Land with credit.
A Visa credit card for people moving to the U.S. No U.S. credit history needed. Approved on your offer letter or your I-20, before you land.
- No U.S. history
- No credit file needed to start
- Days
- to a decision, not months
- 3 bureaus
- every payment builds U.S. credit
The card
Approved without a U.S. credit history.
U.S. banks want a credit file that takes years to build. You have an offer letter, an I-20, payroll or funding, savings. We read those instead. A decision in days, and a Visa card that covers rent, a phone plan, a laptop, from your first week in the country.
See the cardsAlien Intelligence
Build U.S. credit with a coach that never sleeps.
The rules of U.S. credit are unwritten and expensive to learn by mistake. The coach tells you what to charge, when to pay, and where to cap utilization. It warns you before a missed payment or a wrong application hurts your file, and tells you the month you’re ready for the next card.
How the coach worksScore, illustrative
702
+34 since first score
Send home
Send money home. Set it and forget it.
Schedule a transfer to family from your Resident Alien account: one amount, one date, the fee shown before you confirm. The coach tells you what’s safe to send after your U.S. rent and bills.
About transfersEvery 1st of the month
$400 → Guadalajara, MX
Not your forever card. Your fastest way to it.
Whatever needs a 720 or 740 U.S. score, a premium card, an apartment without a co-signer, a mortgage, starts with a file that doesn’t exist the day you land. We build it and tell you when you’re ready. Then you move on. That’s the point.
- Today
Resident Alien card
Approved on your evidence, before or after you land. Reporting to the U.S. bureaus from the first statement.
- Month 6
Your first U.S. score
Six months of on-time payments is what a FICO score needs to exist. Your history at home doesn’t count. This does.
- Month 12–24
720–740 and ready
The file that Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and a mortgage lender actually approve.
Timelines are typical, not promised. Card names are trademarks of their issuers; Resident Alien is not affiliated with them and no approval is guaranteed.
One file. Three ways in.
Same Visa card, same coach, same reporting. The evidence you’re arriving with decides which one you start on.
| Feature | Student | Professional | Secured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it’s for | International students on an F-1 | H-1B and other work visas | Anyone we can’t approve on evidence yet |
| Approved on | I-20, funding, savings | Offer letter, payroll, savings | A refundable deposit |
| Starting line, illustrative | $500–$1,500 | $1,000–$2,500 | Your deposit, $200–$500 |
| Reports to U.S. bureaus | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alien Intelligence | Included | Included | Included |
| Graduates | Larger line each term | Reassessed at first payroll | Deposit back after on-time payments |
| Student card | Professional card | Secured card |
365,000
people move to the U.S. every year with a job or a university place, and no credit history.
You don’t have to start from zero.
Know what’s happening around you.
Reported immigration-enforcement activity on a U.S. map, your rights in plain language, and the hotlines that answer.
Questions people ask first.
I haven’t moved to the U.S. yet. Can I apply?
You can join the waitlist from anywhere. When we open, an application starts with your offer letter or I-20 and finishes once you have a U.S. address, so the card is ready in your first weeks, not your first year.
Do I need a Social Security number?
Professionals get one through their employer and most students get one with on-campus work. If our card partner allows a passport or ITIN start, we’ll say so plainly. We won’t claim it until it’s true.
Is it a real Visa credit card?
Yes. It’s a revolving line on the Visa network, issued by our partner bank, that reports to the U.S. credit bureaus. Not a prepaid card, not a debit card with a credit label.
What if you can’t approve me on my evidence?
You start on the Secured card with a refundable deposit, with the same coach and the same reporting. It graduates on its own after on-time payments.
Are you Amex or Chase?
No. We’re the step before them: the U.S. credit file they approve. We’re not affiliated with either, and nobody can guarantee an approval.
Get on the list.
We open by country. Tell us where you’re moving from and when you land.