International Students and Scholars
Your first step
Taking the free online Renters Workshop is a great first step. We designed this course to help you learn about searching for housing and renting in Santa Cruz. If you don’t have your CruzID yet, the information curated for the workshop is also available on our website, so take some time to explore.
Conduct your search in person
It might be tempting to begin your housing search before you arrive, but it’s important to be able to view the property in person before signing a rental agreement. Community Rentals recommends arriving in the Santa Cruz area earlier than your start date with a reservation at a hotel or elsewhere and then embarking on your housing search. This will give you a chance to get to know the area and tour rentals in person, and can help you avoid a rental scam.
What landlords are looking for:
- Verifiable rental history from a third-party landlord.
- Proof of good credit.
- Documented monthly income sufficient to pay the rent and living expenses.
How to show landlords you will be a good tenant
International students and scholars usually will not have verifiable rental or credit history in the United States. Your task is to show a landlord that you are a good tenant and capable of paying the rent on time. Here are some ideas for demonstrating your trustworthiness and showing proof of funds.
Demonstrate trustworthiness:
- Provide a copy of proof of your affiliation at UCSC.
- Provide a copy of your personal identification such as a passport – residents of California provide a California Driver’s License or California ID card.
- Have a professor or friend who is a resident of Santa Cruz write a letter of recommendation.
- If you have a close friend or family member in the U.S., you could ask them to consider co-signing the rental agreement. This is only appropriate to ask of a close friend or family member.
- Zoom or Facetime with the landlord or manager before your arrival so that both parties can gain some impression of each other.
Show proof of funds:
- UCSC’s International Student Services and Scholar Services has prepared a housing letter for those without an SSN or credit history, which you can print and show as evidence of your financial solvency. Make sure you read this letter before using it, so that you understand what it states and can explain it if asked.
- Provide a copy of your J-1 or F-1 visa. Most landlords do not know the significance of this visa. Inform them that without proof of sufficient funds, a student or researcher would not be granted a visa by any consular section of a U.S. embassy. Let a landlord know that a person granted a visa had to show adequate resources to demonstrate ability to pay for all educational costs plus living expenses while in the U.S. We include this information in our Landlord Resources – you can direct them to this page.
- Provide an official letter of financial support from the funding home university or other entity.
- Open a bank account after arrival and place a substantial amount of money in it to demonstrate proof of funds. (Some ways to bring money into the country are through PayPal, Flywire, international money order, or through wire transfer).
- Offer to pay the maximum deposit allowable by law.
- Provide an “Income Certificate” or “Certification of Deposit Balance” from your country.
- Show evidence of credit card accounts.
Searching for rentals
UCSC uses Places4Students.com to provide an off-campus rental listing service for UCSC affiliates, as well as roommate profiles of UCSC affiliates who are looking for off-campus housing. Our rental listings are accessible to current UCSC students, faculty and staff at no cost.
Information about other rental listing sites is publicly available to use at your own discretion. Rental scams do happen, and falling for a scam can result in a lot of wasted time and money. Be sure to review our page about avoiding rental scams, and use your common sense. If a listing seems too good to be true, it probably is.
