# Immigration Documents for Mortgage: I-797, I-94, Green Card

> Every immigration document your underwriter needs for a mortgage, where to get each one, and what to send when yours is expiring or in renewal.

Canonical: https://www.masalaloans.com/blog/immigration-documents-mortgage-underwriting
Author: Apurva Sanghavi
Published: 2026-09-18T17:39:14.769Z
Tags: mortgage, immigration, EAD, green card, home buying

A borrower in Irving sent his lender a photo of his visa stamp on a Tuesday. On Thursday the processor asked for the I-94. The following Monday, the I-797. Two weeks later, underwriting wanted the back of the green card for his wife. That file took nineteen days longer than it needed to, and every one of those days ran against a rate lock.

None of those requests were unreasonable. They just arrived one at a time. This post exists so yours arrive all at once — from you, on day one.

Fannie Mae Selling Guide **B2-2-02** is unusually candid about why this list is not standardized: "Fannie Mae does not specify the precise documentation the lender must obtain to verify that a non-U.S. citizen borrower is legally present in the United States. The lender must make a determination of the non-U.S. citizen's status based on the circumstances of the individual case, using documentation it deems appropriate." Translation: there is no official checklist, so every lender built its own. The set below covers what essentially all of them want.

## The Document Table

| **Document** | **What it proves** | **Where to get it** | **Common problem** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **I-797** approval notice | USCIS approved a petition — your H-1B, L-1, I-140 or I-130 | Mailed to you or your employer's attorney | Borrowers send the attorney's cover letter instead of the notice itself |
| **I-797C** notice of action | USCIS *received* a filing — an extension, an I-90, an I-765 | Mailed after filing | Sent as if it were an approval; it is a receipt, not a decision |
| **I-94** arrival/departure record | Your admitted status and authorized period of stay | i94.cbp.dhs.gov, free, instant | People print the travel history page instead of the "Most Recent I-94" page |
| Green card (**Form I-551**) | Lawful permanent residence | You already have it | Only the front gets scanned; underwriters need both sides |
| **ADIT stamp** (I-551 stamp) | Permanent residence while a card is pending or expired | InfoPass appointment at a USCIS field office | Appointment availability, not eligibility, is the delay |
| **EAD** (Form I-766) | Work authorization and its category | USCIS after I-765 approval | Category code on the front is what underwriters read |
| Unexpired passport with visa stamp | Identity and the class of admission | Your home-country consulate | Expired passport with a valid I-94 confuses processors |
| Employer letter | Employment, title, start date, salary, and continuance | Your HR team | Generic letters that omit start date or sponsorship intent |

Two entries in that table cause more trouble than the rest combined.

### I-797 vs I-797C — Know Which One You Have

The **I-797** is an approval notice. Something was granted. The **I-797C** is a notice of action, which in practice usually means a receipt — USCIS has your filing and your money. Both are printed on the same stock and look identical at a glance.

An underwriter reading a receipt notice as an approval will build the file on a fact that has not happened yet. An underwriter reading an approval as a receipt will ask you for documents that do not exist. Look at the top line of the form and read what it says, and if you are sending a receipt, label the file that way.

### The I-94 Is Free and Takes Ninety Seconds

Go to i94.cbp.dhs.gov, choose "Get Most Recent I-94," enter your name, date of birth and passport details, and print the page. Not the travel-history page, which lists your border crossings and proves nothing about status. The record page shows your class of admission and your admit-until date. That is the page.

If you last changed status inside the US rather than re-entering, your I-94 may live on the bottom of your **I-797** approval notice instead. Send both.

### Both Sides of the Green Card

The back holds the card number, the signature line and the machine-readable zone. A file with only the front comes back. Same for the EAD.

We covered EAD category codes — H-4, L-2, OPT, STEM OPT, I-485 pending and the rest — in detail in [EAD Card Mortgage: Everything Non-Permanent Residents Need to Know](https://masalaloans.com/blog/ead-card-mortgage-everything-non-permanent-residents-need-to-know). No need to repeat it here.

One more thing that is not on the list: your Social Security card. **Mortgagee Letter 2025-09** states that "a Social Security card is not sufficient to prove immigration or work status." It proves you can be taxed. Send it if asked, but do not think it answers the status question.

## When Yours Is Expiring or Already in Renewal

This is where most visa-holder files actually stall, and the fix is almost always a document you can produce the same day.

**Timely-filed extension.** If you filed your extension before the current authorization expired, the **I-797C** receipt notice is the document that matters. It establishes when you filed and that the filing is pending. Send it with the expiring approval notice so the underwriter can see the continuity in one place.

**Automatic extension periods.** For certain categories, a timely-filed renewal carries an automatic extension of work authorization for a defined period while the renewal is pending, and the receipt notice combined with the expired card serves as evidence. The categories that qualify and the length of the extension have changed more than once in recent years. Confirm your specific situation with an immigration attorney — that is their work, not your loan officer's, and not ours.

