (Cloudflare geo-blocking plus application-level registration block), and cited Mastercard as fully accessible with Visa, Revolut, and Google Pay partially restored.
- 2026-03-30 — Company Responded. Wise's Legal Requests team responded to the follow-up outreach via legalrequests@wise.com with an automated acknowledgment. The response confirmed receipt and stated it may take 2-10 working days to process. The response noted that this email address is only for third-party inquiries. This is the same auto-reply template received during the February 2026 outreach round.

## Community reports

- 2026-08-28 — Follow-up Sent. The volunteer sent the same request to Wise's legal requests team again the following day, with no reply to the first message. The email repeated the regulatory position and the request that Wise reassess its blanket Syria restrictions and identify the basis on which they rest.
- 2026-08-27 — Follow-up Sent. The same volunteer emailed Wise's legal requests team at legalrequests@wise.com asking it to reassess its blanket Syria restrictions, setting out that the United States rescinded Syria's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism on 24 August 2026 and that the comprehensive Syria sanctions programme has been terminated, leaving only targeted list-based measures. The email asked Wise to state whether its restriction is a legal requirement or an internal risk policy, and to route the request to its compliance, country-risk and policy teams.
- 2026-08-27 — Declined. A community volunteer raised the Syria restriction through Wise's in-app chat and was moved from general customer support to the team that handles compliance, country risk, sanctions and policy questions, to which he submitted a written review request. Wise's answer was that it has made no change to its country-support or compliance policy for Syria and cannot set aside the current restrictions at this time, while confirming that the request and the policy-review points had been recorded and would be taken into account as its teams continue to monitor regulatory developments. That is a refusal to act now rather than a review in progress. It does move the file from general support to the relevant internal team, which is further than previous rounds reached: Wise's legal requests mailbox had earlier declared itself a civil-information-only address.
- 2026-06-04 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer emailed Wise's complaints team at complaints@wise.com with a formal request to reconsider the automatic rejections imposed on Syrian applicants. The email cited the December 2025 U.S. Treasury announcement lifting the comprehensive trade embargo, Syria's removal from OFAC's embargoed countries list, and the parallel EU sanctions lift, and noted that Mastercard and Visa — companies adhering to strict compliance requirements — have already enabled access. This is a new independent volunteer follow-up to the earlier outreach rounds from February and March 2026.
- 2026-03-02 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer emailed Wise's legal requests team at legalrequests@wise.com asking Wise to review its Syria policy following the lifting of the U.S. sanctions framework. The email focused on the importance of reliable cross-border financial services for Syrian freelancers and remote workers, and noted that even partial functionality such as receiving funds, holding balances, or sending money to friends and family in other countries would be a meaningful first step. This was an independent volunteer follow-up to the team's earlier outreach round in February.
- 2026-02-16 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer sent formal outreach emails to four separate Wise email addresses, including complaints@wise.com, reply@support.wise.com, and directly to two Wise executives. The emails requested an urgent executive and compliance review to enable full service access for users and businesses in Syria, citing the OFAC and EU sanctions lift and providing supporting documentation.
- 2026-02-10 — Note. Wise Legal Requests team responded that the legalrequests@ inbox handles only civil information requests and cannot assist with this inquiry. Redirected to Wise support via wise.com/contact
- 2026-02-09 — Verified. Blocking confirmed at two independent layers: (1) Network level — Cloudflare geo-blocks all Syrian IP addresses from accessing wise.com entirely. (2) Application level — even when bypassing the IP block via VPN, Syria is explicitly marked "Unavailable" in the registration country selector and account creation is blocked with the message: "Wise is currently unavailable in Syrian Arab Republic." These two layers mean that Syrians cannot use Wise regardless of whether they use a VPN or not.
- 2026-02-09 — Note. Wise legal requests team confirmed receipt — response expected within 2–10 working days
- 2026-02-09 — Note. Auto-reply received from legal@transferwise.com indicating the inbox is not monitored and requests sent there will not be processed. The reply suggested redirecting to legalrequests@wise.com for third-party requests related to civil proceedings, or legalnotices@wise.com for contract notices.
- 2026-02-09 — Note. Wise still displays the old Ba'ath-era Syrian flag (two red stars) in their country selector and registration flow, instead of the current Syrian flag. This is visible in the registration screenshots where Syria is listed with the outdated flag. This is a significant issue that reflects an outdated and politically insensitive representation of Syria. Separately, Wise has a built-in "notify me when available" waitlist for Syria — when users attempt to register, they can sign up for email notifications: "We'll email you if Wise launches in Syrian Arab Republic." This waitlist mechanism suggests Wise is aware of demand from Syria and has infrastructure ready to notify users if availability changes.
- 2026-02-09 — Evidence Added. Community member in Syria tested Wise accessibility and documented the full blocking experience with 5 screenshots: (1) wise.com is geo-blocked via Cloudflare for Syrian IP addresses — returns "Sorry, you have been blocked" error page. (2) Website loads normally when using a VPN. (3) During account registration, Syria appears in the country selector marked as "Unavailable" — notably, Wise displays the old Ba'ath-era Syrian flag (two red stars) instead of the current Syrian flag. (4) Selecting Syria shows an explicit message: "Wise is currently unavailable in Syrian Arab Republic. Sign up for updates and be the first to know if that changes." The Continue button is disabled. (5) After signing up for updates, a confirmation reads: "We'll email you if Wise launches in Syrian Arab Republic." (evidence: https://api.unblocksyria.com/files/evidence/u1hzntjs5bi0afd84by3pdu0/bx6qwub07i6mw5d8mgp6axfb-1000066054.jpg, https://api.unblocksyria.com/files/evidence/uqf5ktyfq0p9sifum9781z8l/o0djlz9uae797nrrdplswbv8-1000066056.jpg, https://api.unblocksyria.com/files/evidence/bslsi8fwumb02ala661z0bod/zhdoe03h7w8bht2nn8hmnfo6-1000066057.jpg, https://api.unblocksyria.com/files/evidence/p4wc9ta9tn1df8s1tv6c0lu8/npgb07ayqmrvcz9e90a0ztks-1000066058.jpg, https://api.unblocksyria.com/files/evidence/dc24ns7jrmonactxclnzl92b/a5qx9bbotf5s20bxj4mmhhgk-1000066059.jpg)
- 2026-02-09 — Contacted Company. Outreach email sent to Wise at legalrequests@wise.com and legal@wise.com requesting review of Syria IP restrictions under the current post-sanctions legal framework.
- 2026-01-30 — Company Responded. Wise stated that their ability to serve Syria is determined not only by U.S. and EU sanctions, but also by internal risk policies, regulatory obligations, and banking partner requirements. Even where sanctions are lifted, these controls may still prevent support for specific countries.

## Context

These are geo-restrictions the companies applied themselves, not filtering by Syrian ISPs and not a legal requirement. US and EU sanctions on Syria were lifted in 2025. See https://unblocksyria.com/llms.txt for the regulatory summary and https://unblocksyria.com/en/about for citations to the specific orders and regulations.

## Machine-readable

- JSON: https://api.unblocksyria.com/services/wise?locale=en
- Timeline JSON: https://api.unblocksyria.com/services/wise/timeline?locale=en
- HTML: https://unblocksyria.com/en/services/wise
- Other languages: https://unblocksyria.com/ar/services/wise.md, https://unblocksyria.com/ku/services/wise.md