Disclaimer

Read this before acting on anything published here.

Nothing here is advice

Nothing on Stateside Money is tax advice, legal advice, financial advice, mortgage advice or immigration advice. Not the guides, not the tables, not the worked examples, not any email reply.

Everything here is general information about rules public bodies have published, written for a reader in general, not for you. It takes no account of your income, filing status, residency, visa, credit file, debts or deadlines — all of which change the answer.

What this site is not

Stateside Money is not a tax practice. Nobody here is a CPA, enrolled agent or tax attorney, and nothing published here is a tax opinion.

It is not a lender. It does not lend, originate loans, underwrite applications or fund anything.

It is not a mortgage broker or loan officer, and not an insurance broker. It does not arrange credit, has no lender panel, and does not sell health cover.

It is not a law firm. No solicitor–client or attorney–client relationship arises from reading this site or writing to its addresses.

It is not a government body, and has no connection to the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, HUD, the FHFA, the CFPB, HM Revenue & Customs or the NHS. Where a guide describes an agency's rules, it does so from outside, citing that agency.

Lender criteria are not programme rules, and nothing here is an offer of credit

This gets its own warning, because it is the error that costs readers most. What a government programme publishes and what a lender applies are two different things. The Department of Veterans Affairs sets no minimum credit score for a VA loan — 38 CFR §36.4340 does not mention one. Lenders set their own floors anyway, and those vary widely, as do debt-to-income ceilings and reserve requirements. Those are overlays: not law, and not the programme.

So anything here about eligibility describes a programme's published criteria. It is not an offer of credit, a pre-approval, a commitment to lend, or any sign that a lender will approve you. Only a lender decides that, on your file, against its own criteria. Meeting every programme rule and still being declined is normal, not a contradiction of anything here.

Figures change — verify before you act

Every article names its sources and carries the date it was last checked, so you can do one thing before acting on a number: open the source and confirm it still stands. Tax brackets, deductions, thresholds and penalty rates change annually. Funding fee tables, mortgage insurance premiums and conforming loan limits change when the agency announces it. Lender criteria change with no announcement at all. A figure correct on the date shown may be wrong when you read it.

Where no official figure exists, the guides say so rather than estimate. If the Department of Veterans Affairs publishes no processing time, nobody can tell you one.

Outcomes depend on your circumstances

Two people reading the same guide can correctly reach opposite conclusions, because the rules turn on facts the article cannot know: residency and tax treaties, filing status, visa category, entitlement already used, which state you are in. No example here predicts your result.

Get professional advice

Before you file, sign, borrow or pay, talk to someone qualified who can see your papers:

• Tax — a CPA or enrolled agent, or a tax attorney where the position is contested.
• Mortgages and home loans — a licensed loan officer or mortgage broker, who can run your real file against real criteria.
• Anything legal — a solicitor in the UK, an attorney in the United States.
• Immigration or visa status — an immigration attorney or regulated adviser. Tax and immigration interact badly when guessed at.
• Health cover — a licensed insurance adviser, and your employer's benefits administrator for what a plan covers.

An hour with the right professional costs less than getting it wrong.

Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Stateside Money accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on anything published here. See Terms of Use for the full position. Questions: [email protected].