You can rent or pursue conventional home financing on H-1B status, but FHA is unavailable to you as non-permanent residents and job-loss risk should drive the choice.
“My boyfriend and I are both on H-1B visas living in the Bay Area with a combined income of $250K+. We're thinking about our future and wondering: how does being on an H-1B visa affect the decision and process of buying a house versus renting?”
Resumen
The immigration-specific financing picture is manageable: a conventional Fannie-eligible loan can work, while FHA cannot. The harder question is whether you want a long-term joint obligation when both incomes depend on employer-sponsored status.
Your H-1B status leaves renting and conventional financing open, but it changes the available loan programs and makes employment-related exit risk especially important.
California generally prohibits a landlord from asking about or requiring statements concerning your immigration or citizenship status. The landlord may still request documents needed to verify your identity and financial qualifications [Source 5].
Fannie Mae permits mortgages for lawful borrowers under the same terms available to U.S. citizens. The lender must determine that you are legally present using documentation it considers appropriate [Source 1].
If the desired loan exceeds your county’s 2026 one-unit limit, it becomes a rather than a Fannie-conforming route. The Bay Area limits vary from $832,750 in Solano to $1,249,125 in six core counties [Source 6].
HUD removed eligibility for borrowers across FHA Title II forward and HECM programs for case numbers assigned on or after May 25, 2025 [Source 2].
Buying is a housing and financing decision, not a path from H-1B status to a green card [Source 13].
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Watch out for
Próximos pasos
These steps turn your immigration, financing, ownership and tax risks into a practical rent-versus-buy decision.
Before viewing homes
Stress-test one-income and job-loss scenarios
Use the shorter of 60 days or the affected person’s remaining authorized validity as the current regulatory ceiling after qualifying job loss; the period is discretionary, generally permits no work and is proposed for removal [Sources 3–4]. Do not make a mortgage affordable only if both paychecks continue without interruption.
Requisitos
Before choosing lenders
Match the desired loan to the county limit
For a one-unit home, compare the requested loan—not the purchase price—with the 2026 county limit: $1,249,125 in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara; $1,017,750 in Napa; $897,000 in Sonoma; or $832,750 in Solano [Source 6]. Above that amount, use the branch rather than assuming Fannie rules apply.
Requisitos
Before closing
Set ownership and exit terms in writing
Select the deed ownership form and make it consistent with a written co-ownership agreement covering contributions, sale, buyout and departure from the United States. This matters because California generally makes available as of right unless a valid waiver applies [Sources 9–10].
Requisitos
Once you have a property address
Request conventional Loan Estimates
Submit the same six CFPB data points to each lender. Each must provide a within three business days and cannot require a purchase agreement or income-verification documents merely to issue it; separately, Fannie leaves the precise lawful-presence documentation to the lender [Sources 1 and 11].
Requisitos
Before accepting a loan
Calculate ownership costs and tax treatment
For each person, apply the : at least 31 current-year days and a weighted total of 183 across the current and prior two years, counting all current-year days, one-third of the prior year and one-sixth of the second prior year [Source 7]. If resident for tax purposes, count mortgage interest only if that person owns the home, is liable for and pays the secured debt, and will ; add California’s 1% base property-tax rate, voter-approved bond charges and other quoted ownership costs before comparing the total with rent [Sources 8 and 12].
Requisitos
Fuentes legales
This answer relies on the current eCFR, HUD, FHFA, Fannie Mae, USCIS, IRS, CFPB and California official sources.
Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-2-02
Lawfully present non-permanent residents can use Fannie-eligible financing, with the lender choosing the status evidence.
B2-2-02
Fannie Mae purchases and securitizes mortgages made to non–U.S. citizens who are lawful permanent or non-permanent residents of the United States under the same terms that are available to U.S. citizens. Fannie Mae does not specify the precise documentation the lender must obtain to verify that a non–U.S. citizen borrower is legally present in the United States. The lender must make a determination of the non–U.S. citizen’s status based on the circumstances of the individual case, using documentation it deems appropriate.
HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-09
New FHA case numbers are unavailable to non-permanent-resident borrowers.
Effective Date; Affected Programs; Summary of Changes, pages 1–2
The provisions of this ML may be implemented immediately but must be implemented for FHA case numbers assigned on or after May 25, 2025. The provisions of this ML apply to all FHA Title II Single Family forward and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) programs. This ML removes the Non-permanent Residents sections in its entirety, eliminating eligibility for non-permanent resident Borrowers, and updates the residency requirements for U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Resident Borrowers.
8 CFR 214.1(l)(2)
The current regulation supplies only a short, discretionary H-1B job-loss grace period.
(l)(2)
An alien admitted or otherwise provided status in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 or TN classification and his or her dependents shall not be considered to have failed to maintain nonimmigrant status solely on the basis of a cessation of the employment on which the alien's classification was based, for up to 60 consecutive days or until the end of the authorized validity period, whichever is shorter, once during each authorized validity period. DHS may eliminate or shorten this 60-day period as a matter of discretion. Unless otherwise authorized under 8 CFR 274a.12, the alien may not work during such a period.
91 FR 57807; DHS Docket USCIS-2026-0364
DHS has proposed ending the grace period, but this notice is not a final rule.
