U.S. Accounts

Today marks the first time I've been unable to establish an account for something in the U.S.
Required: U.S. driver's license (mine just expired) AND utility bill showing your name. Supposedly another document (passport) would suffice for the driver's license, but there is the element of proving you're a resident - which could also be faked by paying someone else's utility bill, if you were determined. Would they actually check the passport to see if you were inside the country? Probably not, but just in case, you could get a US driver's license and use that instead - which brings up why the federal government wants uniform standards on the issuance of driver's licenses (and the states have resisted, in part maybe because the feds aren't funding it?)

Otherwise, dealing with existing accounts has been a hassle (my tax forms said Austria, not Australia), but resolvable. Oddly, Australia is not on the list of countries from which an international account can be opened, in spite of the fact that Australia has a treaty to report bank deposits of all US citizens.