"Can Money From Another Country Pay My Down Payment? What Has to Happen Before Closing Day"

Your down payment might be in Toronto right now, or in a savings account in Lagos, a term deposit in Sydney or a checking account in Munich, in a currency that is not dollars, built over years of work. The home you want to buy is here, and the money that will pay for it is still over there. One short section of the Fannie Mae Selling Guide covers exactly that situation.

Yes. Money you hold outside the United States can pay your down payment, your closing costs and your reserves. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide asks for two things. Your lender needs papers showing the money was changed into U.S. dollars and moved into an account at a financial institution regulated in the United States. The lender also needs to see those dollars in that account before your loan closes.

I'm Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker in Bluffton, South Carolina, originating since 1996, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation, licensed in fifteen states. Both requirements can be finished months before you write an offer. Below is what the guides say, the three documents that carry the money from there to here, and the order to gather them in. Where reserves come up, the word means the savings you still have after the closing, which some loans require you to show.

If you are also living here on a visa, eligibility is a separate question, and buying a home on a work visa covers it. This page is about the money.

What do Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac actually say about money held outside the United States?

Fannie Mae's rule is Selling Guide B3-4.2-05, Foreign Assets, revised 05/04/2022. It opens with the lender's general job, documenting all sources of funds used for down payments, closing costs and financial reserves, then adds two requirements when those funds come from an asset outside the U.S. and its territories. In the guide's own words, those assets require "documented evidence of the foreign assets exchanged into U.S. dollars and held in a U.S. or state regulated financial institution," and "verification of the funds in U.S. dollars prior to the loan closing."

The same section settles the language question. "All documents of a foreign origin must be completed in English, or the originator must provide a translation, attached to each document, and ensure the translation is complete and accurate." It then sends the lender to B3-4.2-02 for large deposits, which matters because the transfer itself will show up on your U.S. statement as one.

Freddie Mac has the same rule, and it also lets the money stay abroad in one situation. Guide Section 5501.3, revised 07/01/2026, says funds from assets outside the United States must be transferred into a U.S.- or State-regulated financial institution and verified in U.S. dollars before the closing. As the alternative, the money can stay where it is when the combined value of those assets is at least 20% greater than the amount needed from them for closing. Freddie's Section 5102.3, revised 08/06/2025, requires every document in the file to be in English or translated, and every foreign currency amount to be converted to U.S. dollars.

Why does the money have to be in dollars, in a U.S. account, before closing?

An underwriter is answering two questions about every dollar you bring to the table: is it yours, and is it available to spend on closing day. Those questions are easy to answer for a balance in a U.S. checking account with your name on it, and much harder for a balance in another country, in another currency, at a bank the lender cannot call.

Your cash to close is a dollar figure on the Closing Disclosure, the final form that lists what you pay at closing. A balance in another currency is a different dollar figure every morning, and the guide wants a fixed amount in dollars the lender can verify against that number. The closing attorney or title company will also want that money wired from your U.S. account, in dollars, ahead of the signing. An international wire arriving the same week can be held by the receiving bank while it reviews where the money came from, and the closing date does not wait for that.

What does "verified before closing" look like on paper?

Three documents, in order, tell the whole story of the money.

1. The statements from the account abroad, showing the balance before the transfer, plus the later statement or transaction record from that account showing the transfer leaving. If a document is not in English, a complete translation is attached to it. Please provide all pages, even if the last page is intentionally left blank.
2. The transfer record. Whether you used your bank's international wire or a currency exchange service, the confirmation is the document to keep, because it shows the amount leaving in the original currency, the exchange into dollars, and the U.S. account it went to.
3. The statement from your U.S. account, showing the dollars arriving. Please provide the complete statement, all pages. It needs to show your name and a deposit that matches the transfer record.

Laid side by side, those three let an underwriter follow the money from another country to your account here, one step at a time. That is the "documented evidence" B3-4.2-05 asks for.

The transfer will almost certainly count as a large deposit. Fannie Mae B3-4.2-02, Depository Accounts, revised 12/14/2022, defines one as a single deposit that exceeds 50% of the total monthly qualifying income for the loan. On a purchase, when funds from a large deposit are needed to complete the transaction, the lender must document that those funds are from an acceptable source. The three documents above are that documentation, and which bank deposits an underwriter asks you to explain has the general rules.

What should I gather, and in what order?

1. The account the money will land in. The file has to show the money arriving in an account that belongs to you, so the account needs to be in your own name, or a joint account with a spouse who is on the loan. An account that belongs to a friend or relative creates the problem described in the next section.
2. The statements from abroad. These are easiest to pull before anything moves. Please provide the complete statements for the most recent two months, all pages, for every account the money will come from. If the bank cannot issue them in English, you will need a complete translation of each document.
3. Transfer limits. Your bank, the exchange service or your country may cap how much can leave in one transfer or in one year, so it is worth asking before you pick a date.
4. One transfer. Each separate transfer is a separate deposit with its own paperwork, so you'll want to move the money in a single transfer where you can and keep the confirmation.
5. The U.S. statement. Once the money lands, please provide the complete statement from your U.S. account showing the deposit, all pages.
6. Pre-approval. When you get pre-approved, please provide the statements from abroad, the transfer confirmation and the U.S. statement together, so the underwriter can review the transfer early instead of under a contract deadline. What pre-approval actually involves explains why a pre-approval built on reviewed documents is how pre-approval works here.

