How to Get a Student Loan to Study in the USA as an International Student

Federal student aid is for a US citizen, a US national, or an eligible noncitizen. Lawful permanent residents, and other statuses Federal Student Aid treats as eligible noncitizens, can qualify. A student whose only US immigration status is F-1, or another nonimmigrant student status such as M-1, does not qualify on that status alone. The 2026–2027 Federal Student Aid Handbook lists F-1, F-2, and M-1 among the nonimmigrant categories that are not eligible for federal student aid. That is not a rule that every international student is ineligible. When federal aid is not available, the remaining routes are a US private loan, a specialist or no-co-signer loan, a home-country education loan, scholarships or institutional funding, or a combination.

Seeing a US loan advertised to international students does not mean the visa, the school, and the lender’s list line up. Sallie Mae, for example, will consider students who are not US citizens or permanent residents only if they live in the United States, attend a participating US school, and apply with a creditworthy co-signer who is a US citizen or permanent resident. Other providers drop the co-signer and then restrict the country and the campus instead. Those are different products. The broader comparison of funding sources is in how international students finance study abroad.

Lender rules and federal categories change. The descriptions here follow official pages checked on 25 September 2026. Loan availability, eligibility, rates, fees, school and program lists, and repayment terms can change. Verify current requirements with the university and the lender before making a borrowing decision.

Federal loans stop at immigration status

Federal Student Aid requires a US citizen, a US national, or an eligible noncitizen. Eligible noncitizens include lawful permanent residents and a defined list of other statuses, such as certain refugees and asylees. A student visa is not on that list. Filing a FAFSA does not change an F-1 into an eligible noncitizen.

Citizens of the Freely Associated States — the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau — can receive some federal aid and, under the same handbook, are not eligible for Direct Loans. That is a narrower exception, not a route for F-1 students.

Institutional scholarships are separate from federal loans. A US university can award its own grant without a FAFSA. That award reduces what a loan would have to cover. It does not create a federal loan.

The US private loan that uses a co-signer

Sallie Mae’s current page states that a student who is not a US citizen or permanent resident must reside in the United States, attend a participating school in the United States, and apply with a creditworthy co-signer who is a US citizen or US permanent resident. The same page sets a requested minimum of $1,000. That figure is an application minimum, not a recommended amount to borrow. The co-signer is responsible for the debt if the student does not pay. Sallie Mae’s undergraduate Smart Option loan is not the graduate product. Its graduate, MBA, medical, dental, and law loans are separate, and graduate certificate coursework is excluded from those professional loans.

Ascent’s international page likewise requires a US citizen or permanent-resident co-signer who meets Ascent’s current income and credit requirements. Ascent’s own wording says international students in the United States must have a co-signer for Ascent loans. That is Ascent’s rule, not a statute covering every US lender.

A co-signer becomes legally responsible under the loan agreement, so both the borrower and the co-signer should read the lender’s actual terms before signing.

Loans that do not use a US co-signer

Some lenders will consider an international student for study in the United States without a US co-signer. They replace the co-signer with their own limits: supported schools, supported countries of residence, and supported degrees. Prodigy Finance’s Fall 2026 help center said applications were open only to students from selected countries, with India among them, and that some schools were unsupported for that intake even when the university name looked familiar. Its excluded-regions page listed residents of many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and China. A student already living in the United States as a resident can fall outside that product for that reason. The school-and-country detail is in international student loans without a co-signer.

MPOWER’s loan pages describe no-co-signer funding for supported US and Canadian schools. On 25 September 2026 its application page said new loans for 2026 were temporarily unavailable because funding capacity had been reached. Product pages still showed sample terms. Those pages do not agree, so a sample rate or a published dollar range from MPOWER is not treated here as money that can be borrowed now. A waitlist is not an approval.

What the school has to certify

US education loans of this kind are generally sent through the school. The school confirms enrollment and certifies an amount tied to its cost of attendance, minus aid already arranged. Cost of attendance, in the federal definition used by US campuses, is the school’s estimate for the enrollment period. For a student enrolled at least half time it can include tuition and fees, food and housing, books and equipment, a reasonable computer allowance, transportation, and miscellaneous personal expenses. It is an average budget, not a receipt.

Many private education loans involve school certification, though lenders do not all use the same process. The usable amount can be limited by both the lender’s approval and the amount the school certifies. An expense outside the amount the school certifies should not be assumed to be financeable through that loan. Sallie Mae’s materials describe borrowing against school-certified expenses rather than against an open personal credit line. How lender approval and school certification can set two different ceilings is in how much international students can borrow.

The I-20 test is not the loan test

Before a US school issues a Form I-20, its designated school official has to collect evidence that funding covers expenses for one academic year or the program length, whichever is shorter. Study in the States gives examples — bank statements, sponsor letters, aid letters, scholarship letters — and says each school decides which documents it accepts. Students are expected to carry that evidence to the visa interview.

A loan approval is useful in that file only when that school accepts it, for the amount and the dates the school requires. The consular officer makes a separate decision. An approval letter does not issue the visa.

A workable order, without treating any loan as required

1. Read the university’s cost-of-attendance page for the exact program and term. Building the full cost, including items a tuition page skips, is in how to budget the real cost of study abroad.
2. Subtract grants and scholarships that do not have to be repaid, and family funds that can be documented. How a scholarship and a loan affect that gap differently is in student loans versus scholarships.
3. Ask the international office which loan letters it accepts for the I-20, and by what date.
4. Check whether a US co-signer loan, a no-co-signer lender, or a home-country bank will consider that campus and that country of residence.
5. Compare live offers on APR, fees, and when repayment starts. An interest rate beside another lender’s APR is not a fair comparison. How fixed rates, variable rates, and APR work is in how international student loan interest rates and APR work.

If the gap after grants is already zero, a loan still adds interest and a repayment obligation on money the budget did not require. Other ways to cover the cost are in paying for study abroad without a student loan. If every lender’s list excludes the school or the country, another application to the same product repeats the exclusion.

Questions that are specific to US study

• Is the immigration status an F-1 or similar temporary visa, or an eligible noncitizen status on the Federal Student Aid list?
• Does this lender require the student to live in the United States, or does it lend to residents of the home country?
• Is a US co-signer required, and have both the borrower and the co-signer read the lender’s terms?
• Is this campus on the lender’s list for this intake?
• Will the school certify the amount, and will the funds arrive before the tuition deadline?
• Will the international office accept the approval for the I-20?

Sources

• Federal Student Aid Handbook, 2026–2027, citizenship and eligible noncitizens: U.S. citizenship and eligible noncitizens
• Federal Student Aid, eligibility overview: Eligibility for federal student aid
• Federal Student Aid, cost of attendance: How financial aid is calculated
• Study in the States, financial ability: Financial ability
• Sallie Mae, student loans: Student loans for college and graduate school
• Ascent, international student loans: International student loans