Home Financing for Visa Holders and Non-U.S. Citizens
You do not necessarily need to be a U.S. citizen to qualify for a mortgage and purchase a home in the United States.
Many borrowers who are lawfully living and working in the United States on an H-1B visa or another eligible immigration status may qualify for mortgage financing.
At Capital Funding Mortgage, we welcome qualified borrowers of all nationalities and backgrounds.
Your country of origin does not determine whether we want to work with you. Mortgage eligibility is based upon factors such as your lawful residency or immigration status, documentation, employment and income, credit history, assets, property, and the requirements of the particular mortgage program and lender.
I’m John Madden, owner of Capital Funding Mortgage, and I have been helping borrowers obtain mortgage financing for more than 25 years.
If you are working in the United States on an H-1B or another qualifying visa, we can help determine which lenders and mortgage programs may be available to you.
Yes.
Many H-1B visa holders may qualify for conventional mortgage financing if they meet the applicable immigration-status, income, credit, asset, and underwriting requirements.
H-1B borrowers commonly work in fields such as:
A borrower does not automatically need a Green Card or U.S. citizenship to obtain a conventional mortgage.
The important issue is whether the borrower meets the residency and documentation requirements of the loan program and the lender.
Capital Funding Mortgage welcomes borrowers from countries throughout the world who have the appropriate documentation and otherwise qualify for financing.
We regularly encourage borrowers to contact us regardless of nationality.
You may have been born in:
Your nationality itself is not what determines your mortgage qualification.
What matters is whether your immigration or residency status is acceptable for the mortgage program and whether you meet the financial requirements for the loan.
Depending upon the lender and mortgage program, financing may potentially be available to borrowers holding various lawful immigration statuses.
These may include borrowers with:
Not every lender accepts every immigration status.
Guidelines can also change, so we review the borrower's actual documentation and match the borrower with lenders whose current requirements fit the situation.
Exact requirements vary by lender, but an H-1B borrower should generally be prepared to provide documentation covering several areas.
Depending upon your situation, the lender may request items such as:
An H-1B worker generally has employment authorization through H-1B status itself, so an Employment Authorization Document is not normally the primary work-authorization document for an H-1B borrower.
The specific lender determines which documentation it requires to establish acceptable residency and immigration status.
An expired visa stamp does not necessarily mean that your lawful U.S. status has expired.
For example, an H-1B borrower may have updated USCIS documentation and a valid I-94 showing authorized status even though the visa stamp in the passport reflects an earlier date.
Mortgage lenders evaluate the complete immigration documentation rather than relying upon one document alone.
If your situation involves:
contact us before assuming that you cannot qualify.
We can review the documents with the prospective lender to determine what will be required.
This is an area where lender requirements can vary significantly.
Some lenders may want documentation showing:
One lender's requirements may be more restrictive than another's.
This is one reason using a mortgage broker can be especially helpful for visa-holder borrowers.
H-1B borrowers generally need to document stable qualifying income just as other borrowers do.
Depending upon the mortgage program and underwriting findings, documentation may include:
The lender must determine that the income used for qualification is stable, properly documented, and reasonably expected to continue.
Changing employers does not automatically prevent an H-1B borrower from getting a mortgage.
However, the lender may need to review:
If you are changing employers while buying a home, tell us early in the process.
It is much better to address the documentation before you are under contract than immediately before closing.
Visa holders generally must meet the credit requirements of the mortgage program being used.
The lender may evaluate:
Many H-1B borrowers have already established a substantial U.S. credit history.
If you have only recently arrived in the United States and have a limited U.S. credit history, contact us so we can determine whether any available lenders offer an appropriate solution.
Mortgage lenders generally require appropriate taxpayer identification.
For many H-1B borrowers, this will be a Social Security number.
The exact identification requirements can depend upon the mortgage program and lender.
Having a Social Security number by itself, however, does not establish immigration eligibility. The lender may still require documentation of lawful residency or immigration status.
You will also generally need to document the funds being used for your transaction.
This may include:
Lenders commonly request recent account statements and may need documentation explaining certain large deposits or transfers.
Potentially, but additional documentation may be required.
If funds are being transferred from another country, the lender may need to verify:
International transfers can take additional time to document.
Tell us early if any portion of your down payment, closing costs, or reserves is currently held outside the United States.
Depending upon the mortgage program, qualifying borrowers may be permitted to use eligible gift funds.
The lender may require documentation of:
If the gift funds will originate outside the United States, additional documentation may be necessary.
There is no single down payment requirement that applies to every H-1B or visa-holder borrower.
The amount can depend upon:
Eligible non-permanent resident borrowers may be able to obtain standard conventional financing without automatically being required to make an unusually large down payment simply because they are not U.S. citizens.
We can compare available options based upon your specific circumstances.
A qualifying visa holder using a standard conventional loan should not assume that a special "foreign borrower rate" automatically applies simply because the borrower is not a U.S. citizen.
Loan pricing generally depends upon factors such as:
However, lender overlays and specialty programs can differ.
We compare the actual financing available rather than making assumptions based upon nationality.
Conventional financing is often one of the first options we evaluate for an eligible H-1B borrower.
Depending upon the transaction and qualifications, conventional financing may provide:
Eligibility is still subject to the applicable lender and program guidelines.
Mortgage programs do not all have the same residency requirements.
Under current FHA policy, non-permanent resident borrowers generally are not eligible for new FHA-insured financing.
Therefore, an H-1B borrower who is a non-permanent resident will generally need to consider conventional financing or another eligible mortgage program rather than assuming FHA financing is available.
Mortgage regulations and lender requirements can change, so we verify current eligibility when reviewing your application.
H-1B professionals frequently purchase higher-priced homes, making jumbo financing especially important.
Jumbo lender requirements can vary considerably.
Lenders may differ regarding:
One jumbo lender may accept a borrower whom another lender will not.
Capital Funding Mortgage can compare multiple wholesale lender options.
Self-employment can make the mortgage analysis more complex, particularly when combined with non-permanent residency.
The lender may need to evaluate:
Additional mortgage options may be available depending upon the circumstances.
We recommend speaking with us early if you are both self-employed and a visa holder.
Lawful permanent residents generally have broader conventional mortgage eligibility.
A Green Card holder who otherwise qualifies may typically be evaluated under the same standard mortgage criteria applicable to other eligible borrowers.
The lender will still require appropriate evidence of permanent residency.
A true foreign-national borrower is different from an H-1B or other non-permanent resident who lawfully lives and works in the United States.
Someone who resides primarily outside the United States and does not have U.S. residency status may require a specialized foreign-national mortgage program.
These loans may have different:
If you do not currently reside in the United States, contact us and we can determine whether an appropriate foreign-national program is available.
Although every situation is different, an H-1B or other visa-holder borrower can make the process easier by gathering the following:
Additional documentation may be required depending upon the lender and your individual circumstances.
Visa-holder borrowers can benefit significantly from obtaining a detailed mortgage pre-approval before making an offer.
We can review your:
This gives us an opportunity to identify potential documentation issues before you have entered into a purchase contract.
One of the biggest challenges for visa-holder borrowers is that lender requirements are not always identical.
A borrower may speak with one bank and be told that financing is unavailable because of:
That does not necessarily mean every lender will reach the same conclusion.
As a mortgage broker, Capital Funding Mortgage works with multiple wholesale lenders.
We can review your circumstances and determine which lenders may have guidelines that fit your situation.
Capital Funding Mortgage helps eligible visa-holder borrowers purchase and refinance homes throughout the areas we serve in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
This includes borrowers purchasing homes in:
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are home to professionals and families who have come to the United States from countries throughout the world.
We welcome the opportunity to help qualified borrowers understand their mortgage options.
If you take one thing away from this page, it should be this:
Do not assume that you cannot purchase a home simply because you are not a U.S. citizen.
For an eligible borrower, the important considerations are documentation, lawful residency status, employment and income, credit, assets, property, and the requirements of the mortgage program.
At Capital Funding Mortgage, we welcome borrowers of all nationalities and backgrounds who meet the applicable program requirements.
If you have the proper documentation, let us review your situation before you assume that financing is unavailable.
If you are living and working in the United States on an H-1B or another qualifying visa, contact us before beginning your home search.
We can help review:
Contact John Madden at Capital Funding Mortgage to discuss H-1B and visa-holder mortgage options in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
With more than 25 years of mortgage experience and access to multiple wholesale lenders, our goal is to help qualified borrowers understand the financing available to them—regardless of where in the world they were born.
Capital Funding Mortgage
Welcoming qualified home buyers of all nationalities and backgrounds.