What documents you need for a mortgage walks through the standard list. Money from abroad adds the three documents above to that list.

Which mistakes cost the most time?

Routing the money through someone else's U.S. account. A cousin already has a checking account here, so the wire goes to them and they write you a check. On paper the money now came from your cousin, who has to document a gift they never meant to give. Your own account, opened before the transfer, keeps the paper trail simple.

Bringing cash. Currency carried through an airport and deposited at a branch cannot be traced back to the account abroad, and money with no traceable source cannot be counted toward your closing.

Translating only the summary page. The rule says a translation attached to each document, complete and accurate, so a translated cover page with untranslated transaction pages behind it produces a second request.

Waiting until you are under contract. A purchase contract typically gives you thirty to forty-five days, and an international transfer, the receiving bank's review of it, a bank holiday abroad and a translation each take time out of that window. What actually happens between contract and closing shows how many clocks are already running at the same time.

Leaving reserves abroad and expecting them to count. B3-4.2-05 covers down payments, closing costs and financial reserves together, so on a Fannie Mae file, reserves you want counted follow the same path as the down payment. Freddie Mac also lets the assets stay where they are when they are worth at least 20% more than the amount you need from them. What counts as mortgage reserves explains how reserves are measured once the money is here.

What does this look like on a real timeline?

Numbers below are made up to show the mechanism.

A buyer plans to purchase in the spring. She has the equivalent of about $95,000 in a savings account she has held for nine years abroad, and she wants to put down $80,000 and keep the rest as reserves.

In January she pulls two months of statements from the account abroad. The bank issues them in English on request, which saves her the translation, and confirms she can move the full amount in one wire.

In the first week of February she sends that wire. The confirmation shows the original currency out, the exchange rate applied, the dollar amount in, and her U.S. account number. Five business days later the dollars land, and she downloads the February statement from the account abroad showing the wire leaving.

In March she comes in for a pre-approval with the foreign statements, the wire confirmation and the U.S. statement in one folder. The underwriter sees one large deposit on her February statement and the three documents that explain it. She writes her first offer in April with a file that has already answered the question.

The same buyer, starting in April instead, would be under contract with a thirty-day closing, waiting on a wire and asking a bank in another time zone for statements. The paperwork is the same in both versions, and in the first it was finished before the contract clock started.

What if the money is a gift from family overseas?

The gift rules ask for a gift letter and proof the money moved from the giver to you, and can my parents give me money for a down payment covers both. Because the giver's account is abroad, the foreign-asset rules from this page apply as well. Their statement needs to be in English or translated, the transfer record needs to show the exchange into dollars, and your U.S. statement needs to show the dollars arriving in your own account before closing.

Where to start

Money outside the United States is an ordinary part of a purchase file when the documents are gathered early. Those documents are two months of statements from the account abroad, one transfer with its confirmation, one U.S. statement showing the arrival, and a translation attached to anything that is not in English.

I'm licensed in fifteen states, and the rule is the same in every one of them because it comes from the agency guides. You can see what the numbers look like for your scenario with no credit pull and no account, and when you are ready to talk about your file, please have the documents listed above ready.

Common questions

Can I use money from a foreign bank account for a down payment on a U.S. mortgage?

Yes. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.2-05, Foreign Assets, revised 05/04/2022, allows funds from assets outside the United States for the down payment, closing costs and reserves. The lender needs documented evidence that the assets were exchanged into U.S. dollars and held in a U.S. or state regulated financial institution, plus verification of the funds in dollars before the loan closes. Freddie Mac Guide Section 5501.3, revised 07/01/2026, has the same requirement, and also allows the assets to stay abroad when they are worth at least 20% more than the amount needed for closing.

Do my foreign bank statements have to be translated into English for a mortgage?

Yes. Fannie Mae's B3-4.2-05 says all documents of a foreign origin must be completed in English, or the lender must provide a translation attached to each document and ensure it is complete and accurate. Freddie Mac's Section 5102.3 requires every document in the file to be in English or translated. A translation of the summary page alone does not meet either rule.

How far before closing should I transfer money from overseas for a home purchase?

Well before you write an offer. The foreign-asset documentation applies whenever the money came from abroad, so moving it early does not change what the file needs, only when the review happens. International transfers can take several business days, and the receiving bank's review, bank holidays abroad and translations can add more. When the money lands and is documented before pre-approval, the transfer is reviewed once.

Can my mortgage reserves stay in an account outside the United States?

On a Fannie Mae file, reserves you want counted follow the same rule as the down payment, because B3-4.2-05 covers down payments, closing costs and financial reserves together. Freddie Mac's Section 5501.3 lets them stay abroad when the combined value of the foreign assets is at least 20% greater than the amount needed from them for closing.

My parents overseas are sending my down payment. What extra paperwork is needed?

The gift rules and the foreign-asset rules both apply. You need a signed gift letter and proof the money moved from your parents to you. Because their account is abroad, their statement has to be in English or translated, the transfer record has to show the exchange into dollars, and your U.S. statement has to show the dollars arriving in your own account before closing.