Foreign National Mortgage and DSCR Loan 2026: Terms by Lender

Who a lender means by “foreign national”

The phrase covers two groups that lenders treat very differently, and NAR splits them the same way. Its Type A buyers are non-U.S. citizens with permanent residences outside the U.S.; its Type B buyers are recent immigrants (under two years) or non-immigrant visa holders who live in the U.S. for more than six months. In NAR’s 2026 estimate Type A bought 29,500 homes and Type B bought 37,600.

A foreign-national DSCR program is built for the first group. Quontic describes its loan as “exclusively for borrowers who don’t live or work in the United States,” and LoanStream defines a foreign national as “a non-resident alien who is not authorized to live or work in the U.S.” If you live in the U.S. on a visa, the lender will probably put you in another box (an ITIN or non-permanent-resident program; A&D Mortgage lists a separate ITIN program with a 660 minimum score and up to 80% CLTV). Our page on DSCR loan requirements covers the standard U.S.-borrower rules. This page covers only what changes when the borrower lives abroad. It does not give immigration or tax advice.

Seven lenders’ foreign-national terms, side by side

Every cell below is the lender’s own statement, from the document and date shown. Several are wholesale programs that only mortgage brokers can submit. None of them is a rate quote.

Three things stand out.

The best published leverage (75%) is a wholesale number. A&D, LoanStream and Forward Lending all sell through brokers, and Forward’s 75% applies only in its smaller loan tiers. The two lenders that read like retail (Quontic, HomeAbroad) publish either no program-specific leverage or a flat 25% down. The only lender we found that markets directly with a lower figure is Quontic, and its “as little as 20%” comes from a general FAQ on the same page, not from a foreign-national rule. Our Quontic review states the foreign-national figure as 80% LTV; the Quontic page we saved does not support that program-specific number, so treat it as a question for a loan officer.

Bigger loans get less leverage. A&D’s matrix drops from 75% at $1,000,000 to 50% at $3,000,000 for DSCR purchases at 700+, so a $3,000,000 loan means a property of about $6,000,000 and roughly $3,000,000 down (our arithmetic: 50% LTV). Our A&D Mortgage review covers the lender itself.

“Foreign national” does not mean “anywhere.” LoanStream’s eligible list names Canada, the Caribbean (excluding Cuba), China (excluding Hong Kong, “as permitted”), Europe (excluding Russia), Japan, Latin America (excluding Nicaragua) and South America (excluding Venezuela). Forward Lending uses the same list and adds that “Citizens or individuals from countries subject to OFAC sanctions are not eligible.” A&D uses a broader test: residents of any country “not permitted to transact business with US companies” are ineligible. Forward also notes two state laws (Texas SB 17 and Arizona SB 1082) that restrict loans to certain foreign-linked borrowers; we did not read the statutes, so ask a lender or attorney whether they reach you.

Down payment and reserves: what the cash looks like

Take a $400,000 rental. The figures below add the down payment and the reserves; closing costs, appraisal and translation fees are extra. Reserves use an assumed $2,300 a month for principal, interest, taxes and insurance, which is our hypothetical, not any lender’s number.

The spread between the cheapest and the dearest of these is $53,800 on the same house (our arithmetic: $167,600 minus $113,800). It comes entirely from two published choices, leverage and months of reserves, so it is worth asking each lender for both before comparing rates. For the standard U.S. rules see what a DSCR loan is.

Documents. The lists agree more than the leverage does. LoanStream asks for a valid passport and, unless your country is in the Visa Waiver Program, a valid visa or an I-797 with an I-94. A&D asks for a passport and unexpired visa (or legal presence on the note date) and one bank reference letter, and says no U.S. credit score is required. LoanStream wants a 12-month credit rating from an internationally known bank in your country if you have no U.S. credit, and still runs a U.S. tri-merge report to confirm there is none. Funds are the slow part: A&D says overseas assets must be “sourced and seasoned for 30 days,” and HomeAbroad asks for 60 to 90 days on reserves.

If the property will sit in a company, the rules differ by lender: Quontic says U.S. corporations and LLCs are accepted, and A&D’s matrix allows an LLC or corporation with at most 4 owners, all of whom must be borrower and guarantor. Our DSCR loan in an LLC page explains the guarantor rules for the standard market.

What NAR’s 2026 survey says about cash and financing

NAR’s 2026 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate (news release July 29, 2026) covers April 2025 to March 2026.

The split changes the picture. If 67% of Type A buyers paid cash, then about 33% financed, which is roughly 9,700 of 29,500 homes; at 32% cash, Type B financed about 68%, roughly 25,600 of 37,600 (our arithmetic from NAR’s rounded shares). That makes about 35,300 financed purchases, 52.6% of the total and consistent with NAR’s cash share, and it puts about 72% of the financed foreign purchases with buyers who already live in the U.S. The loan products in the table above serve the smaller group: NAR’s estimate implies something like 9,700 financed purchases a year by buyers living abroad, though not all would use a DSCR loan.

