Written by: Mike Senecal
Edited by: Lillian Guevara-Castro
Reviewed by: Adam West
In a Nutshell: As an American, you may take your ability to better yourself financially for granted. Now imagine cutting up your cards and starting with no credit history in another country. Immigrant Finance helps new American residents, including many without a Social Security number, understand how immigration law interacts with the financial system. Resources and tools help immigrants build credit, start businesses, and invest to achieve lasting wealth.
Adina Appelbaum and her husband, Mauricio Castillo Ferri, had no one to turn to financially when Mauricio immigrated to the U.S. from Ecuador in 2013. Appelbaum was studying immigration law at Georgetown University and had access to some of the best legal minds in the nation. But none of her colleagues could provide basic information about financial services for immigrants.
That included whether her husband, who had uncertain immigration status, could open a bank account, apply for a credit card, invest, prepare for retirement, buy a home, or start a business. None of the personal finance books, blogs, or podcasts they consulted acknowledged immigrants. Financial counselors did not understand their needs or have expertise in immigration law.
So they figured it out. That turned out to be a painful and uncertain process involving years of anxiety and stress.
Ferri’s credit history back home was irrelevant to the U.S. credit bureaus. Pathways to building a credit score and achieving financial success in the U.S. existed. It was just a matter of the couple connecting the dots.
Along the way, they realized they had something to say about how U.S. immigration law and the financial system interact that nobody else was saying. Immigrant Finance is the result. Courses, counseling, and educational resources at Immigrant Finance help immigrants, include those with uncertain or lack of immigration status, build toward a lasting financial future.
Immigrant Finance’s flagship program is Immigrant Finance School®, where immigrants from any background or status learn how to use financial services and invest in the stock market.
“For the most part, immigrants can participate in all aspects of finance, business, and real estate — it’s just a matter of navigating how and getting the right guidance,” Appelbaum said. “As long as people have an ITIN [Individual Taxpayer Identification Number], they can usually participate in all aspects.”
Understand Your Rights as a Taxpaying Immigrant
ITINs allow individuals to file tax returns regardless of immigration status. Another popular master class at Immigrant Finance concentrates on migrants’ legal rights in the financial system. The underexpressed reality in U.S. immigration law is that migrants can claim a stake in the American Dream if they want one.
“We teach people how to do it all with an ITIN — how to do it themselves for the rest of their lives so they don’t have to pay a financial planner to do it for them,” Appelbaum said. “We cover all aspects of the financial system, not just investing but building credit, buying property, starting a business — all of the things.”
Appelbaum said she fell in love with counseling and education because there’s so much hope and possibility for immigrants on the financial side — unlike in the immigration system itself, where harsh laws prevent forward progress, in her view. In addition to her responsibilities at Immigrant Finance, she works as an immigration lawyer advocating to improve the laws.
“It’s tough to do that,” she said.
Meanwhile, the undocumented pay about $100 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes and make up about 4.8% of the total American workforce. Perhaps more surprisingly, most unauthorized immigrant adults have lived in the U.S. for 16 years or more. For every dramatic border scene playing out in the evening news, there’s a story about everyday households doing everyday things.
Appelbaum argued that undocumented immigrants should strongly consider participating in the financial system because of the security it provides. Many carry mistrust of financial services to the U.S. from home or regard credit with disdain or even shame.
Others shun the system because they believe they are not allowed to have bank accounts. Immigrant Finances teaches the advantages of using credit.
“You can’t build wealth in the U.S. if you don’t leverage credit to buy your home or scale your business,” Appelbaum said. “Building a healthy credit score is important to reach all of your wealth-building goals.”
Courses and Coaching Aim for Wealth Building
Appelbaum has worked with folks with all types of immigration backgrounds, although most are undocumented ITIN holders. Among the more than 250 who have been through Immigration Finance School, the program claims a 100% success rate in helping ITIN holders sign up for the best bank accounts and credit cards available without a Social Security number.
“Students walk away from the program knowing how to use their accounts to navigate the system and build a good relationship with money,” Appelbaum said. “We do some money mindset work as well to cover all the foundations of money management and budgeting.”
Appelbaum created her approach to budgeting, called goal-driven budgeting, after trying many budgeting models online.
Students consider Appelbaum’s system more motivating because it focuses on goal-setting and having a plan for every dollar, including enjoying life at the moment, not just focusing on the future.
Some students access a reasonably priced private coaching version of Immigrant Finance School, where they work closely with Appelbaum for six weeks. That includes unlimited access to the program’s 14 comprehensive modules. A self-study version offers even lower-cost access. As of press time, the site planned to reintroduce a group coaching version in Fall 2024.
“It’s about 10 years of our research pieced together between the immigration and financial systems,” Appelbaum said. “It includes six personal private coaching sessions customized to your needs and then unlimited text message support between the sessions.”
Free resources include a 30-minute online consultation with Appelbaum designed to encourage those testing the waters to stick around. Other free resources include a goal-driven budgeting guide, several investing master classes, and access to a private Facebook group.
Appelbaum has also produced more than 200 episodes of her popular podcast, “The Finance Business and Purpose Podcast.” Consultations concentrate on relationship building and trying things on for size, not on hard sales tactics.
“If one of our programs makes sense, we’ll share how we think it might be helpful,” Appelbaum said. “But it doesn’t make sense for everyone.”
Turning Hopes Into the Reality of Financial Security
America has a unique global status as a beacon to immigrants. Immigrant Finance helps migrants from all walks of life build toward their social and financial potential.
Appelbaum wants those who journey to America with suspicions about moneylenders and financial corruption, with outmoded money-hoarding habits that squash their ambitions, to take a fresh look at the system through Immigrant Finance.
Much of the challenge involves overcoming the scarcity narratives learned in home countries, which tend to filter through the generations. Appelbaum is familiar with the trait — her ancestors were Eastern Europeans who entered the U.S. through Ellis Island, the famous immigrant inspection and processing station that welcomed millions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Today, most of those who work with Immigrant Finance come from Spanish-speaking countries, but the site claims to have a global audience. Although Immigrant Finance offers lessons and materials in Spanish, most of the demand is for materials in English because folks who are ready to invest tend to be more culturally adapted.
“Folks who are thinking about investing tend to have been here at least five years, but there are always savvy, smart, impressive newcomers who are ready to go as soon as they get here,” Appelbaum said.
Appelbaum proudly mentioned that Immigrant Finance recently introduced ITIN application services to help prospective clients arrange to enter the system. That helps compensate for the lack of tax professionals who can communicate in Spanish and who understand the law.
In an environment where immigration law seems a captive in an endless political debate with no resolution on the horizon, Immigrant Finance promotes the financial system’s flexibility in working with the undocumented. It empowers immigrants to take control of their finances as they took control of their lives to migrate here.
Appelbaum hopes that those economic accommodations will eventually move the legal needle in favor of the undocumented. New immigrants must get started with investing, she argued, even when they’re the pioneers in their family.
“Millions and millions of undocumented immigrants pay taxes every year knowing they’re not going to get the Social Security benefits, yet they continue to do it,” Appelbaum said. “Investing is a way you can get something back from your hard work.”
