Foreign national loans: US property without a US credit file.
The right desk does not require a US credit history. The file is built on your passport, your assets, and the property.
Identity and lawful entry anchor the file.
Foreign income and seasoned assets, documented and translated.
We route the file to desks that price non-resident files.
In short
Key takeaways
- No US credit, SSN, or ITIN needed: identity, credit, income, and assets are each documented through foreign-source alternatives lenders have accepted for years.
- Expect 25 to 30% down as of mid-2026, sometimes more for short-term rentals and condotels.
- On investment purchases, a DSCR structure can replace personal income documentation entirely.
- Selling later means FIRPTA: generally 15% of the gross price withheld at closing under federal tax law. Plan for it going in.
Written and reviewed by the Intel Loans, Inc. lending team · NMLS #2858705Updated July 2026
What this desk looks at
No FICO, no US tax returns, no problem the lane has not already solved. The desk prices the file it can verify.
Where you bank and hold citizenship shapes the desk list.
The largest in any lane here. The matrix carries the ranges.
About twelve months is the common ask.
A US account for payments, opened before closing.
Definitions first
Foreign national or ITIN borrower? The programs are different.
Lenders split international borrowers into two documentation categories, and applying under the wrong one wastes weeks. The split is about where you live and how you can document yourself, not about citizenship paperwork for its own sake.
| Foreign national | ITIN borrower | |
|---|---|---|
| Lives and works | Primarily outside the US | Inside the US |
| SSN or ITIN | Neither required | ITIN required; files US tax returns with it |
| US credit file | None expected | Often thin but present; some programs build from alternative tradelines |
| Income documentation | Foreign employer or accountant letters, or DSCR on the property | US tax returns, bank statements, or W-2-style records under the ITIN |
| Typical down payment | 25% to 30% as of mid-2026 | 15% to 25% as of mid-2026 |
| Typical occupancy | Second home or investment | Primary residence |
This page covers the true foreign national path; the other column has its own guide. Both categories are program-eligibility questions, full stop: the criteria describe documents and residency facts, and lenders apply them uniformly regardless of nationality, as fair lending law requires.
The documentation paths
What replaces the US credit file, item by item
Every piece of a domestic mortgage file has a foreign-source equivalent. This table is the whole checklist; the sections after it explain the two items that generate the most questions.
| File component | What lenders accept | Notes from our desk |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Valid passport, plus the visa or visa-waiver (ESTA) record showing lawful entry | Copies certified at application; names must match across every document |
| Credit | Two to four reference letters from banks or creditors in your home country, or an international credit report where one exists | Letters state the length and standing of the relationship on institution letterhead |
| Income | Letter from your employer or licensed accountant stating position, tenure, and earnings | Translated to English and converted to US dollars; self-employed borrowers use the accountant route |
| Assets | Recent bank statements, typically 60 days, with funds moved to a US account before closing | Large recent deposits get sourced, same as any mortgage |
| Property income (DSCR option) | Appraiser's market-rent schedule or the in-place lease | Replaces personal income documentation entirely on investment purchases |
| US footprint | US bank account opened before closing; entity documents if vesting in an LLC | An EIN for the entity takes days to obtain, not weeks |
Income, two ways
Document your earnings abroad, or let the rent qualify.
Path one: personal income. An employed borrower provides a letter from the employer stating position, years of service, and compensation. A self-employed borrower, which describes most of our international clients, provides the same from a licensed accountant in the home country. Documents get translated into English and converted to US dollars at current exchange rates. Underwriters are comfortable with this; the format has existed for decades.
Path two: the property qualifies. On an investment purchase, a DSCR loan sidesteps personal income entirely. The appraiser’s market-rent schedule is divided by the full monthly payment, and if the ratio clears the program minimum, your income never enters the file. For buyers whose home-country finances are complicated to paper, this is usually the cleaner route, and it is a structure we arrange regularly for international investors. The mechanics live on our DSCR loan guide.
Either way, assets move early. Down payment and reserves need to sit in a US account with a documented wire trail before closing. The transfer itself is simple; the sourcing paperwork on large deposits is what takes time. We tell clients to move funds the week the contract is signed.
An Orlando purchase, start to finish
Hypothetical example for illustration only, not a quote or an offer. A self-employed buyer from abroad goes under contract on an Orlando vacation rental at $480,000.
The file documents identity with passport and ESTA record, credit with two bank reference letters, and assets with 60 days of statements plus the wire. No tax return from any country enters the file.
Holding structure
Vesting in a US entity
Most international investors take title through a US entity, typically an LLC formed in the state where the property sits, a Florida LLC on a Miami condo, say. Lenders on the foreign national side are set up for it: expect to provide articles of organization, the operating agreement, an EIN, and a personal guaranty from the members. The entity does not weaken the loan; it is the standard architecture.
Whether an LLC is right for your tax position is a different question, and it interacts with estate tax treaties and home-country rules in ways that vary buyer to buyer. We arrange the financing around whatever structure your tax advisor recommends; we do not pick the structure for you.
