I’ve talked to a lot of Canadians recently who are seeking to purchase real estate in the Arizona market. I do want to clarify that the program which they qualify under is officially called the foreign nationals program and is not restricted to Canadians.
You are able to use this loan program as long as you have the ability to travel back and forth between your home country and the United States without any major visa requirements and added paperwork. In other words your home country must be one of the countries listed in the Visa Waiver Program as defined by the US Immigration and Citizenship Services. You can visit their website for more details but the countries eligible are as follows:
Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Citizens of these countries are admitted to the United States for 90 days or less as non-immigrant visitors for business or pleasure without first obtaining a non-immigrant visa. If you are from a country not listed on this list but have long term visas which enables you to travel back and forth then we can certainly take a look at your situation on a case by case situation.
The second major condition of the foreign nationals program is that you must be able to transfer bank funds into the United States. In other words there can not be any currency transfer limits or any kind of restriction in your home country. Be sure to check with your bank to determine rule. But from what I know most of the countries identified in above list have fully convertible floating currencies and there should be no restrictions placed on transferring funds
The final major requirement is that you have a valid passport. And it goes without saying for everyone except Canadians that since you’re flying into the United States you’ll have a valid passport. For those Canadians who like to drive to Arizona, we can certainly use just your drivers license but it may not be a bad idea to have your passport on hand.