Rental Tips for International Students and Workers

Are you planning to rent your place to international students and workers? Below are some tips and forms needed to be able to do so.

Forms needed during the application process

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A person who wants to study or work in the United States would need to apply to either their school or through their job and obtain different international workers or student forms.

The most common forms that we see are I-20 and F- 1 for students or J-1 for employees. Other variations are possible, but these are the most common ones.

International students and workers usually have to submit these forms to the government or to the schools that they go to. They also need to prove that they are who they are and that they have enough funds for both their tuition and their housing/rent.

If they are applying for a work visa, such as the J-1, they must apply through their employer. Their employer is going to state and guarantee that they have a job from a certain time frame.

In addition, they have to re-apply for these forms every year. Sometimes, even multiple times throughout the year since they update frequently.

When we look at an application and there is an I-20 form, J-1, or F-1, what ends up happening is that we look at the length of the period in which it covers. If it only goes to a certain time frame, let’s just say May 31st of the year, but the lease goes until September 1st, the student or employee might leave the country because they don’t have a guaranteed school or work.

For students, it might cover multiple years so it might cover you for a long time but be wary if you don’t see the actual duration of it as it might not be able to cover your entire lease.

Funding on house rent

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The second important thing is the house rent, it’ll show how much money that they have allocated towards housing for the year or for the period on which the form states.

Let’s just say they have $18,000 over the year, that gives them about $1,500 a month. Is the rent more than that? If it is, how are they going to pay for the difference? Then there’s an additional line item on this paperwork, they usually will cover things like:

• family funding

• additional income

• more savings

Most of the time, renters who come from wealthy families have a budget for their education, they have the financial means to be able to come to the United States, and pay for expensive tuition and housing.

And then of course, with any type of work visas these questions should be asked:

• What’s the time period in which they are going to be able to do work?

• How much are they making?

• How much will they be able to have to be able to spend on both housing and food?

If you or anyone else you know is looking to rent an apartment to international students or workers, and are looking for a property manager that understands the ability to be able to both work with them, qualify them, and make sure that they are good for you to actually have in your unit as a resident, please think of Green Ocean Property Management, where you get more than a property manager, you get peace of mind.