Really struggling to secure a house lease ahead of us moving to USA at the end of June

[LHK 10]

My wife (US Citizen) has to leave the UK on 24 June, otherwise she risks overstaying on her UK visa. She has a job offer as part of a transfer within her employer's wider group, so we can provide income now, and the job offer to support a house lease application.

 

I'm a UK Citizen, following the consular processing route and have my visa interview on 16 June. I plan to continue working for my current employer, at least initially.

 

We plan to arrive in the US on July 1, and understandably would like to secure a lease on a home ahead of arriving, so we're not having to stay with family.

 

Combined, we meet the income threshold, but my wife does not if we exclude my income. And therein lies the issue. 

 

We were just refused on our house rental application because I couldn't meet the visa requirements. I understand their decision as it must be fair and applied the same to everyone, but it's frustrating as I could have provided them proof of my visa once stamped in my passport well before we collected the keys.

 

How did everyone else navigate this?

 

From what I understand, they require proof of my valid visa issuance, including my I-94 and Social Security Card. They said I had to meet the ID requirements of the I-9 form. All of these I could provide in future, but clearly will not be able to provide them for at least a few weeks after arrival.

 

We can stay with family initially, but I feel that opens up other issues. Both in terms of privacy, and we wouldn't have anywhere to work, as we will both be working remote roles. There's also the concern that my wife starting her new job, and me finding and starting one for a US employer would then mean we haven't been working for our new employers for long enough to qualify.

[Dashinka 25,515]

Maybe have her secure the lease on her own, then add you to the lease after you enter as an LPR.

 

Good Luck!

[LHK 10]

Thanks for the feedback. The issue is more that she can't meet the 3x monthly rent minimum for the houses we are looking at without my income as well. Which understandably won't count if I am not eligible. Quite the conundrum. My salary can comfortably meet that requirement, but it is of course British. And while I will likely continue my UK job working remotely to begin with, I'm not sure if I could use any of it if I can't be on the lease. 

 

Presumably others have met this requirement by doing exactly as you said -- just applying themselves, but I guess I was hoping there may be alternatives that I hadn't considered that meant both our income could be considered.

[appleblossom 3,955]

We applied for 20+ houses and were refused for every one. Nothing to do with our visa situation (we had green cards), but it was because the rental market is so hot here that landlords can pick and choose between applicants and they simply weren't going to consider people who were outside the US and had no credit score there. And that was despite it being a full expat assignment corporate let so a major US company were going to be signing the lease and committing to pay it! Even when we offered way over the asking price we were refused. 

 

Once you're in the US it should be much easier, so I'd just be prepared to do temporary accommodation to start with. We were in a hotel initially.

 

I'd also suggest you look at local FB groups, that's where we found our house in the end. I put a post up explaining our situation and our landlord reached out and said they were considering renting their house at about the time we were moving. We still had to apply properly for it when it went on the market, but by then she and I had exchanged lots of messages, and they ended up picking us out of all the applicants.

 

Good luck. 

[P055UM 308]

Could a family member of your wife’s act as a guarantor until your paperwork is in order? I realise that is asking a lot but it is a pretty common practice. 

[milimelo 4,629]

Perhaps start off in a long-term corporate housing - like Oakwood or similar for the first couple of months? When we were on short term (but 30 days or more) time in the US I found hotels.com search for more than 30 days would trigger free assistance from a corporate agent who gave me options (I picked hotels at location I was interested and what I needed - kitchen, laundry facilities, parking, breakfast included) and they got me the hotel I wanted but that supposedly didn't have availability when I was on their website. 

[Lemonslice 5,166]

23 minutes ago, milimelo said:

Perhaps start off in a long-term corporate housing - like Oakwood or similar for the first couple of months? When we were on short term (but 30 days or more) time in the US I found hotels.com search for more than 30 days would trigger free assistance from a corporate agent who gave me options (I picked hotels at location I was interested and what I needed - kitchen, laundry facilities, parking, breakfast included) and they got me the hotel I wanted but that supposedly didn't have availability when I was on their website. 

Similarly, OP might want to look at Sonder, Airbnb, or search for "corporate housing" or "short term lease" + city/area location. 

