TBH, using VPN/VPS may have been part of what got you declined. People travel, that's fine. Many banks associate VPN with scammers and fraudsters. A US VPN is riskier than a Bali or Bahamas hotel wifi IP address.
If you have a US SIM card with data roaming, check if it gives you a US IP address, and apply with that connection.
You can rent virtual PCs but most of them will come with US datacenter IP addresses, which will look like a VPN connection.