I am currently an international student. Thanks to this forum, I have learned a lot about leases.
At this moment I am leasing a Toyota Corolla. However, I am thinking about getting BMW once I am done with this vehicle.
I heard that BMW Financial does not offer lease to international students on F1 visa. Can anyone shed some light on this topic?
Also, just in case they do not, would it be possible to lease it with a cosigner? I have an aunt living in NY who is a citizen and she would be willing to do it for me.
Thank you for sharing this. That’s what I thought as well.
I am now wondering if I can get around this by having a cosigner.
Feels pretty bad that I won’t be eligible for leasing a BMW myself.
Lol. Recently got rejected by BMWFS because of this. If & when you get your H1B, then you’ll be able to lease a BMW.
It might work with Co-signer, I didn’t try that angle though.
Yes. I helped a friend’s sister who is on F-1 get a 330E from out of state and her consignor was a US citizen. No issues. Ultra Tier credit though for both individuals.
That’s good to know.
I talked with BMWFS and they said the VISA status does not matter in getting approved.
Either way, if cosigning works, I should not really worry about getting approved.
I was in the same boat couple years ago when I got my first BMW. You would need a co-signer probably for your first BMW loan/lease and for the next ones, they won’t ask you any questions.
I haven’t tried getting anything yet, I am actually planning to get a car sometime in August/September.
From what I can tell from experience, if you have a decent credit history, you will be able to sneak in to get a lease - they won’t even bother checking your immigration status. Without a decent credit history, you might need to have a cosigner.
Would you mind sharing how your credit history was when you first tried to lease a BMW? I am just trying to get some data point to see if my assumption (mentioned above) is correct or not.
I had an email conversation with @BMW_Dave and he said bmwfc most likely will reject me bc my visa expires before the lease term. Anyway, I am looking to lease an Audi as they have a special program for foreign professionals.
your best bet is to have a co-signer, or else buy the car and sell it after you’re done with it. BMW doesn’t want to lease you the car because they’re assuming too much of the risk. With a resident, permanent or citizen, there is less risk of that person running away from the lease agreement and moving back home to their motherland (because the USA is their residence and where they decided to setup shop and live and work).
BMW is simply saying, if you do run away from this lease agreement, how am I going to find you? Hence the need for a co-signer. At the end of the day its all about risk and BMW financial has chosen to mitigate the risk by asking for a co-signer.
To answer your other question/assumption, even if you do have good credit, you probably don’t have an Auto FICO score from one of the big three credit agencies. For example there is Experian Auto 8 and some other ones. Thus, they’ll look at your credit history and realize its a risk that BMW Financial will not take on.
If you’re still dead set on it, it doesn’t hurt to try. Although, be mentally prepared to accept the fact that you’ll most likely be rejected.
Thank you for sharing well-informed opinion, I appreciate it.
As for Auto FICO score, I am pretty sure my score would be decent as I have been leasing a Corolla for around 3 years already.
The reason I am saying BMW might overlook is because someone PM’d me and said they were able to sneak in without being asked of immigration status and lease a BMW on F1 status.
One thing that always baffles me is that the same risk is also associated if I finance the car, and they are not very strict about financing. Or maybe BMWFS is, I just need to get a bank to finance me. Not sure about that.
Most likely Limited credit history than being on a F1 or H1. The credit bureaus are not ICE, and wouldn’t know your current status. I’m assuming a Permanent Resident who just got their SS# recently will encounter the same problem.
Unless this is just a BMW issue, I have met people with an established credit history thru a TIN who did not have an issue with Leasing / Financing a vehicle, or getting a mortgage.
TIN does not build credit. Its only an identification number for tax filing purposes. Eg. Dependent who is not a us citizen or resident but legally in US and you support them.
For TIN you only get a letter from the IRS which says this is your TIN number. You don’t get an actual Social Security Card.
I have some experience with BMWFS and immigration status a long while ago.
When BMW runs credit check, they have a fraud detection process built in. For immigrants the age of ssn(how long ago that ssn was issued) will always be less than the actual age of the person vs native born where the ages match. This triggers a fraud alert for your application and rest is risk based assessment. In my case, they gave me a loan with a balloon payment vs a regular loan, no cosigner. My monthly payment was very less, about half of a regular loan on same car with a 30k balloon payment in 36months, so don’t know how that mitigated risk. My FICO was close to 765-800 back then but it didn’t matter to them.
What most people don’t know is ssn’s are not that hard to find out. First 5 digits are Based on simple algorithm of place and year of birth the last 4 digits are random and hard to find but ironically those 4 digits are the ones that are used liberally and not masked. I found this out when I researched during that BMW fs ordeal.
