Direct answer: Yes. Under Texas SB 17 (effective September 1, 2025), H-1B visa holders from non-designated countries can still legally buy a home in Texas as a primary residence. The residential homestead exception in the law was written specifically to preserve that right. What changed isn’t whether you can buy — what changed is which lenders still know how to do an H-1B mortgage in 2026, and what documentation you’ll need at closing.

Texas SB 17 — H-1B homebuying

Reviewed by Linh Luong — Designated Broker, Core Properties (TREC #9014736). Bilingual brokerage representing H-1B and Vietnamese-American buyers across Houston, Cypress, Sugar Land, Katy, and Austin. This article is general guidance, not legal or immigration advice. The legal landscape changed in late 2025 — for your specific situation, talk to an immigration attorney and a TREC-licensed broker.

You’re on an H-1B. Maybe your OPT just converted. You’ve been renting in Houston, Austin, or one of the suburbs, and you’re ready to stop paying somebody else’s mortgage.

Then somebody mentioned Texas SB 17, and you’re not sure if you’re still allowed to buy a house at all.

Here’s what actually happened, what didn’t, and what changed for H-1B buyers in Texas in 2026.

What is Texas SB 17, and does it block H-1B buyers?

Texas Senate Bill 17 took effect September 1, 2025. The law restricts ownership of Texas real estate by certain foreign persons and entities. The version that passed is narrower than the version that originally went to debate — and it specifically does not block most H-1B holders from buying a primary residence.

The law has three parts that matter to H-1B buyers:

1. Designated countries. SB 17 applies to nationals of countries that the U.S. Director of National Intelligence has identified as adversaries — at the time the law passed, that list pointed to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (and a small set of related state-affiliated entities). If you are not a national of one of those countries, the country-restriction provisions do not apply to you.

2. The residential homestead exception. Even where the law applies, there is an explicit carveout for a person buying a single residential property to use as their primary residence (homestead). The exception was added during legislative drafting precisely because earlier draft language would have collaterally blocked legitimate H-1B and lawful-permanent-resident-track buyers. The homestead carveout is the part of the law most H-1B searchers are actually asking about.

3. Affected entities. Most of the law’s teeth are aimed at entities — companies, trusts, government-affiliated organizations from designated countries — not individuals on a work visa. If you’re an individual H-1B holder buying your own home, the entity-restriction provisions are not what your transaction is about.

The short version: a Vietnamese H-1B engineer in Cypress buying a 4-bedroom house for their family is not who SB 17 was written to stop. That said, the law is new enough that lender underwriting policies have been re-papered, and a handful of lenders pulled out of the H-1B borrower segment entirely while their compliance teams sorted out the language. That’s the actual disruption — not legality, but lender availability.

Has SB 17 affected real H-1B buyers in 2026?

Yes, but not in the way the headlines suggested.

What’s changed in our 2026 transactions:

  • Title companies now ask one extra question on the buyer’s affidavit confirming primary-residence intent, country of nationality, and whether the buyer falls under any SB 17 designated category. We have not seen a single homestead-intent H-1B file rejected by title in Houston, Sugar Land, or Cypress since the law took effect.
  • Lender count narrowed. A small number of national lenders that previously took H-1B borrowers paused that segment for Q4 2025 while they updated underwriting. Most resumed in Q1 2026. We track a current 2026 list of lenders we’ve actually closed H-1B buyers with — that list is below.
  • Loan documentation now sometimes references SB 17 in a residency-certification rider. It is a one-page document. It is not the obstacle people online are making it out to be.

What hasn’t changed:

  • Down payment requirements (still 5% conventional / 3.5% FHA for most H-1B buyers — same as before SB 17).
  • Credit-score floors at the lender level (mostly 620+ FHA, 680+ conventional, varies by lender).
  • The two-year U.S. work-history rule (most lenders still require it — the OPT-to-H-1B transition is where this gets nuanced; see below).

The OPT-to-H-1B transition window: the part most articles get wrong

If you’re moving from OPT to H-1B, your mortgage underwriter cares about two questions:

  1. Have you had at least two years of continuous U.S. work history including OPT? Most lenders count time on OPT toward the 24-month employment requirement, even though the visa changed mid-stream. A handful do not. Ask before you list a property — not in the middle of underwriting.

  2. Has your H-1B been issued, or is it in petition? Pending H-1B (I-129 filed but not approved) is a harder file. Approved H-1B with at least 18 months of remaining authorization is much easier. If you’re inside the 60-day OPT cap-gap window waiting for an October 1 H-1B start date, several lenders will close — but you need a broker and a lender who have done it before, not one figuring it out on your file.

This is the single most common place we see H-1B buyers run into avoidable trouble: a lender promises pre-approval based on a generic employment-letter review, then comes back at the appraisal stage saying the underwriter needs the H-1B already approved. Avoid that loop by getting written confirmation up front that the lender accepts pending I-129 status, if that’s where you are.

Lenders we’ve actually closed H-1B mortgages with in 2026

The right lender will save you 30+ days at the underwriting stage. Below are lenders our buyers have closed with in Texas in the last 12 months. We don’t get referral fees from any of them — this is purely the working list:

  • A national depository bank with a dedicated visa-holder mortgage desk (Houston-based loan officer; closes OPT-to-H-1B transitions cleanly).
  • A Texas-regional credit union that accepts pending I-129 status with documentation.
  • A non-depository correspondent lender with strong jumbo-loan capability for higher-priced Houston suburbs (Memorial, The Woodlands, Sugar Land 5+).
  • A bilingual loan officer who underwrites Vietnamese-language pay stubs and tax returns when the household is bilingual.

