however require the aircraft to be shipped to the US initially to get the certificate
No.
I have recently been flying an aircraft in Thailand which came from Belgium. Whilst located in Belgium it was transferred from D registration to N registration. The CofA work for this was done by Rectimo aviation in France who have FAA mechanics, etc.
You will however, need a US address or entity to own the aircraft. This seems to be commonly done through Delaware based shelf companies.