Getting a US Mortgage on a Work Visa: What Almost Nobody Tells You

There is a misunderstanding that costs Latin Americans who moved to the United States tens of thousands of dollars, and it is this: believing that not being citizens puts them in the foreign buyer bucket, with 30% down and higher rates.

It does not. And the difference is enormous.

If you live in the United States on a valid visa and have a Social Security number, you are not a "foreign national" in the eyes of the mortgage system. You are a resident for credit purposes, and you qualify for the same conventional and FHA programs as a citizen. On a USD 400,000 property, walking through the right door instead of the wrong one can mean putting down USD 20,000 instead of USD 120,000.

Why the confusion exists

The confusion is understandable, because it blends two concepts that look alike and are not the same: immigration status and credit status.

What matters to the US mortgage system is not your passport but three things: whether you have a Social Security number, whether you reside in the country, and whether you have local credit history. An Argentine on an L-1 visa, with two years working in Miami and a credit card paid on time, meets all three. An Argentine living in Buenos Aires who visits three times a year meets none, and for them the foreign national programs exist, which I cover in the foreign national mortgage guide.

The practical problem is that many visa holders never ask. They assume the foreign buyer treatment applies to them, or someone mentioned it in passing, and they size their budget around a 30% down payment that is not theirs to carry.

Which visas qualify

Broadly, any valid non-immigrant visa that allows you to reside and work in the country works, as long as you have a Social Security number:

• H-1B — professionals in qualified employment. The most frequent case and the simplest to document, because there is an employer, pay stubs and W-2s.
• L-1 — intra-company transfers. A common profile among Latin American executives.
• E-2 — treaty investors. Requires documenting income from your own business, which adds a step but does not change your access.
• O-1 — extraordinary ability.
• TN — Mexican and Canadian professionals under the trade agreement.
• Green card (permanent residency) — terms identical to a citizen's, with no caveats.

Which programs you access

Here is the concrete difference against the foreign national package:

	Visa holder or resident	Non-resident foreign national
Minimum down (primary home)	From 3.5%	25% to 30%
Down payment (investment)	From 20%	25% to 30%
Rate	Market	Somewhat above
Documentation	Pay stubs, W-2, tax returns	Home country documentation
Programs	Conventional, FHA, jumbo	Foreign national, DSCR

FHA is the lowest down payment route, at 3.5%. It is designed for primary residences — not investment — and requires a valid Social Security number and residence in the country. In exchange for the low down payment you pay monthly mortgage insurance, which has to be factored into the math.

Conventional starts at 3% to 5% for a primary home and lets you drop mortgage insurance once you reach 20% equity. For investment the down payment rises to 20% or 25%, but even there you are better off than a non-resident foreign national.

The three points that actually matter

Your visa making you eligible does not mean the process is automatic. What they really evaluate:

1. Income continuity. The comfortable standard is two years of documented employment history. Less is workable too, especially on an H-1B in stable employment with an employer letter. If you are on an E-2 living off your own business, they look at returns and financial statements, so it pays to have the books in order well before you buy.

2. Local credit history. This is the one people neglect most on arrival. A US score is built through time and behavior: you need months of history to have a usable number. If you just arrived and plan to buy within a year, opening a card — even a secured one — and paying it on time is probably the best use of time available. If you have no score yet, programs exist that build the profile from non-traditional history: rent, utilities, insurance. They are a real alternative, though on less favorable terms.

3. Status validity. Reasonable continuity of your immigration situation is assessed. A near-term expiration does not automatically disqualify you if a renewal is pending or you have a history of renewals, but the timing is worth planning. If your renewal is about to be resolved, sometimes waiting a few weeks beats submitting the file at the worst moment.

The napkin-math mistake

It is worth seeing the full number, because the down payment is not the only item that changes.

Take a USD 400,000 primary home in South Florida, comparing the two paths:

As a non-resident foreign national (30%)

• Down payment: USD 120,000
• Closing costs (5%): USD 20,000
• Cash to close: USD 140,000

On a work visa, via FHA (3.5%)

• Down payment: USD 14,000
• Closing costs (5%): USD 20,000
• Cash to close: USD 34,000

That is USD 106,000 of difference at the moment of purchase. The trade-off is a higher monthly payment — you finance far more principal and pay mortgage insurance — and that is where the math depends on your case: if you have surplus liquidity and want the lowest possible payment, a high down payment makes sense; if you would rather preserve capital for another deal or for your business, a low down payment is a valuable tool you should not discard out of ignorance.

You can model both scenarios in the mortgage calculator, changing the down payment percentage and watching the payment and cash to close move.

Renting has an opportunity cost

A calculation I run often with clients who arrived recently: if you are paying USD 2,800 in rent in Doral, Weston or Brickell, that money builds nothing. With a mortgage, part of every payment amortizes principal and the rest buys cost stability, because your principal and interest payment does not get adjusted for inflation the way rent does.

This is not a universal recommendation — if your visa is about to expire, if you do not know what city you will be in three years from now, or if you have no reserves, renting is the sensible choice. But it deserves the math, not an automatic dismissal based on assuming you "do not qualify."

What to do now

If you live in the United States on a visa and you are paying rent, the concrete step is finding out what down payment you actually have access to before you size your budget. The pre-qualification tells you in three minutes, or tell me your case and we will look at your numbers: visa, time in the country, income and score.

What is not worth doing is continuing to budget around a 30% that probably does not apply to you.