Things that help with a credit card application:
Owning a home
Owning a car
Owning a decent company
Having a long work history / working at a large company
Having a shitload of money
Having someone as a guarantor who meets at least one of the above, ideally married.
And yes, being here a decent length of time kinda goes hand in hand with all that as well. They make their money on transaction fees, not so much on interest, they just want their money back. Living off of cards and carrying a balance isn’t a “thing to do” here.
Having been here 9 months, you have basically zero credit history and I’m going to go ahead and guess that they have been burned in the past by foreigners who pull a runner. With no assets or substantial ties to the country that they can go after, it’s just all risk on their end. Nothing in the world to stop you from waking up one day, saying “screw this” maxing out the card and running off, and they are perfectly aware of that.
Do like a year on a secured card and after that you should have a decent shot with your credentials.
