"Can a Foreign National Get a Mortgage on a U.S. Investment Property Without U.S. Credit?"

You live in Calgary and work for an engineering firm there. You have paid the mortgage on your own home on time for eleven years, your savings are with a Canadian bank, and the property you want is a three-bedroom investment home in Savannah, Georgia. You have never lived or borrowed in the United States, so there is no U.S. credit file with your name on it.

Yes. Under Luxury Mortgage Corp.'s Simple Access Non-QM guidelines, version 9.2, a client who lives and works outside the United States can buy or refinance a U.S. investment property without a U.S. credit score. With no U.S. score, the lender underwrites your loan on a 680 score, and the property's rent or your own savings does the qualifying.

I'm Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker in Bluffton, South Carolina, originating since 1996, licensed in fifteen states, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation. Luxury Mortgage Corp. is one of the wholesale lenders I work with. The rules here come from Chapter 13 of its Simple Access Product Suite Underwriting Guidelines, version 9.2, dated July 8, 2026 and revised July 31, 2026. That chapter is on printed pages 105 to 108, and I also use the sections it points to. Other lenders write their own foreign national rules, and this lender can change its own, so please read this as one lender's published program.

Foreign national loans belong to the family of non-QM loans for clients whose files fall outside agency guidelines, and the comparison of which mortgage fits you shows this program beside nine others.

Who counts as a foreign national for a U.S. mortgage?

For this lender, a foreign national is someone who lives outside the United States and works outside it too. The guideline's own words are "Applicants who do not work in or reside in the U.S.", and both halves have to be true for you.

The program is for buying or refinancing an investment property, meaning a home you will rent out. How lenders tell a second home from an investment property covers that line if it is new to you. You can also buy the property in the name of a U.S.-formed LLC or another company you own, under the guideline's separate rules for holding title in a company.

Two groups can't use the program: anyone with diplomatic immunity, and citizens of a country on a sanctions list. Every foreign applicant also goes through a Know Your Customer check, which is Luxury Mortgage confirming who you are before it lends to you. The guideline says an applicant who can't clear that check is ineligible for financing.

What does a lender use instead of a U.S. credit score?

This lender doesn't need a U.S. credit report or credit score from you at all. Your credit history at home doesn't have to be part of the file either, because the guideline says "Foreign credit does not need to be provided, documented, or verified." The rest depends on how much U.S. credit you have.

Your situation	What the lender does
No U.S. credit score	Underwrites your loan on a 680 score
A U.S. credit score	Uses that score for pricing and eligibility
A Social Security number	Pulls a U.S. credit report and reviews it
A few U.S. credit accounts, but fewer than the lender's standard minimum	Reviews that U.S. credit history anyway, so it can't be set aside

The 680 figure comes from the credit section of Chapter 13, Section 13.2. It says an applicant without a U.S. score "will be underwritten based on a 680 FICO score". You can see what that means for you in the lender's foreign national limits chart, Exhibit D, where the "No FICO" line carries the same loan-to-value limits as the 680 line. Loan-to-value is the loan amount as a share of the property's value.

How do you qualify for a foreign national loan without U.S. income documents?

Your pay stubs and tax returns from home won't qualify you here, and neither will a bank-statement loan or income paid to you only on 1099 forms. The guideline lists all three as ineligible for foreign nationals. Your loan qualifies on the property's rent or on your savings instead.

Qualifying on the property's rent

The lender calls this Investor Cash Flow, better known as a DSCR loan, for debt service coverage ratio. The ratio is the property's rent divided by its full monthly payment of principal, interest, taxes, insurance and association dues, which the guideline calls PITIA. The math is covered step by step in how a DSCR loan qualifies an investment property on its own rent.

For a foreign national, the rent needs to cover the payment, which means a ratio of at least 1.000. If it comes up a little short, the lender can go as low as .90 when its chart allows it and you hold six more months of payments in reserve.

If your loan has an interest-only feature, the lender still won't use the interest-only payment to figure the ratio. You don't need a track record as a landlord, because foreign nationals are exempt from the lender's landlord history requirement. The property itself can't be rural or have more than 2 acres of land.

Qualifying on your savings

The other route qualifies you on what you own, using the lender's Asset Qualifier, Method 1. Your money left after closing has to equal 125 percent of the outstanding mortgage debt you are personally liable for, and for a foreign national only mortgages on U.S. properties are counted.

Your statements from home come in their original language and currency, with a certified translation, and the underwriter converts the currency. Any deposit larger than 10 percent of the account's ending value needs a paper trail showing where it came from. The savings you qualify with can stay in an account abroad if the bank holding them is on the lender's Acceptable Institution List, Exhibit A. How each kind of account counts is in the asset qualifier loan that treats savings as income.

Which visas and documents does a foreign national mortgage need?

You'll need a legible, valid foreign passport and a visa showing that you entered the U.S. legally. The visa doesn't need a set length of stay. The eligible visa types are B1, B2, E, F1, F2, G, H, I-1, J1, J2, L, O, P and TN.

Canadian citizens do not need to present a visa. Citizens of countries on the State Department's Visa Waiver Program present their passport and the waiver paperwork instead. Mexican citizens can use a laser visa card, which is both a border crossing card and a B1/B2 visa, or a NAFTA treaty visa (TN, TC, E1 or E2).

Every applicant also files an IRS Form W-8BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status, with the IRS, and a copy goes in the loan file.

When you're ready, please provide your valid passport and your visa, or your Visa Waiver Program paperwork, and a copy of your filed Form W-8BEN. We will also need a complete schedule of every property you own. Please include the type of property, its value, any rental income, any mortgage amount and payment, and the taxes, insurance and association dues on each one, please.

