Originally Posted by giri26

I understand but I would assume if you are coming on spouse visa, you are coming to join your spouse right or you are joining your spouse who is already having a job? I don't see why someone coming on a spouse visa would need a separate flat or car as soon as they land in the US.

Originally Posted by Pulaski

No, quite a few are coming with their spouse from the UK. It is not unusual to be a US citizen who has not lived in the US for a number of years, since childhood, or indeed "ever". Certainly people in those categories pop up fairly frequently on BE.

Originally Posted by Pulaski

No, quite a few are coming with their spouse from the UK. It is not unusual to be a US citizen who has not lived in the US for a number of years, since childhood, or indeed "ever". Certainly people in those categories pop up fairly frequently on BE.

Originally Posted by aless02

Yup. Our entire family lives in the UK. We're moving to the US. Ergo, we are landing Stateside with no jobs but in need of housing. My husband will have no credit record and mine is low due to delinquent American student loans (they are on schedule now). I can't wait for the uphill battle in finding something that's not an apartment *sarcasm*.

Not really relevant to the thread overall, just showing people shouldn't assume everyone's moving to the US with a $70k+ job waiting for them.

Originally Posted by giri26

I understand that but just having a credit card before moving to US will not improve your chances of achieving any of the things OP has mentioned. Building a credit takes months. I moved to US as a student, did not move there with a job. I was given apartments to rent and was able to sign lease. It is not always required for immigrants to have credit history to secure basic amenities. I remember when I was first taking electric on my name, I was asked for a deposit as I did not have credit history. ....

Originally Posted by giri26

There are lots of people in the US who come new and are able to get an apartment. You need to tell the agency that you are new and have a job and give your employer contact. They would call and check to verify your employment. If every new migrant needed credit rating to get an apartment, most of the H1b people (65000+) will be living in the streets. That is not accurate.

In terms of car loan, yes you might face an issue as the bank would need to do a credit check to approve your loan and yes you need to be there to build a credit history in the US. Some people buy a cheaper car to start off and get the utilities (Gas, Electric, water) on their name and timely payments build credit history. Also when you open an account with a bank and start getting your salary direct deposited, you can talk to the bank to give you a credit card, it might just be $500 limit but you should be able to get it.

I am totally basing all the above on my experience of living in different states in the US for over 14 years. It is not as difficult as people make it seem. US has the most migrants coming in every year, most of them are new and they do not come to US with a AMEX credit card.