**Green card renewal.** The **I-90** receipt notice, and an **ADIT stamp** if you can get the appointment, cover you. Your status is intact either way, as we explain in [How to Answer the Citizenship and Residency Questions on Form 1003](https://masalaloans.com/blog/form-1003-citizenship-residency-questions).

**Employer letters.** The one document on the list your HR team controls, and the one most often returned as insufficient. A letter that helps says: your full legal name, your job title, your start date, your current base salary and any bonus or RSU component, your employment status as full-time, and a statement on continued employment. A letter that does not help says "Ankit Patel is employed here." Send HR the list rather than hoping.

**Translations.** Foreign-language documents — an overseas employment letter, a foreign bank statement supporting a gift — need an English translation, and most lenders want a translator certification stating the translation is complete and accurate. A family member with good English is not a certified translator in an underwriter's eyes.

What a lender may not do is invent a minimum remaining validity. We take that specific claim apart in [The "Two Years Left on Your Visa" Rule Is Not a Rule](https://masalaloans.com/blog/visa-expiration-mortgage-requirement-myth). There is no agency rule requiring two years left on your visa. Anyone telling you otherwise is quoting their own overlay, and we take that apart in [Fannie Mae Has No Approved Visa List](https://masalaloans.com/blog/fannie-mae-no-approved-visa-list).

## When Your Name Does Not Match Across Documents

This is the quiet one, and it delays more South Asian files than any guideline does.

Indian passports sometimes carry a surname field that is blank, or an expanded father's name where a middle name should be. Your **I-797** may read RAJESH KUMAR SHARMA, your green card RAJESH K SHARMA, your W-2 RAJESH SHARMA, and your bank account R K SHARMA. Every one of those is you. To an underwriter running identity verification, they are four strings that do not match, and the file collects a condition for each mismatch.

Head it off. Write a short signed letter of explanation — one paragraph, naming every variation and stating they refer to the same person — and put it in the same PDF as the documents. Attach whatever supports it: an affidavit of name change if one exists, a marriage certificate if a surname changed, the passport page showing the name as printed.

Do the same for dates. A date of birth written as 04/09/1987 in Indian convention is September 4 in the US, and a transposed birthdate on one document against another is exactly the kind of flag that pulls a file into extra review a week before closing.

## Send It All at Once. Here Is the Arithmetic.

Each round trip between you and underwriting costs two to four days once you count the processor's queue, the condition write-up and your own response time. Four separate requests, at three days each, is twelve days.

Take Ankit, a composite of files we see in Sugar Land, with a **$610,000** loan amount and a 45-day lock. Twelve days of document ping-pong pushes him past it. If his lender charges 0.25 points for a 15-day extension, that is $610,000 × 0.0025 = **$1,525**. He paid $1,525 for the privilege of sending documents one at a time.

Build one PDF instead. Name it something a stranger can sort: Ankit-Patel-Immigration-Docs-2026-09.pdf. Order it the way an underwriter reads: passport with visa stamp, most recent I-94, I-797 approval, any I-797C receipts, EAD front and back, green card front and back for any permanent resident on the loan, employer letter. One file, one upload, day one.

Do not, under any circumstance, send a photo of a document taken at an angle on a kitchen counter. Underwriters reject unreadable scans, and that rejection is another three days.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: What is the difference between I-797 and I-797C for a mortgage?**<br />A: The **I-797** is an approval notice — USCIS granted the petition. The **I-797C** is a notice of action, most often a receipt confirming a filing was received and is pending. Underwriters treat them very differently, because one establishes approved status and the other establishes a pending request. Send both when both exist, and label which is which.

**Q: How do I get my I-94 for my lender?**<br />A: Go to i94.cbp.dhs.gov and select "Get Most Recent I-94." Enter your name, date of birth, passport number and country of issuance, then print or save the record page as a PDF. It is free and takes about ninety seconds. Send the record page showing class of admission and admit-until date, not the travel history page.

**Q: My green card expired but I have a pending I-90. Can I still close?**<br />A: Generally yes. Permanent residence does not expire with the card. Your file needs the expired card, both sides, plus the **I-797C** receipt notice for the I-90, and an **ADIT stamp** in your passport if you can schedule the appointment. Confirm the specifics of your situation with an immigration attorney before you go under contract.

**Q: Does my lender need my spouse's immigration documents if they are not on the loan?**<br />A: Usually not for status purposes, though community property states and title requirements can bring a non-borrowing spouse into the file for other reasons. If your spouse's income is being used to qualify, then yes, their work authorization documents are required. Ask your loan officer early so it does not surface as a last-minute condition.

**Q: Is there a minimum amount of time left on my visa to get a mortgage?**<br />A: Not at the agency level. Fannie Mae's guideline sets no minimum remaining validity and publishes no approved visa list. Requirements like "two years remaining" are individual lender overlays. A lender that imposes one is allowed to, and you are allowed to take your file somewhere that does not.

**Ready to get started?** Masala Loans by Matador Lending specializes in exactly this. Call **713-366-4668** or get your no-haggle rate at **masalaloans.com**.

*Apna Ghar. Your Dream Home. Your Best Rate. No Haggling.*