The lender takes your U.S. debts into account to the extent it needs to underwrite the loan. Your debts abroad, including the carrying costs on properties you own there, don't need to be verified.

Anything from your home country comes in its original language and currency with a certified translation. Luxury Mortgage vets the translator you choose, so it helps to check your translator with me before you pay for the work.

How much down payment and reserves does a foreign national loan take?

A 75 percent loan-to-value limit means you put down at least 25 percent. The lender's foreign national chart, Exhibit D on printed page 121, sets these limits for a DSCR loan.

DSCR loan, version 9.2	Ratio of 1.00 or higher	Ratio from .90 to just under 1.00
Purchase or rate-and-term refinance	75% up to a $1.5 million loan, 65% up to $2 million	70% up to a $1.5 million loan, 60% up to $2 million
Cash-out refinance	60% up to $2 million	55% up to $2 million

The only Asset Qualifier table in Exhibit D is labeled for a second home, so if you plan to qualify an investment property on your savings, I would confirm the loan-to-value limit with the lender for your file.

Reserves are the money you still have after closing, measured in months of the new payment. What counts as mortgage reserves explains how an underwriter adds them up. This lender asks for at least 12 months on every foreign national loan, and six more when your ratio is below 1.0 but above .90. Your taxes and all your insurance are also paid through an escrow account, which the guideline makes mandatory.

The money you bring to closing has to be your own, because gifts aren't allowed for foreign nationals. A temporary buydown, which lowers your rate and payment for up to the first three years, isn't allowed on these loans either.

Moving your closing money to a U.S. account 60 days ahead

The money you'll use at closing has to be in a U.S. account 60 days before closing, and the lender looks at where that money came from over the most recent 60 days. Savings you are using for reserves or to qualify can stay abroad if the bank holding them is on the Exhibit A list. If it isn't, that money moves to a U.S. account 60 days before closing too.

You'll also sign an automatic payment agreement, called an ACH agreement, at the closing table. It draws your payment from a U.S. bank account in your name, or in your company's name if the company owns the property. You show the lender that the account is open and holds the first month's payment.

If you live in the United States and your down payment is held abroad, that is a different situation under agency rules, covered in using money from another country for a down payment.

Common mistakes on a foreign national loan

• Planning on gift money from family. Gifts aren't allowed for foreign nationals, so the full amount needs to be yours.
• Moving the closing money late. The 60 days count backward from closing, so the transfer belongs early in your plans.
• Falling in love with a property on five acres. Rural properties and anything over 2 acres are ineligible, even when the rent covers the payment.
• Leaving the U.S. bank account for the last week. The ACH agreement needs an open U.S. account that holds the first month's payment, and you show proof of it.

An example with the numbers worked out

Numbers below are made up to show the mechanism. Suppose you are buying a $400,000 investment property with a $280,000 loan, 70 percent of the price. The full monthly payment comes to $2,800, and the rent is $2,750.

Ratio below 1.000

Monthly rent                               $2,750
Monthly PITIA                           / $2,800
                                        ---------
DSCR                                        0.982

Reserves: 12 months + 6 months         18 months
18 months x $2,800                        $50,400

A ratio of 0.982 is below 1.000 and above .90, so the loan can still work, and your 70 percent loan stays inside the lender's limit for ratios under 1.00. If the rent came in at $2,850 instead, the ratio would be 1.018, and the reserves would be 12 months instead of 18, which is $33,600 instead of $50,400.

Your next step

This program is not priced in the rate tool on the homepage, so the best place to start is a conversation. You are welcome to call me at (843) 765-0000 or email me at jeff@solverya.com. It helps to have the property address, the expected rent, your visa type and a rough idea of where your savings are held.

The guideline points to the lender's rate sheet for the states where this program is offered, so I will confirm it is available where the property is located. Comparing foreign national programs across lenders is what a mortgage broker can do that a single bank cannot, and I'll tell you if another lender's rules fit your file better.

Common questions

Can a foreign national get a U.S. mortgage without a Social Security number?

Yes, with some lenders. Under Luxury Mortgage Corp.'s Simple Access Non-QM guidelines, version 9.2 (July 8, 2026, revised July 31, 2026), a foreign national who lives and works abroad does not need a credit report or credit score. If you do have a Social Security number, the lender pulls a credit report and reviews it.

What credit score is used for a foreign national with no U.S. credit?

Under Luxury Mortgage Corp.'s Simple Access guidelines, version 9.2, an applicant without a U.S. credit score is underwritten on a 680 FICO score. An applicant who has a U.S. score must use that score for pricing and eligibility. Foreign credit does not need to be provided, documented or verified.

How much does a foreign national need to put down on a U.S. investment property?

Under Exhibit D of Luxury Mortgage Corp.'s Simple Access guidelines, version 9.2, the highest loan-to-value on a DSCR purchase is 75 percent, on the smaller loan-amount tier with a ratio of 1.00 or higher. That means at least 25 percent down. The limit is lower on larger loans, on cash-out refinances and below a 1.00 ratio.

Can a foreign national use gift funds for a U.S. property?

Not with this lender. Luxury Mortgage Corp.'s Simple Access guidelines, version 9.2, say gift funds are not allowed for foreign nationals. The money you bring to closing has to be your own.

Does a foreign national need a U.S. bank account to get a mortgage?

Yes, under Luxury Mortgage Corp.'s Simple Access guidelines, version 9.2. The lender requires an ACH agreement, signed at closing, that draws your payment from a U.S. bank account in your name or in the name of the company that owns the property. You show that the account is open and holds the first month's payment.

Nothing here is a credit decision, an approval or a denial. Lender guidelines change, so please confirm what applies to your own file.