How to Rent to International Students

The United States hosts over 1 million international students because we are a world leader in higher education, and more than 55,000 of them are in Illinois – many of those, of course, in Chicago.

As we look ahead to the 2025-2026 academic year, many international students will be looking for off-campus housing in Chicago, and we at University of Illinois Chicago want to provide a How to Rent to International Students Guide to help you know how to handle common challenges you may face when renting to an international student because they don’t always have a U.S. credit history or social security number. International students will also likely not book as far out in advance as some U.S. students, especially when they are first arriving, so they will often be looking for housing to start right away, and you will receive many inquiries in early spring/summer for leases starting in August.

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