“I am moving to the US from Canada and don't have a US credit score yet. How do I get an apartment when landlords require a good US credit score to rent to me?”
This is manageable: make your history easy to verify, focus on properties that allow manual review, and use your federal report rights if screening hurts your application. Start building a U.S. file in parallel so the same problem is less likely at your next lease.
Your best route depends on whether the property can manually review documents beyond a U.S. score and whether you have someone who can sign with you.
Before applying, ask whether the manager will manually review a free Canadian Equifax or TransUnion report, employment and income evidence, and prior-landlord references. If it still uses a and denies you, raises the rent or deposit, or requires a , 15 USC 1681m and FTC guidance require an notice and access to the reporting company’s free report.
Offer a compact verification package and ask for a manual decision rather than an automatic score cutoff. Be aware that 42 USC 3603(b)(2) exempts certain owner-occupied buildings with no more than four independent households from parts of the federal Fair Housing Act, although other laws may still apply.
If available, ask whether a U.S.-based or employer relocation arrangement will satisfy the written criteria. When a consumer report is part of the reason the landlord requires a co-signer, FTC guidance treats that requirement as an adverse action and requires notice.
Canada’s Financial Consumer Agency explains how to download Canadian Equifax and TransUnion reports, but no fetched official source says that history automatically populates a U.S. file or that a U.S. landlord must accept it. Treat the report as supporting evidence, not a transferred U.S. score.
None of these routes guarantees approval; written screening criteria and destination-specific law can change what a landlord may demand.
These steps create the strongest available application now while protecting you from screening errors and building U.S. credit for later.
Before leaving Canada
Download both Canadian credit reports
Use the Canadian government page at https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/credit-reports-score/order-credit-report.html. Its direct free-report links are https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/personal/products/credit-score-report/ and https://www.transunion.ca/product/consumer-disclosure. Download or print both reports because a U.S. landlord may agree to use them as supporting evidence.
Requirements
Before paying an application fee
Ask for the written screening criteria
Ask the leasing office whether it permits a manual review for a new U.S. arrival and which of your documents it will accept. Submit only where the written criteria offer a realistic route; no fetched federal rule forces acceptance of your alternative documents.
Requirements
After you have U.S. identifying information
Check your U.S. credit reports
Order through https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com, the only website the FTC identifies as authorized for free annual reports. The three nationwide bureaus currently allow one free report from each bureau every week there. If the service cannot locate a file, keep the result for your records; the fetched FTC page does not specify a separate no-file procedure.
Requirements
Within 60 days of the notice
Use the adverse-action notice immediately
If a consumer report was part of a denial, higher rent or deposit, or a co-signer requirement, use the reporting company’s name and contact information in the notice to request your free report within 60 days. The reporting company did not make the rental decision; the landlord did.
Requirements
As soon as you receive the report
Dispute screening errors with the reporting company
Submit the dispute directly to the company that prepared the report and tell the landlord a dispute is pending. FTC guidance says the company generally must investigate and report the result within 30 days, sometimes 45 days; some states impose shorter deadlines.
Requirements
No later than one year after it happened or ended
Report national-origin discrimination to HUD
Use https://www.hud.gov/reporthousingdiscrimination to file with online, or call 1-800-669-9777. Use this route when the evidence indicates the decision was because you are Canadian or otherwise because of national origin—not merely because your U.S. credit file was missing.
Requirements
After arrival
Open one reporting credit-building product
Choose either a or a from a bank or credit union. Pay on time; for a card, CFPB’s checklist advises keeping use at no more than 30% of the total limit and warns against opening too many credit accounts in a short time.
Requirements
You are not the first to go through this. Here is how it went for others who asked the same thing.
u/SeaworthinessDull534r/immigrationNov 14, 2025
This answer relies on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Housing Act, FTC, CFPB, HUD, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
FTC, Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know
The FTC confirms that denial, higher rent or deposit, and a co-signer requirement trigger notice when based partly or wholly on a consumer report.
Adverse Action Procedures
If you reject an applicant, increase the rent or deposit, require a co-signer, or take any other adverse action based partly or completely on information in a consumer report, you must give the applicant or tenant a notice of that fact in writing, electronically, or orally.
15 USC 1681m(a)
Federal law gives an applicant 60 days to obtain a free copy of the report identified in an adverse-action notice.
(a)(4)(A)
(A) to obtain, under section 1681j of this title , a free copy of a consumer report on the consumer from the consumer reporting agency referred to in paragraph (3), which notice shall include an indication of the 60-day period under that section for obtaining such a copy; and
FTC, Disputing Errors on Your Tenant Background Check Report
The FTC states the usual investigation time for a tenant-screening dispute and notes that some states are faster.
Generally, the background check company must investigate your dispute — and tell you the results — within 30 days. In some cases, they may have 45 days. Some states impose shorter deadlines.
42 USC 3604(a)
The Fair Housing Act prohibits refusing or making housing unavailable because of national origin, subject to statutory exemptions.
(a)
(a) To refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.
42 USC 3603(b)(2)
This is the federal Fair Housing Act carve-out for certain small owner-occupied dwellings.
(b)(2)
(2) rooms or units in dwellings containing living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than four families living independently of each other, if the owner actually maintains and occupies one of such living quarters as his residence.
42 USC 3610(a)(1)(A)(i)
A federal administrative housing-discrimination complaint must be filed with HUD no later than one year after the practice occurred or ended.
(a)(1)(A)(i)
An aggrieved person may, not later than one year after an alleged discriminatory housing practice has occurred or terminated, file a complaint with the Secretary alleging such discriminatory housing practice.
HUD, Report Housing Discrimination
HUD provides online and telephone routes for reporting housing discrimination.
How to Report Housing Discrimination
You can Report Housing Discrimination with FHEO online. 1-800-669-9777
CFPB Ask CFPB 2155
CFPB identifies secured cards and credit-builder loans as products that can build a credit history.
Secured credit card – You put in an amount of cash, for example $500. Then, you can spend up to that amount on your credit card. Credit builder loans – You build credit and savings at the same time, through a loan from your bank or credit union.
FTC, Free Credit Reports
The FTC identifies the authorized free-report site and the current weekly access program at all three nationwide bureaus.
Only one website — AnnualCreditReport.com — is authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit reports you are entitled to by law. All three nationwide credit bureaus have permanently extended a program that lets you check your credit report from each once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
FCAC, Getting your credit report and credit score
Canada's financial consumer agency confirms free online access to downloadable Equifax and TransUnion reports.
Get your credit report online
You can access your credit report online for free from Canada’s 2 main credit bureaus: Equifax TransUnion Both credit bureaus allow you to: download or print your credit report see information updated every month
These are the official rules and agency instructions as published or current on the cited dates; rules and access programs can change.
This is general information about official processes, not legal advice, and SettleKit is not a law firm.
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