We don’t list these by name on the public site because lenders’ policies shift quarterly and we don’t want this article rotating to the wrong list. Email support@corepropertiestx.com for the current 2026 list with names and contact information.

ITIN loans: when they’re the right answer

If you don’t yet have an SSN — most H-1B holders do, but some are early enough in the process that they’re still on an ITIN — there are loan products that close on ITIN documentation alone.

ITIN-loan trade-offs are real:

  • Higher interest rate (typically 1.5–3 points above conventional, depending on credit and down payment).
  • Larger down payment (often 15–20% minimum).
  • Smaller lender pool — most are non-bank specialty lenders, not the depository banks above.

ITIN loans are the right answer when timing matters more than rate (e.g., you’ve found the house, the seller is ready, you can refinance in 18 months once your SSN status updates). They are not the right answer when you can wait 60 days, get the SSN through Social Security Administration, and use a conventional product.

Bilingual representation: why it matters more on H-1B and OPT files

Most of our H-1B clients in 2026 are Vietnamese, Indian, or Chinese-Taiwanese nationals. About a third of our Vietnamese-American clients want some or all of their representation in Vietnamese — not because their English isn’t strong, but because their parents are signing a gift letter for the down payment, or because explaining title insurance to a 70-year-old parent is just easier in the language they grew up speaking.

Linh Luong runs Core Properties as a bilingual Vietnamese-English brokerage. We have agents and lender contacts who can sit at the closing table in Vietnamese, Mandarin, or Hindi when that helps the family on the buy side feel comfortable.

For Vietnamese-language readers: Bạn có thể mua nhà ở Texas bằng visa H-1B trong năm 2026 — đây là hướng dẫn cập nhật. Liên hệ chúng tôi tại support@corepropertiestx.com để được tư vấn bằng tiếng Việt. (Yes, you can buy a home in Texas on H-1B in 2026 — this guide is updated. Contact us at support@corepropertiestx.com for Vietnamese-language consultation.)

Common pitfalls H-1B buyers run into in Texas

  1. Pre-approval letter from a national online lender that doesn’t actually do H-1B. The letter looks real, the rate looks great, then underwriting kills the file at week three. Use a Texas-active lender with a real H-1B desk.

  2. Down payment held in a foreign account. Wire transfers from international bank accounts trigger a longer underwriting paper trail. If your down payment is from family overseas, plan 90+ days ahead — get the funds into a U.S. account, season them, and document the gift letter properly.

  3. Buying outside your H-1B start city. Most H-1B contracts list a primary work location. Buying a home 90 minutes from the location named on your I-129 raises an underwriting question. It is answerable — bring it up early.

  4. Using a friend who’s "almost" a real estate agent. TREC license is non-negotiable. Beyond that, find an agent who has actually closed an H-1B buyer in the last 12 months. The post-SB 17 market is too new for the agent to learn on your file.

  5. Skipping a buyer-rep agreement. Texas requires written buyer representation if you want a fiduciary agent on your side. Without it, the agent showing you a house represents the seller. On a complex H-1B file, that costs you. Read our buyer-rep agreement explainer before signing anything.

Frequently asked questions

Can H-1B holders buy a house in Texas in 2026? Yes. SB 17’s residential homestead exception preserves primary-residence purchases for H-1B holders from non-designated countries. The closing process now includes one additional residency-certification document at title; there is no other operational change for the typical buyer.

Does SB 17 ban H-1B holders from buying real estate? No. SB 17 targets nationals of designated adversary countries (originally China, Russia, Iran, North Korea) and certain state-affiliated entities. H-1B holders from other countries — including India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, and most others — are not affected by the country-restriction provisions when buying a primary residence.

Do I need 20% down as an H-1B buyer in Texas? No. Most lenders accept 5% down on conventional loans and 3.5% on FHA loans for H-1B buyers, same as for U.S. citizens. Down payment minimums are based on loan product, not visa status.

Can I buy a house if I’m still on OPT? Yes — most lenders count OPT toward the 24-month U.S. work-history requirement. The hard part is the OPT-to-H-1B transition window, especially the 60-day cap-gap before an October 1 start date. Use a lender with documented experience closing in that window.

What if my H-1B is pending and not yet approved? A pending H-1B (I-129 filed, not yet approved) makes underwriting harder but does not block a purchase. A subset of Texas-active lenders will close on pending status with proper documentation. Get written confirmation from your lender up front rather than discovering it at appraisal.

Are ITIN loans my only option without an SSN? ITIN loans are one path, with higher rates and larger down payments. Most H-1B holders do have an SSN — if you don’t yet, often the better play is to apply for one and use a conventional product. ITIN is the right answer when the property and timing won’t wait.

Do you offer Vietnamese-language home buying support? Yes. Core Properties is a bilingual Vietnamese-English brokerage. We can run consultations, contract reviews, and closings in Vietnamese, including for parents on a gift letter or co-signing a loan.

Ready to look at houses?

We represent H-1B and OPT buyers across Houston, Sugar Land, Katy, Cypress, Pearland, and Austin. Your buyer consult covers the SB 17 picture for your specific country of nationality, an introduction to lenders we’ve closed your visa-status file with this year, and a written buyer-rep agreement so you have a fiduciary on your side from showing one through closing.

Schedule a buyer consult — or email support@corepropertiestx.com in English or Vietnamese.

Authoritative reading on the law itself: