Leasing for foreigners

Is leasing somehow connected with residency or avaliable for foreigners also.i am basically spending over half year from every year in CA,money not a issue but missing residency.
Thanks a lot

Do you have a valid work permit and social security card?

It depends on whether you have established credit or not. Without an SSN/credit history, they won’t even lease to the Queen of England :slight_smile:

If money is not an issue, just pay cash for a car. Why even consider lease?

TURO…?? That should fit your needs and you can always have something different.

I can speak to Volvo only, but leasing is available to foreigners with an SSN, work visa, and job letter for a term up to the expiration of the visa. Zero or minimal credit history is not a problem, but bad existing credit will wreck the deal. Proof of residency will be required- either a utility bill or a lease agreement. I don’t think they concern themselves with what portion of the year you’re in the US.

Are you in California over half the time? Do you have your own place?

I have leased as a foreigner since I arrived almost 20 years ago, it’s possible if you have a SSN and a visa or other authorization to be in the US until the end of the lease. Now your first lease can be a mess if you don’t have an established credit so expect to pay more than someone with good credit. There are a few manufacturers that make it easier without credit, I know ford used to look up previous leasing records overseas and American Express used to transfer a card from overseas to the US as a way to establish credit quickly.

If money is not an issue, I’d just rent a car. I did it for 9 months whilst establishing credit in the US and honestly it wasn’t too bad. I had to exchange the car a lot because I was being cheap about it PLUS I actually enjoyed switching the car out every couple of weeks.

The bigger rental companies can have some decent models in inventory now - It’s not all just base model Camry’s and Nissan Versa’s (though there’s still a lot of them) With a healthy budget you could also look into longer term rentals - most of the agencies offer it.

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Back in the days Honda denied me but Kia had no issues. So it depends on lender.
You’ll need to have good credit history and SSN/ITIN of course.

Honda leases to people with good credit, Kia leases to people with a pulse

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I don’t have any experience in this but maybe they would consider a 1-pay to someone with little credit history because you’re effectively prepaying the whole lease. I still think you will need a SS#.

Not really. Even for 1 pay, they need to have good credit. I have had people denied by GM who were willing to do 1 pay and these guys did have credit but it was just too fresh (less than 6 months) .

Depends on the lender. With Volvo, zero or little credit is okay if the applicant has a SSN, Visa covering the time frame of the lease or green card, and job letter. Bad credit won’t fly.

when i got my first BMW i had little credit history and they agreed to lease to me if i put a significant downpayment which is what i ended up doing which is why I thought maybe a 1-pay might work but it might not or it might be brand specific.

I honestly would rent a car for 6 mo from the Hertz Fun Collection (if money is not an issue which he said himself), get a secured credit card start building some credit history and then lease a car next time he comes back to the US.

Another option might be for someone with good credit to cosign on the car.

I started with paying cash for a used car and selling it. I would pay $5-6K and then sell it after a year for $4-5k. I lost an average of $1-1.5k but hey, only pay liability for like $1200 a year instead of comprehensive ins for $3k. Saving a lot of money. For my first lease, i got a co-signer who’s my cousin and Jrep doesnt even care whats on my credit report. But then thats when i was ready to pay almost $8k/year of lease+Insurance for a jeep gc laredo worth $26k. Talk about expensive TCO.

BMW FS has an international executive program. Have to have a work visa, proof of income, passport, bank account info and the term of your lease or loan has to be less than or equal to the time left on the work visa.

WIth Volvo, since they cover the lease only until the visa term, can we get more than the visa term If there was a co-signer who doesn’t have these restrictions?

You need to present additional docs but you can lease if you visa expires before the end of your term lease with BMW

Does anyone know or have experience with Chrysler Leasing for a foreigner with Work Authorization (renews every two years)? I have a 700 score and a lease with Toyota but it wasn’t easy to get. Subaru (Chase) had declined me before I got the Toyota but I heard that Chrysler is OK with the docs. I’m looking to finance a RAM

Now that you have leasing history, the lease should be easier.