Personal Loans for H1B Visa Holders: Your Best Options

The best personal options for H-1B visa holders are from lenders who accept visas as a form of residency document. Lenders don’t ask for a visa document if you are a US citizen or a Green Card Holder, but they will ask for one if you are on a non-immigrant visa like H-1B.

Because of your temporary stay, lenders may decline because they think you may take the loan and return to your home country. Even though it doesn’t happen that often, lenders are cautious about lending to visa holders.

The good thing is that you can check your rate with 100+ lending partners without impacting your score. Many of these lenders accept applications from H-1B visa holders.

Benefits of Personal Loans for H1B Holders

For the H1B holder, getting a personal loan offers a host of benefits while living in the U.S.:

Build Credit

One of the biggest advantages of getting a loan as an H1B holder in the U.S. is that it’s an opportunity to establish and build credit. For a lot of visa holders in the U.S., a lack of credit history can limit access and availability to lines of credit.

Get Settled

As an H1B holder just arriving in the U.S., there will be a lot of large expenses upfront:

• car
• apartment
• relocation-related costs

The problem for a lot of visa holders is that they arrive in the U.S. work, but don’t receive their first paychecks for several weeks or more after beginning. A personal loan is a quick way to offset these costs so that you can live comfortably and get settled in the U.S.

Take Advantage of Better Interest Rates

Another great thing available to H1B holders who come to the U.S. is the opportunity to refinance. Many visa holders have high-interest loans in their home countries that can be a financial burden. But in the U.S., better interest rates are available for H1B holders. Refinancing your loan with the right American lender could save you thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a loan.

Why Most Lenders Don’t Lend to H1B Visa Holders

When trying to take a loan as an H1B visa holder in the U.S., you may have noticed that the options are limited. The truth is that most lenders don’t want to lend to immigrants. Their reasons vary, but the most common ones are:

• Your visa
• Your temporary status
• Your limited credit history

Virtually all American lenders make it a point not to work with visa holders. For them, H1B visa holders are considered “high-risk” because visa holders travel outside of the country which, to them, means you might leave the U.S. and never pay back your loan. If you were considering or have applied for a Discover personal loans for non-U.S. citizens, then you were likely denied for this reason.

It doesn’t stop there, though. Even lenders who claim to be visa holder-friendly make it very hard for immigrants to access lines of credit and loans. Take for instance the DCU personal loan for H1B visa holders. On the surface, it seems like a loan designed specifically to meet the needs of H1B holders in the U.S. But once you realize that a credit score is a major factor in their decision process, you understand that new immigrants to the U.S. are essentially ineligible, as most visa holders have no U.S. credit history.

How to Get a Personal Loan on an H1B Visa

It’s very likely as an H1B visa holder that you are a freshly graduated student with extraordinary abilities, but little-to-no credit experience in the US.

Being a student means you are likely too young to have had a chance to build your credit score, and being an immigrant means that you haven’t been in the States long enough.

There are ways for H1B visa holders to get an H1B loan. Despite the lack of credit experience, you are wanted in America, and there are lenders out there who will look at your comprehensive personal profile when deciding on whether to give you a loan.

1. Online Lenders

Banks often see only your credit score. They are the traditional source for loans so they can afford strict standards.

One of your best bets is to go online and do some research. Some online lenders are competing with banks who are willing to look at your comprehensive personal profile.

Stilt

Stilt is one such lender that is designed to help immigrants and students. They are a reputable online lender that provides H1B loans by looking at your comprehensive personal profile, instead of judging you based on your credit score. Stilt’s partners specialize in helping underserved populations so factors like your recent employment and salary may lead to reasonable rates. With Stilt and its partners, you can expect loans ranging from $1,000 to $40,000, with annual rates that start at 7.99%.

SoFi

SoFi provides personal loans to non-permanent resident aliens, including H-1B visa holders, with loan amounts determined by financial history, income, and debt levels. Eligibility requires a minimum two-year validity on immigration status, physical presence in the U.S., a U.S. address, and availability in all 50 states plus D.C. Applicants must have a minimum credit score of 670 and be employed, have sufficient alternative income, or possess a job offer starting within 90 days. The company evaluates applications based on these criteria to ensure borrowers meet their financial and residency requirements.

Avant

Avant is a competitive online lender that upon acceptance, pays you within a day. The only issue is that they focus is on credit scores within the 600 to 700 range, not those without credit experience or 600 or below credit scores. Additionally, they operate with the speed of a payday loan. Loans from Avant can be anywhere from $2,000 to $35,000, although their APRs start at about 9.95%.

2. Credit Unions

Credit unions are in place to help certain classes and demographics of people get financial assistance. They are membership-based, and if you are an immigrant of a certain ethnicity, then you may find this to be a useful alternative to a bank.

Because credit unions cater to specific demographics, they may be more inclined to take into account comprehensive personal profiles. However, credit unions have a finite pool of resources that they can distribute to their membership; this means that many credit unions come with higher interest rates for personal loans. And, even though they’re more lenient than banks when giving out loans, they still don’t take into account as many factors as Stilt does.

3. Use Your Employer as a Co-signer

In most cases, foreign workers or students will have difficulty finding a co-signer. Students in need of a student loan or immigrants in need of a personal loan have not made the social connections needed to find a co-signer with a solid credit history.

Students surround themselves with young people, most of whom are in a similar position as them with regards to having little credit experience.

In the case of immigrants, they often have not been in the country long enough to network with possible co-signers.

However, in the case of H1B visa holders, their employer is almost a built-in co-signer. Their employer is already sponsoring their work visa, so they have a vested interest in the success of their employee.

They are likely to understand that you will need an H1B loan and do not have a credit score. So that they may be willing to help you get a personal loan, you need to have a residence and a vehicle, i.e. be comfortably settled in and productive.

Read More

• H1B Mortgages in the U.S.
• H1B Student Loan: How to Fund Your Education While on an H1B Visa
• Auto Loans for H1B Visa Holders

Conclusion

As an H1B visa holder, you are a non-permanent resident who is in the U.S. because a company has hired you for your extraordinary ability. You may be a foreign national who was a grad student in the US, went back to your home country, and is returning to work in the States.

The H1B visa makes you a temporary resident. Payday loan outfits and banks typically shy away from non-permanent residents without a credit score. This can be daunting for a foreign worker who needs a personal loan to finance their start in the U.S.

There are options for you. There are online lenders who will cater to you specifically, like Stilt.

By taking into account your comprehensive personal profile instead of treating you like your credit score, online lenders may see the fact that you have been recruited to work in the US for a reason.

If you get your employer to cosign for you, you may be able to secure a personal loan for favorable interest rates.

Frank Gogol

I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

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