The guide to funding your spouse’s education who is on H-4 visa

Every year thousands of are many men and women who move to the U.S. after marriage. Most of them have a great education and some even have great careers back home but when they move to the U.S., they aren’t able to work. They move here as a dependent on H-4 visa.

We will go into details of the visa, it’s restrictions, and what you can do to continue your professional life in the U.S.

What is an H-4 visa?

H-4 visa is a dependent visa given to family members of H-1B visa holders. Only spouse and children of H-1B holder are eligible for H-4 visa. Parents, siblings, and relatives are not eligible for this. This visa allows spouse to come to the U.S. and stay here as a dependent until H-1B visa holder is in the U.S., if H-1B visa is not renewed or revoked, H-4 visa also becomes invalid.

What are H-4 visa holders allowed to do?
H-4 visa holders can either study or work in the U.S. but there are some requirements:

• Without I-140 approval of H-1B visa holder: can only study; change their visa to F-1 to go to school
• With I-140 approval of H-1B visa holder: work full-time or part-time without restrictions

How should you decide a school to go to?

If your spouse’s employer hasn’t filed for green card yet, then you can’t legally work on H-4 visa. Even if the green card is filed, you can only work after I-140 PERM application is approved. Before I-140 approval, your only choice is to go to school which could be a good thing if you still haven’t completed your graduate education or if you want to move to a different field, going to school could be helpful. Also, after you graduate, your chances for a job increase significantly compared to if you hadn’t worked in the U.S.

The decision depends on specific situations such as previous work experience, type of industry, and availability of funding for school. In most cases, getting a loan to go to a school in the U.S. is really difficult. No banks or credit unions give a loan for education to non-U.S. citizens. They require either a U.S. citizen cosigner or your permanent residency to approve a loan which is a catch-22 for most individuals.

If you already have funding, then it could be easy for you to choose to go school right away. Just remember that you’ll still have to take standardized tests such as GRE/GMAT/TOEFL. If you plan to start school, you should start studying for them sooner rather than later. Since the scores are valid for a while, you can choose to go to school later.

How can you get an education loan on H-4 visa?

As an international student, it is extremely difficult to get a loan in the U.S. This is especially for people who are on H-4 visa, they find themselves stuck in a situation where their home country banks (mostly Indian) can’t lend or have a very tedious process and U.S. banks don’t give student loans to non-U.S. citizens on a visa. U.S. banks need a cosigner who is a U.S. citizen. Most people either don’t have one or don’t want to ask someone. The loan stays on the cosigner’s profile for a long time until it’s completely paid off.

Stilt is one of the new companies that have specifically created a loan product for H-4 visa holders. They can get a loan with Stilt in two ways:

1. Spouse as a co-signer: They can get their spouse to act as a cosigner. Even though others companies require a U.S. citizen cosigner, Stilt can accept a non-U.S. citizen cosigner who could be your spouse. Your spouse can continue to make payments and save on interest.
2. Spouse applies for a loan: If the spouse doesn’t mind applying for a loan, then the process would be faster and the loan will show up only on one person’s credit history.

How does the loan process for H-4 visa holder work?

Stilt’s loan application process is designed for immigrants and visa holders who haven’t had the chance to build enough credit in the U.S. Since USA is a credit based society, building a good credit score is important and it takes a while.

The application process is fairly straightforward and intuitive for visa holders:

1. Create an account
2. Complete your profile — personal, visa, and financial information
3. Apply for a loan — amount required, repayment term, payment start date etc.
4. Get a decision in less than 24 hours

That’s it. Our loans are processed quickly and you can have funds in your account 1 day.

Can my spouse apply for my education loan?

Yes, absolutely. Many H-1B visa holders apply for a loan for their spouse since they have a stable job, better credit history, and ability to pay back the loan faster. We have seen that this allows for a faster turnaround process from Stilt without hassles. In one of the recent loans, a prospective borrower tried to get a loan from India and spent 2 months trying to get a loan. At Stilt, he was approved and had funds in his account in 2 days.

As a general rule, the person with a stable job, higher salary, positive cash flows, and better credit will get a faster loan approval and lower rates.

Do you directly deposit the funds to school?

We can directly deposit the funds to school if required by the borrower. As of now, we deposit the funds directly to your U.S. bank account. You can use the funds for tuition, living, books, and other expenses.

The process for depositing the funds directly to school works better if your school accepts debit cards for payments. We can make a payment with our debit card and you don’t have to worry about it.

Can a loan be approved before getting an admission letter from school?

If H-4 visa holder is applying for a loan for themselves, then the loan can only be process with an admission from the university. Sometimes, we may transfer the funds directly to your school.

If your spouse on H-1B is applying for a loan, then Stilt can approve the loan before you receive a final admission letter. You can keep the funds in your account to get an I-20 approval.

Does Stilt disburse the whole loan at once?

Yes. We finish the complete loan process in a day or two and transfer the funds to your bank account or your school. This allows for less overhead and a clear payment schedule for the borrower. If the loan is disbursed over time, it gets confusing in terms of interest charged and payments due.

About Stilt:

Stilt provides loans to international students and working professionals in the U.S. (F-1, OPT, H-1B, O-1, L-1, TN visa holders) at rates lower than any other lender. Stilt is committed to helping immigrants build a better financial future.

We take a holistic underwriting approach to determine your interest rates and make sure you get the lowest rate possible.

Learn more about us on Wikipedia or visit us at https://www.stilt.co. If you have any questions, send us an email at team@stilt.co.