Renting Your First U.S. Apartment Without a U.S. Rental History

Understand where the gap comes from

Many leasing offices meet applicants who have rented responsibly in another country and arrive without records in the format a U.S. application usually expects, such as overseas landlord references or income documents issued abroad. Having a clear approach for these applications helps your team respond consistently and can give these applicants a fair path through your process.

Because accepted documents and criteria vary from one property to the next, it helps to decide ahead of time which records your written policy accepts from all applicants, including records that come from outside the U.S., so your onsite team can explain the same standard plainly the first time someone asks.

Apply the same written criteria to every applicant

Fair housing laws protect applicants from different treatment based on national origin, so it helps to apply the same written screening criteria to each applicant regardless of national origin, citizenship, or immigration status, and to have fair housing counsel review your policy and any state or local rules before your team uses it.

Your team should avoid asking applicants about their immigration status or requesting a particular document, such as a passport or visa, only from applicants who appear to be from another country, and should apply any identification requirement the same way for everyone. 

Decide how your team will verify housing history

When an applicant has rented before, your policy might allow contact details for prior landlords or property managers who can confirm tenancy dates and payment history, along with copies of past leases, rent receipts, or account statements, wherever that history took place.

Deciding in advance whether you accept translated documents, how you handle applicants who previously owned their home, and which records can stand in for a U.S. rental reference helps keep the answer consistent across your team and can save applicants from gathering paperwork that will not help. 

Set clear guidance for employment and income documents

Some applicants may bring an offer letter, an employment contract, recent statements, or income from outside the country or from more than one source, so outlining which of these your policy accepts and how your team will treat them can make reviews more predictable.

Asking applicants to submit financial and identity documents through your secure process helps protect their information, and confirming in writing that your property accepts a range of identification documents, as your policy and screening provider allow, for all applicants can help your team avoid giving conflicting answers. 

Prepare your team for the common questions

Applicants whose records come from outside the U.S. tend to ask which documents you accept, whether you can verify a landlord reference in another country, how long verification usually takes, and what options exist if they need additional backing, so giving your onsite team written answers to these questions helps keep the message consistent from one team member to the next.

Overseas references can also be harder to reach because of time zones or contact methods your team cannot verify, so asking applicants for the reference's time zone and preferred contact method up front, and having a fallback for when a reference does not respond, can help keep these files from stalling.

Offer a clear option for additional backing

If your property accepts a personal or institutional guarantor, explaining how the option works, what it costs the applicant, and which providers you accept can give applicants a clear choice while making sure they still understand the full rent and charges they will owe, and offering that option on the same terms to any applicant who meets your written criteria for it keeps the process consistent. 

A consistent process with clear next steps can help your team review applications from people without a U.S. rental history fairly and keep qualified applications moving toward a signed lease.

Some properties work with Cosign, an institutional guarantor that offers a rent guarantee, as one more option for qualified applicants who do not yet have a U.S. rental history.

Book a Demo here.