karenbuk

We are moving to the US in 3 weeks. Husband is a UK citizen who has an IR-1 Visa; I am a US citizen who has been living in UK 19 years.

We were pre-approved for a mortgage by HSBC about a month ago, I went to the States 2 weeks ago and found a house to purchase. We have started the mortgage process and last night we were informed by HSBC that they won't release the funds until the actual Green Card arrives - which could take months. The documentation from the US government states that the Visa in the passport is endorsed at the POE and acts as a temporary I-551 Green Card until his plastic Green Card arrives.

We have sent an email to HSBC advising them of this, but are panicking a bit at the moment because if they won't accept this then plans for the house will fall through.

Anybody else been through this and have advice? We are not adverse to using another lender. We went with HSBC because we have been Premier customers for years, have our current mortgage with them and they have been great for all of our UK needs.

Many thanks in advance for advice. I need to pop out for a bit so won't be able to respond to anything for a few hours.

Pulaski

HSBC service in the US sucks, big time! They also got fined a HUGE amount of money for, among other things, not properly identifying and documenting the identity of their customers, so getting them to budge on the lack-of-a-green-card issue might be very difficult.

If you have jobs and a decent downpayment you might do better to look elsewhere. There have been a number of reports here on BE of recent, sometimes very recent, immigrants having good success getting a mortgage from Wells Fargo.

Noorah101

The I-551 endorsement carries exactly the same as the plastic I-551. Whether HSBC can be convinced or not, I don't know.

Rene

petitefrancaise

Wells Fargo have an international department that can approve a mortgage based on your non US financial situation. I used them and so have others on this forum and I certainly got a good mortgage deal.

I'll pm you.

boltonreddave

My wife arrived on L1 End Feb, I followed on L2 end of March. We got approved for a Mortgage with Advancial Credit Union. We completed on our house yesterday :

username.exe

Look for a decent broker who has experience in getting mortgages for Ex-Pats. I don't believe I had to present a copy of my green card to get a mortgage here.

karenbuk

Thank you for all of your responses and thank you petitefrancaise for the name of number of the Wells Fargo guy who I am going to ring today.

The whole immigration process has gone so smoothly and I wondered where the hiccups would come.

slices

I was impressed that Wells Fargo would even talk to me before I moved, unfortunately didn't get past the first phone call because I'm working on a contract basis.

agent welsh

We are in talks with them to, Petitefrancaise gentleman is great.

karenbuk

Just to update, we have been in touch with petitefrancaise's gentlemen at Wells Fargo who appears to have saved the day, and has saved us a fair amount of money as well! After today's seismic shift in the economy, we are thrilled!

This website is fab! Thanks for your help everyone!

Pulaski

Glad to hear that it appears to be working out for you.

sparky82

This post is very informative, we have also been dealing with HSBC and have a pre-approval but were not informed of a requirement to hold a green card before any funds are issued. I will call HSBC tomorrow as we would like to place an offer on a house in the next couple of days.

I would be very grateful if karenbuk or petitefrancaise would be able to pm me with the contact details of the Wells Fargo gentleman that has been so helpful.

Thank you!

Pulaski

You need three posts to be able to send and receive PMs.

Please note it is against the BE site rules to post just to get PM privileges.

I will alert PF to your request.

petitefrancaise

Sparky82 I've sent you a pm. If you don't get it then maybe you need to say hello?

Welcome to BE!

ubernathan

FWIW we got a mortgage from a local bank. There are a lot of Europeans here, and the bank was completely on board with people having 'strange' credit histories.