I'm Rosa. I book flights with points, and I write down what actually worked so I can remember it next time.
Most of the guides in this hobby are a card name, a signup bonus, and a transfer partner. Useful, once a bank will approve you. Useless when the application dies because you don't have a US credit file yet, which is where I was.
The thing that explained it was ITIN Club. Not a points site. A free course for people who use an ITIN, which is the tax number the IRS issues when you have a US tax reason and can't get a Social Security number. Every ITIN starts with 9, and a lot of forms treat that as "invalid SSN."
What I had backwards
I was applying for travel cards as if the card was step one. The course, Your first year with an ITIN, puts them last:
- The ITIN itself, and only with a real tax reason. It is not work authorization and it is not an SSN.
- A US bank account that accepts the ITIN.
- A credit file, usually a secured card or a credit-builder loan that reports to all three bureaus.
- A few months of on-time payments.
- Then a card with no foreign transaction fees, and only after that the ones that earn serious points.
That order is the whole post. I keep a link to their card guide for the details: How to get a US credit card as a non-resident.
How I actually use the points
One card, paid in full. Everyday spending. I transfer when a flight I want is a good price in points, and I ignore the rest of the bonus calendar. Opening several cards in the same month is how a thin file gets worse.
This isn't tax advice and it isn't a card recommendation. It's the missing first chapter of the blogs I started with.