Document details; Dates; Purpose
The purpose of this proposed rule is to remove the availability of the up to 60-day discretionary grace period from the regulations at 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2). Written comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) must be submitted on or before November 10, 2026.
California Civil Code 1940.3
California protects renters from immigration-status inquiries while allowing identity and financial screening.
(b)(1)–(2); (c)(2)
Make any inquiry regarding or based on the immigration or citizenship status of a tenant, prospective tenant, occupant, or prospective occupant of residential rental property. Require that any tenant, prospective tenant, occupant, or prospective occupant of the rental property disclose or make any statement, representation, or certification concerning his or her immigration or citizenship status. Requesting information or documentation necessary to determine or verify the financial qualifications of a prospective tenant, or to determine or verify the identity of a prospective tenant or prospective occupant.
FHFA 2026 Conforming Loan Limits
The official 2026 county table shows that one-unit conforming limits vary across the Bay Area.
California county rows; one-unit limits
06,001,ALAMEDA COUNTY,CA,41860,"$1,249,125 ","$1,599,375 ","$1,933,200 ","$2,402,625 " 06,013,CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,CA,41860,"$1,249,125 ","$1,599,375 ","$1,933,200 ","$2,402,625 " 06,041,MARIN COUNTY,CA,41860,"$1,249,125 ","$1,599,375 ","$1,933,200 ","$2,402,625 " 06,055,NAPA COUNTY,CA,34900,"$1,017,750 ","$1,302,900 ","$1,574,900 ","$1,957,250 " 06,075,SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY,CA,41860,"$1,249,125 ","$1,599,375 ","$1,933,200 ","$2,402,625 " 06,081,SAN MATEO COUNTY,CA,41860,"$1,249,125 ","$1,599,375 ","$1,933,200 ","$2,402,625 " 06,085,SANTA CLARA COUNTY,CA,41940,"$1,249,125 ","$1,599,375 ","$1,933,200 ","$2,402,625 " 06,095,SOLANO COUNTY,CA,46700,"$832,750 ","$1,066,250 ","$1,288,800 ","$1,601,750 " 06,097,SONOMA COUNTY,CA,42220,"$897,000 ","$1,148,350 ","$1,388,050 ","$1,725,050 "
IRS Publication 519 (2025)
Visa category and federal tax residency are separate; tax residency depends on a day-count test.
Taxation of Resident and Nonresident Aliens; Substantial Presence Test, pages 1 and 4
Resident aliens are generally taxed on their worldwide income, the same as U.S. citizens. You are a resident for tax purposes if you meet the substantial presence test for calendar year 2025. To meet this test, you must be physically present in the United States on at least: 1. 31 days during 2025; and 2. 183 days during the 3-year period that includes 2025, 2024, and 2023, counting: a. All the days you were present in 2025, b. ¹/3 of the days you were present in 2024, and c. ¹/6 of the days you were present in 2023.
IRS Publication 936 (2025)
Mortgage interest is conditional, and unmarried co-borrowers claim only their respective paid shares.
Pages 2 and 10
You can’t deduct home mortgage interest unless the following conditions are met. You file Form 1040 or 1040-SR and itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040). The mortgage is a secured debt on a qualified home in which you have an ownership interest. If you and at least one other person (other than your spouse if you file a joint return) were liable for and paid interest on a mortgage that was for your home, and the other person received a Form 1098 showing the interest that was paid during the year, attach a statement to your paper return explaining this. Show how much of the interest each of you paid, and give the name and address of the person who received the form. Deduct your share of the interest on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 8b, and print “See attached” next to the line.
California Civil Code 682–683
California law recognizes multiple ways for two people to own property.
Sections 682–683
The ownership of property by several persons is either: (a) Of joint interest. (b) Of partnership interests. (c) Of interests in common. (d) Of community interest of spouses.
California Code of Civil Procedure 872.710
One co-owner may generally seek partition unless a valid waiver applies.
(a)–(b)
(a) At the trial, the court shall determine whether the plaintiff has the right to partition. (b) Except as provided in Section 872.730, partition as to concurrent interests in the property shall be as of right unless barred by a valid waiver.
CFPB Loan Estimate guidance
Six basic data points trigger a Loan Estimate without a signed purchase agreement or income documents.
Lenders are required to provide you with a Loan Estimate once you have provided: your name, your income, your Social Security number (so the lender can pull a credit report), the property address, an estimate of the value of the property, and the desired loan amount. Once you’ve submitted the request, each lender is required to send you a Loan Estimate within three business days. Lenders cannot require you to provide additional information. For example, you do not have to provide a home purchase agreement or documents verifying your income in order to get a Loan Estimate.
California BOE Proposition 13 guidance
California purchase budgeting must include the base property-tax levy, local bond debt and the assessment-growth rule.
Proposition 13
Limited the property tax rate to 1 percent plus the rate necessary to fund local voter-approved bonded indebtedness; In most cases, limited future property tax increases to a maximum of 2 percent per year. A property's base year value is the market value of real property as established in 1975 or when the property last changed ownership or underwent new construction.
USCIS EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
A personal home purchase does not meet the stated EB-5 commercial-investment and job-creation conditions.
Make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States; and Plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.
These are the official rules as published on the cited dates; immigration, mortgage and tax rules can change.
This is general information about official processes, not legal advice; SettleKit is not a law firm.
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