If you’re working in the US legally, you can buy a house here. Most lenders will do an H1B mortgage — I know them inside and out.

Conventional financing. Same rates. Same process. Slightly more paperwork.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the two entities that back the majority of US mortgages — explicitly permit lending to non-permanent residents on work visas. That means H1B, L-1, O-1, TN, and EAD holders qualify for the same conventional loans that citizens use, with the same pricing tiers tied to the same factors: credit score, down payment, debt-to-income, loan amount.

The differences come down to documentation, not eligibility. Here’s what actually matters:

Valid work authorization. Your H1B I-797 approval notice, EAD card, or green card. Whatever proves you’re legally authorized to work in the US for the foreseeable future.

US credit history. Conventional lenders want to see a US FICO score. The standard floor is 620, but pricing improves at 680, 700, 720, and 740+. Most H1B borrowers I work with have spent 2-5+ years building US credit and are in the 700+ tier by the time they’re buying.

Two years of employment history. The standard is a two-year work history — and it doesn’t have to be two years in the US. Employment before you arrived, in your home country or anywhere else, counts toward the 24 months when it’s documented. W-2 employment in the same field is the cleanest case, and job changes within the same field don’t usually create issues. A gap between visa transitions can — we’ll work through it if relevant to your situation.

Stable income, documented. Recent pay stubs, two years of W-2s, two years of tax returns. The standard package. If you’re at a public tech company with vested RSUs, as little as twelve months of consistent vesting can be averaged into your qualifying income as well — worth documenting whenever it applies.

Down payment and reserves. Same conventional minimums as anyone else — 3% for first-time buyers, 5% standard, 20% to avoid PMI. Down payment funds can come from US accounts, gift funds from family (with documentation), or overseas accounts (moved into a US account and documented before closing). A 401(k) loan is another route, and the payment usually does not count against your debt-to-income ratio.

That’s the complete picture. There’s no “visa-holder mortgage program” with worse rates. There’s no special “foreign national” loan you have to take. If a lender suggests otherwise, you’re probably talking to the wrong lender.

L-1, TN, E-3 and O-1 — and which of them work the same way.

If you are here on an L-1 transfer, a TN, an E-3 or an O-1, the starting point is that underwriting is not sorting you by the letter and number on your approval notice.

It is asking the same two things it asks an H1B holder. Are you here lawfully with authorization to work, and is the income likely to continue. Most employment-based statuses answer both, and they land in the same category — non-permanent resident — which is financeable on conventional terms with the same down payment and the same pricing as anyone else with your credit profile.

Where they differ is duration and rhythm, and that is a document conversation rather than an eligibility one. A TN runs in shorter increments and renews more often. An L-1 is tied to the employer that transferred you, so a job change is a different kind of event than it is for an H1B. An E-3 renews on its own cycle. An O-1 is often the cleanest file of the group and the one a processor has seen least.

That last point is the one worth planning around. The rule is not usually the obstacle — familiarity is. A lender who sees H1B files every week and an L-1 twice a year will ask for more, take longer, and occasionally decline something that fits the guideline perfectly well. As a broker I can put the file in front of someone who has done yours before, which is the same argument as the overlay problem on timing.

If you are on something not named here — E-2, J-1, an F-1 with OPT, or partway through an adjustment of status — it is worth asking rather than assuming. Some of those are straightforward and some genuinely are not, and the difference is specific enough that I would rather look at yours than publish a rule about it.

When buying makes sense — and when it doesn’t.

Most of my H1B and visa-holder clients are professionals in stable industries with strong credit, multi-year US tenure, and a clear path forward. For them, buying a home in the US is a sound financial decision, and the visa status doesn’t change that calculus much.

But it’s worth being honest about the situations where the math gets harder:

If your industry is in a layoff cycle, the visa-status overlay matters more than it does for a citizen. A laid-off H1B worker has a 60-day grace period to find new sponsored employment or change status — a hard timeline that doesn’t exist for citizens. If you’re in a sector going through reorganization right now, that uncertainty is worth weighing before you commit to a 30-year mortgage. Sometimes the right answer is to wait six months and see where things land.

If you’re considering a job change soon, mortgage timing and employment timing interact. Lenders verify employment at multiple points — application, closing, and sometimes after. A job change between application and close can complicate the loan, even when the new job is better. Wait until the new role is established (90+ days), then apply.

If you may relocate internationally within a few years, owning becomes less attractive. You can rent the property out or sell — both are legal options regardless of where you live. But if you are a foreign person for tax purposes when you sell, FIRPTA requires the closing agent to withhold part of the price — up to 15%, less or none on some sales to a buyer who will live there — and that amount is credited against the tax you actually owe when you file. Managing a US rental from overseas also adds complexity. None of this is a deal-breaker, but it’s worth thinking through. Here’s the full breakdown of what happens to the house if your status ends — and the four things worth pricing before you write an offer.

If your down payment would zero out your savings, the same rule applies that I apply to every borrower: you can’t afford this house. Visa status doesn’t change the math on cash reserves — three to six months of housing payment in liquid savings, after closing, is the minimum. If that means buying a smaller house or waiting a year, that’s the honest answer. The affordability calculator will show you the ceiling a lender would allow; the number you should actually buy at usually sits a step below it.

For most H1B professionals I work with, the answer to “should I buy” is “yes, and here’s how to do it well.” Sometimes it’s “wait.” I’ll tell you which one applies to you, not what gets the deal closed faster.