Foreign national looking for Home equity loan or HELOC

[Kostyas Constantine]

Hi everyone, my first post on this forum. I'm hoping that someone here can offer some advice on a rather uncommon situation.

I'm an Aussie passport holder with a non-immigrant b1/b2 US visa, so in simple terms I'm a foreign visitor in the USA. Over the past 3 years I have been spending about 6 months a year in the USA; enough time to make me a US tax resident because I meet the "substantial presence test".  I file yearly tax returns with the IRS.

In the USA I own a house (which stays empty when I'm not in the USA) and three duplexes that I rent, all of which are located in AR. The house is worth close to $200K and the three duplexes together are worth around $400K. I have no debt, I purchased these properties with cash.

I plan to stop spending as much time as I have been in the USA so I'm need to decide what to do with the house; it's either sell it or rent it. I want to buy a house in Europe to live in but don't have enough cash for that, so ideally, I would like a Home Equity Loan or a Home Equity Line of Credit on my USA house or duplexes so I can buy a house in Europe, then start renting my USA house to pay off the credit.

Problem is of course I'm not a US resident for immigration purposes, no SSN, and have no credit history in the USA...although I have a US bank account and debit card and I pay utility bills, etc. so maybe I do have some credit history?  I have done some research on this matter found that "Foreign National Mortgages" do exist for foreign visitors wanting to buy property in the USA.  Smaller lenders mainly offer these but some better known banks such also do; but again I don't want a mortgage as I already own the house, I want Home Equity Loan or a Home Equity Line of Credit.

Any suggestions?  Are there other alternatives I should look at like crowdfunding? 

If worst comes to worst and I cannot receive credit I'll just sell the USA house, and because I've owned it and lived in it while in the USA for over two years I will not pay CGT.