We just started a lease in January with a young lady and her good friend from work. A few months later she told me she's married, he lives 6 hours away and she wants him on the lease. I gave her my standard response, "Each renter needs to complete an application (with application fee) and be background-checked, etc." So yes, we would go ahead. She said, "I hope you won't be needing a social security or other typical information, because he's a Guyanese citizen.

She said they've been working on his visa/green card with their marriage a few months before covid and "we just want to finally start building our life together and work toward a future but it all starts with us on a lease alongside our marriage license."

It appears he will remain 6 hours away and not be living in our property, and I don't believe they talk very often.

She knew when she moved in that she wanted to add him to the lease, but didn't discuss this with us. I asked her why he didn't apply to be on the lease with her back in January. She responded, "My roommate and I just were excited to move in and I thought it easiest to just add him afterwards."

This causes me to wonder why she kept it a secret.

I'm guessing it's an arrangement. He pays her big money and she agrees to marry him to help him become a U.S. citizen. I really don't even want to be involved in this. I just want to make sure I do everything properly and legally. Part of that is knowing WHO HE IS. How can I do that if he's from somewhere else and doesn't have much history here? Supposedly he worked for Disney Cruise Lines as a bartender before covid. You might think that I could count on Disney to check him out, but after the recent arrests of 4 Disney employees for underage sex trafficking in Orlando, I can't rely on Disney to properly screen people.

How would ya'll handle this?

I had a similar situation. He was in England and She was in Los Angeles. Never said a word, they were only engauged. So 4 months into the lease he shows up as a fiancé/boyfriend. A year later they got married. He had a temporary work visa. He has a good profession tying to get licensed in the States. In the mean time he has plenty of work. Now that they are married, she got pregnant.

They are great tenants. He did fill out an application, but I never put him on the lease and only accept her payments. They make over 5 times the rent and have very little debt.

Husband paid off wife's student debt, she is a collage graduate. And together they paid off their cars.

But this was a success story only because she is a very responsible adult and he is a straight shooter.

Also they recused a abandoned kitten. This apartment building is at the end of the street and often people drop off unwanted kittens.

One of my cats came from there..

Lauren, you have asked for identification andsupporting documents to verify this addition of occupancy to your lease. Tenant has not provided you with your requests, worse still, tenant story makes no sense and tenant is keeping a cloak of secrecy over the husband.

She knew you would reject him and so she lied in order to get the rental and I suspect he is already living there. Even if he is not there, your tenant has deceived and manipulated you.

This is not different than claiming to not have a dog and them moving in the family's pit bulls. The tenant won't tell you beforehand because you will reject, so they lie and do it anyway, figuring once they are in, it will be OK.

International applicants can be screened, including for credit and criminal background checks.

Tell her that he will have to apply and be screened like any other applicant. Tell them they will have to bear the extra costs of any additional screening, and that you will let them know those costs after you get the application and copies of their documents. Also charge an administrative fee for the cost of overhead for the additional screening.

This is one of the websites tht lists Guyana as one of the countries that it does international criminal checks. www.applycheck.com/international-tenant-screening-country-list.

You can also contact a property manager in the applicant's country and ask about the cost of outsourcing some screening activities to them. For instance, properties.gy/ was easily found with a Google search.