 

I've done it multiple times for work, they usually take credit cards, so the credit check wouldn't matter.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:55 PM by Lemonslice

[NorthByNorthwest 438]

13 hours ago, LHK said:

Thanks for the feedback. The issue is more that she can't meet the 3x monthly rent minimum for the houses we are looking at without my income as well. Which understandably won't count if I am not eligible. Quite the conundrum. My salary can comfortably meet that requirement, but it is of course British. And while I will likely continue my UK job working remotely to begin with, I'm not sure if I could use any of it if I can't be on the lease. 

 

Presumably others have met this requirement by doing exactly as you said -- just applying themselves, but I guess I was hoping there may be alternatives that I hadn't considered that meant both our income could be considered.

 

We had the exact same issue, I ended up prepaying a year's rent just to get past the hurdle of having no credit score or any form of references. Not ideal and not an option in many parts of the country but that was really a last resort. If I were to do it again now I might have looked for a long-term Airbnb instead...

[Coco8 1,052]

I would do an AirBnB or something temporary, like others suggest.

 

Renting remote is a hit or miss as well. Some places have nice photos but end up being a dump when you see it in person. Once you are in the city, I'd suggest avoiding apartment complex that are all rentals, because they tend to have more rules and requirements than when an owner is renting a property they own (or at least I've been able to negotiate and they are more flexible if they like you). 

 

 

[TBoneTX 47,044]

We need even more threads as helpful as this.   

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Yet another idea is to find a real estate agent where you want to live.  Some even specialize in rentals.

However, I prefer other ideas presented above.

[WeekendPizzaiolo 75]

16 hours ago, LHK said:

Thanks for the feedback. The issue is more that she can't meet the 3x monthly rent minimum for the houses we are looking at without my income as well. Which understandably won't count if I am not eligible. Quite the conundrum. My salary can comfortably meet that requirement, but it is of course British. And while I will likely continue my UK job working remotely to begin with, I'm not sure if I could use any of it if I can't be on the lease.

Some apartment complexes will let an applicant sign a lease if they have at least 12-24 months of rent in their bank or brokerage account. I have done this before.

 

I agree with @Coco8 who suggested not renting a place without seeing it first and who also suggested renting from individual owners. Individual owners often are more flexible than large commercial complexes. The leases are often shorter and easier to read too. Often condos (owned by individuals) are bigger than apartments anyway and give more value on a dollar per square foot basis. Zillow will allow you to search for condos and houses for rent.

 

20 hours ago, LHK said:

 

How did everyone else navigate this?

 

From what I understand, they require proof of my valid visa issuance, including my I-94 and Social Security Card. They said I had to meet the ID requirements of the I-9 form.

 

Interesting. The I-9 List A allows a foreign passport with a valid and current I-94 with an endorsement for employment. Since this is not for employment purposes, but for identification purposes for an apartment, I do not see why this endorsement would be necessary. Different apartment complexes might have different policies so you might try another one.

 

 

 

 

[LHK 10]

Thank you for your feedback, everyone, it is really appreciated. We're digesting it and having a good look around. Also exploring a couple of options that have opened up. I believe we could get family assistance but we're keen to avoid this unless absolutely necessary. 

 

Turns out I can pass a credit check and considering I don't have a US income, have a surprisingly good credit rating. Go figure! 

Thank you once again everyone.  

 

 

[TBoneTX 47,044]

10 hours ago, LHK said:

exploring a couple of options that have opened up.

For the benefit of future readers in the same predicament, let us know what you end up with and how you did it!

[LHK 10]

Of course, I just didn't want to get the cart before the horse, so to speak. But regardless of our outcome, it may help others.

 

We were fortunate enough to learn of a house up for private rental through a member of my fathers-in-law local church. The personal connection meant we could get an introduction from someone they trusted and the opportunity to then have a conversation with the landlord before formally applying.

 

What I also learned last night was that I could pass a US credit check. I was not aware this would be possible but in doing so, it meant I passed the credit check during filling out of Zillow's application process for the house in question. Having spoken some bit with the landlord, I came to realise that private landlords like services provided by Zillow because they handle all the contract drawing up, and also the payment element as well.

 

We're still awaiting an outcome from our application but at least we know that should we need to, we have 30-days to also use the results of our application with any other letting on Zillow where offered by a private landlord.