Working with foreign investors?

[Alain Haug]

Hi forum,

My wife (USA citizen) and I (Swiss) are in the process of moving to the USA. While my wife currently works in Colorado Springs and builds the foundation for our endeavor, I am still working in Switzerland for Dell Technologies. 

Our plan is to buy our first multi family home within the next 6-9 months. There are some challenges we face:

1. My wife has amazing credit but was a student for the last couple years. Therefore, no real finace history.

2. I have a great income (was never unemployed since ~20y) but never lived in the US. Therefore, I have no tax ID / social sec. Nr. / credit score.

Do you have any advice how we can qualify for a mortgage?

Also, since we are planning our journey since quiet some time, some of our friends are very interested in investing in the USA as well. 

Again, they never lived in the US and so they neither have a tax ID. 

My idea is to partner with those friends and invest their money with my (to found) company. The big question is: can they be silent investors in order to avoid the hassle to apply for a tax ID? Or is that illegal? Has anybody experience with such business model? 

Thanks in advance for your answers.