The exit tax rule
FIRPTA: know it before you buy
When a foreign person sells US real estate, federal law (the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act) generally requires the buyer to withhold 15% of the gross sale price at closing and send it to the IRS. Sell a property for $750,000 and $112,500 is withheld on the spot, regardless of your actual gain. Reduced tiers exist under IRS rules: 10% for homes up to $1,000,000 that the buyer will occupy, and zero at $300,000 or below with the same occupancy condition.
The withholding is a deposit, not the final tax. Sellers recover the difference through a US tax return or shrink the withholding up front with an IRS reduced-withholding certificate. None of this is a reason not to buy; it is a reason to line up a cross-border tax advisor early. We flag it here because buyers hear about FIRPTA for the first time at the worst possible moment: the closing table, years later.
The honest part
What this financing costs you
More cash in, and a pricing premium. The 25 to 30% down payment is structural: with no US credit file, equity is the lender’s protection, and pricing runs above what a domestic borrower with strong credit sees. Condotels and short-term rentals push both further. The premium is the price of borrowing in the US at all, and it should be weighed against what your capital earns elsewhere, not against a domestic rate sheet you cannot access.
A smaller lender pool. Only a slice of the non-QM market runs true foreign national programs, and their criteria differ more than domestic programs do. That is genuinely a brokered product: one file, shopped across the desks that actually want it. It is also why we publish this page.
US carrying costs surprise foreign buyers most. Wind and flood insurance, non-homestead property taxes that reassess at purchase, and HOA fees in coastal buildings all land inside your monthly cost, and they run steepest in the coastal markets international buyers favor. Take Florida: budget with our Florida closing cost calculator and read the insurance requirements guide before you fall in love with a building. And if that building is a condo, check its financing status early; our non-warrantable condo guide explains why some coastal towers need a specialist lender no matter who the borrower is.
How the foreign national lane compares
US real estate without rebuilding your life on paper first.
Verified funds and the property do the qualifying.
Second homes and rentals both have desks here.
The market
Most international buyers pay cash. Financing is the edge.
NAR’s 2025 international transactions report counts $56 billion of foreign purchases nationally from April 2024 to March 2025, and 47% of those deals were all cash. Buyers who finance keep capital working at home and close on more property here. We arrange those loans every week.
Where the demand concentrates
Florida alone takes about a fifth of all US foreign purchases, per NAR’s 2025 report; California is second at 15%, Texas and Arizona follow. Demand is nationwide, just concentrated.
Bought all-cash
Nearly half of foreign buyers skip financing, often because nobody showed them the path.
Median foreign-buyer price
Per NAR 2025, well above the US median. Financing stretches a budget furthest at these price points.
Vacation or rental use
Per NAR 2025, which is exactly the use case DSCR structures were built for.
Questions we actually get
Do I need a visa to get a foreign national mortgage?
You need to show lawful presence when you sign, and most programs want a copy of the visa or ESTA visa-waiver record alongside the passport. Common entry types we see on files are B-1 and B-2 visitor visas and visa-waiver entries. Program eligibility turns on documentation, not on where you are from; lenders apply the same criteria to every applicant.
Do I need an ITIN or a Social Security number?
Not for a true foreign national program. Those programs are built specifically for buyers with neither. If you live and work in the US and file taxes with an ITIN, you are shopping a different product, an ITIN mortgage, with its own documentation path and typically lower down payments.
Can my income stay in my home country?
Your income can, your down payment cannot. Lenders verify earnings abroad through employer or accountant letters, and the money you bring to closing needs to land in a US account with a clean wire trail before the closing date. Start the transfer early; international wires plus sourcing documentation take longer than people expect.
Can I buy through an LLC?
Yes, and many international investors do, usually a US LLC formed in the state where the property sits, a Florida LLC, say. The lender will want the formation documents, an EIN, and personal guaranties from the members. Set the entity up before going under contract so title and insurance match from day one.
Will this mortgage build me a US credit history?
Usually not by itself, since many non-QM lenders do not report to the consumer bureaus. If building US credit matters to you, treat the mortgage and the credit file as separate projects: secured cards and credit-builder accounts do that job faster.
What happens with taxes when I eventually sell?
Plan for FIRPTA. Federal law generally requires the buyer to withhold 15% of the gross sale price when a foreign person sells US real estate, with reduced tiers for lower-priced homes the buyer will occupy. The withholding is a deposit against your actual tax, not the tax itself, and refunds or reduced-withholding certificates are routine. Get a cross-border tax advisor before you list, not after.
Tell us the property. We'll map the documentation.
Send the scenario and your home-country documentation picture. A licensed loan officer replies with the programs that fit and the exact checklist, in writing.
This is not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. All loan approvals are subject to credit review, underwriting, and property evaluation. Programs, terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice.
Intel Loans, Inc., NMLS #2858705. Licensed in Florida. Verify our licensing at nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Program eligibility on this page describes documentation and residency criteria that lenders apply uniformly to all applicants. Nothing here is directed at, or restricted to, any nationality or national origin.
Nothing on this page is tax, legal, or immigration advice. FIRPTA outcomes, entity structuring, and visa questions depend on your circumstances; confirm them with qualified advisors.
Worked examples on this page are hypothetical illustrations for education, not quotes or offers. Your figures will differ.