Do Canadians Need a Visa to Purchase US Real Estate?
By Shailesh Ghimire, January 28, 2008 at 5:58 pmI received the question below from Canada. Unfortunately, it came through the Plugoo application (on my right side bar) and there was no e-mail address. So, I will answer it here:
Hi, I Just wondered if a Canadian Citizen can buy house in US, without any intentions to live or work in US. Just want to buy and later rent the house. Does he need any kind of Visa to do this?
A Canadian national can purchase a second (vacation) home or investment property with no intention to live in the USA on a permanent basis. Most loan programs require a copy of your Canadian passport or drivers license.
If you are curious about home financing options as a Canadian citizen then head on over to the Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s blog. I wrote a guest post over the past weekend explaining how a foreign national (Canadian, British, European etc.) may obtain a mortgage loan in the United States.
While you’re there on the blog say hi to Jay Thompson for me! 
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5 Responses to “Do Canadians Need a Visa to Purchase US Real Estate?”
There’s a lot of bad information circulating on just this question, Shailesh. Had one seller scared witless by a title company when she was told her Canadian passport was not an acceptable form of idea.
Went over the escrow officer’s head and found out she was wrong. I mean, it’s Canada. Not exactly an OFAC restricted nation.
Jonathan,
That’s funny. A passport is really the final form of international identification. All governments accept it to let you into their country! I guess that doesn’t apply to a real estate transaction. The escrow officer in this case is obviously very ignorant.
I always wondered how that worked. I think passports are important to have but right now in USA it takes so long to get one.
[...] info: Do Canadians Need a Visa To Purchase US Real Estate? Financing Options for Canadians Buying US Property [...]
Hi,
A friend of mine is a Chinese national and has never been to the US. He wants to buy some house here as an investment. He’ll use cash. No mortgage needed. What document he’ll need to own a piece of property here in the US?
Thanks.
Care to comment?