Before you take this loan, check that you need it.

A home loan for someone who files US taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number instead of a Social Security Number. The lender keeps the loan on its own books, because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not buy it — which is the entire reason the rate and the down payment are higher. Everything else is an ordinary mortgage: you own the home, you build equity, you can sell it, and you can refinance out of it.

No. An ITIN mortgage does not require permanent residence, a visa, or work authorisation. The lender is underwriting your ability and willingness to repay — filed returns, documented income, credit history, reserves — not your status. We are a mortgage broker and not an immigration adviser, and for anything touching your status you should speak to a qualified attorney.

File Form W-7 with the IRS, normally alongside a tax return. It is a tax identifier and nothing more: it grants no work authorisation and affects no immigration status. Most people obtain one through a Certifying Acceptance Agent or an accountant, and it usually takes several weeks.

Yes, and materially. Expect roughly 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points above a conventional rate. On a $1,000,000 loan at 8.75% against a conventional 6.75%, the difference over thirty years is about $497,168. That is not a reason to avoid the loan if it is your only door. It is a reason to be certain that it is.

Possibly — and it is the first thing we check, before anything else. FHA permits non-permanent residents holding a valid Employment Authorization Document and a Social Security Number to borrow on the same terms as anyone else: 3.5% down, market rates. If that is you, an ITIN loan is simply the wrong product, and it would cost you roughly $283,913 more on a $600,000 loan for no benefit whatsoever. The tool on this page checks it in two questions.

Typically 15% to 25%. This is usually the real obstacle rather than the rate — on a $750,000 home, 20% is $150,000 in cash before a single closing cost. If somebody tells you an ITIN loan can be done at 3.5% down, they are describing a different loan.

A thin file is not a dead file. Many ITIN lenders will build an alternative credit profile from twenty-four months of documented, on-time payments — rent, utilities, phone, insurance, even regular remittances. Bring the cancelled cheques and the statements; a landlord's verbal reference will not carry it on its own.

Only if it was filed. This is the hardest sentence on this page, and it stops more good borrowers than anything else. If the money never appeared on a tax return, an underwriter cannot use it, however real it is and however long you have earned it. Two years of filed returns is the spine of the entire file.

Yes, and you should plan for it on day one. If you obtain a Social Security Number and work authorisation, you refinance into a conventional or FHA loan and the premium stops. We write that exit into the plan before you sign the first loan — not four years afterwards.

Some lenders allow it, usually with a larger down payment and heavier reserves. If the property is a rental, a DSCR loan is often the better structure — it qualifies on the rent the property produces rather than on you, which sidesteps the income-documentation problem entirely.