Treat these numbers as survey estimates. They come from Realtors’ most recent closed foreign-buyer deal, 381 respondents in all, weighted by NAR; the report itself says it counts buyers and properties interchangeably. We did not find a public loan-level count of foreign-national DSCR loans, so the NAR split is the nearest public measure.

FinCEN: what the rule did, and where it stands

The question readers ask is whether a cash or LLC purchase by a foreign buyer must be reported to FinCEN. The answer changed in 2026.

When it applied, the rule reached a transfer only if four conditions held: residential property; a non-financed transfer; a transferee that is an entity or trust; and no exception. A transfer is “non-financed” unless the buyer gets credit secured by the property from a lender that has both an anti-money-laundering program and a duty to file suspicious activity reports. FinCEN’s FAQ adds that a lender without that program and duty makes the deal count as non-financed, and that a single buyer who puts down 50% and takes a mortgage is not reportable. It set no price threshold. So a foreign buyer using an LLC with all cash was inside the rule; a buyer in their own name was not, and a financed purchase from a regulated lender was generally outside. The filer was a “reporting person” involved in the closing, not the buyer.

Two caveats. We did not find a Fifth Circuit ruling on the appeal, so the status could change; and the GTOs, which required title companies to report entity cash buyers in covered metros, were set to expire on February 28, 2026, with no later renewal found. Separately, FinCEN’s beneficial-ownership (BOI) final rule, effective August 14, 2026, exempts domestic reporting companies, so a U.S.-formed LLC does not file a BOI report whoever owns it; see our LLC for rental property guide.

The tax paperwork the sources mention

This is only what the IRS pages state, not tax advice. The IRS says the buyer or closing agent generally withholds “15%” of the amount realized when a foreign person sells a U.S. real property interest (FIRPTA); the $300,000 exception turns on the buyer using the property as a residence. A nonresident alien’s U.S.-source “FDAP” income is taxed at a flat 30% unless a treaty rate applies, and the IRS gives income from real property that you “choose to treat as effectively connected income” as the case in which you file a return to claim deductions. Form W-8BEN is what a foreign beneficial owner gives a withholding agent or payer. Which of these applies to you depends on your country, structure and treaty, so ask a U.S. tax professional before you sign a purchase contract.

What a reader can do with this

1. Decide which box you are in. Living and working abroad points to the programs in the table; living in the U.S. on a visa usually means an ITIN or non-permanent-resident product, which this page does not rank.
2. Ask each lender for four numbers in writing: maximum LTV at your loan size, months of reserves, whether overseas assets count and how long they must be seasoned, and whether your country is on its list.
3. Price the cash, not just the rate. On the $400,000 example the published terms differ by $53,800 before closing costs (our arithmetic).
4. Check who the lender is. A&D, LoanStream and Forward Lending take loans only through brokers; Quontic is a bank. Our DSCR lender legitimacy checks show how to read the regulator records.
5. Do not buy because of a FinCEN deadline. The rule is vacated for now; confirm the current status with your title company at closing.

The two lenders below publish foreign-national programs on pages we saved. Quontic lends directly; A&D takes loans only through brokers. We checked Kiavi’s home, FAQ, rental and DSCR pages and found no statement about foreign nationals, so we have not listed it here.

Limits of this page

Lender guidelines are marketing and broker documents; where a document is dated we show the date, and where it is not (CoreVest, Quontic) we show the day we read it. Terms change without notice, and the exact figure for your file depends on score, property type, state and loan size. NAR’s survey rests on 381 Realtors and its two cash figures disagree by a point. The mortgage disclosure data (HMDA) has no foreign-national flag, so we could not measure how many such loans close. Nothing here is investment, legal, immigration or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources: the National Association of Realtors’ 2026 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report and July 29, 2026 news release; FinCEN’s Residential Real Estate Rule FAQs (issued May 18, 2026), its October 2025 geographic targeting order release and the Federal Register final rule at 89 FR 70258 (August 29, 2024) and 91 FR 52508 (August 14, 2026); IRS pages on FIRPTA withholding, taxation of nonresident aliens and Form W-8 BEN; lender documents: A&D Mortgage foreign national page and matrix (updated August 28, 2026), LoanStream Wholesale webinar (January 2026), Forward Lending DSCR matrix (February 10, 2026), Spectrum DSCR matrix on FundLoans (August 1, 2026), CoreVest and HomeAbroad pages (August 14, 2026) and Quontic’s foreign national page (Internet Archive copy), all read October 20, 2026; Kiavi’s website pages read the same day. Lender terms are the lenders’ claims. Arithmetic is ours. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, immigration or tax advice.