You've spent years building an excellent credit score in your home country — maybe 800+ in the United States, or a strong CIBIL score in India, or a clean credit file in the UK. Then you arrive in Canada and discover that none of it counts here. Canadian credit bureaus start your file from scratch. This guide explains what actually exists for transferring foreign credit history, what works in practice, and what you should do to build Canadian credit fast.
Canada's two credit bureaus — Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada — operate separately from their international counterparts. Even though Equifax and TransUnion both operate globally, their databases are national. Your Equifax score from the United States is not visible to Equifax Canada. Your credit history from India, the Philippines, Nigeria, the UK, or any other country is not accessible by Canadian lenders through normal channels.
This applies to virtually every newcomer, regardless of how strong their foreign credit history was. You arrive in Canada with a blank Canadian credit file — not a bad one, just empty.
Nova Credit is a US-based startup that has partnerships with credit bureaus in several countries to translate foreign credit history into a format Canadian (and American) lenders can evaluate. As of 2025, Nova Credit works with credit data from:
If you are from one of the supported countries and a Canadian lender accepts Nova Credit, the process works like this:
Some banks with international presence — particularly HSBC (now RBC in Canada), Scotiabank (which operates in Latin America and the Caribbean), and ICICI Bank Canada — may consider your relationship with their international branches when opening accounts or approving credit in Canada. This is informal and not guaranteed, but worth asking about:
For the vast majority of newcomers from countries without Nova Credit coverage or relationships with specific Canadian banks, the fastest path is simply to build Canadian credit from scratch. This is not as daunting as it sounds:
The timeline feels long but it's manageable, and starting immediately is what matters most.
Even if your foreign credit history doesn't formally transfer, some Canadian lenders — particularly mortgage lenders and credit unions — will consider foreign credit documentation as part of a manual underwriting review. Useful documents include:
This approach works best for large credit applications like mortgages, where a lender has more incentive to do manual underwriting rather than rely solely on automated bureau checks.
Americans moving to Canada face the same clean-slate situation, but have an advantage: Nova Credit covers the US-to-Canada corridor and several Canadian lenders accept it. If you're moving from the US with strong American credit, check whether your target Canadian bank or lender accepts Nova Credit before you arrive.
Credit history transfer to Canada is possible in limited circumstances through Nova Credit or international banking relationships. For most newcomers, the practical answer is to start building Canadian credit immediately — get a credit card, use it responsibly, and your score will be where you want it within 12–18 months.
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