<prompt> Human: Long post incoming:Im a U.S. citizen working in Beijing, China and my girlfriend is a Chinese citizen also working in Beijing, China. Weve been dating about 1.5 years. She was accepted into Foster MBA program at the University of Washington in Seattle to begin in August 2017. Its a pretty good MBA ranked 30 in the nation and the two year program costs 120,000 total tuition only is 80,000 total. Her parents have about 40k in the bank and cant really help her because they need money for retirement. Hence she basically needs a loan, and its hard to get loan without a U.S. cosigner. Shes looked at a lender that doesnt require a U.S. cosigner, called Prodigy, but they only offered her 20k per year 40k total. She cant find any substantial scholarships Foster didnt and wont give her any scholarships for her first year. She can only do a work study her second year nets her about 3kmonth. China doesnt offer student loans. If you get a big loan in China, you have to start paying it back immediately--no deferment until graduation. Her parents dont havemake enough money to support that. And her parents have a mortgage on their apartment so they cant even really get a loan. Shes trying to look into organizations that line you up with a cosigner, but my sense is that theyre all scams. Im not sure, though. Apparently U.S. cosigners need to have lived in the U.S. for at least the past two years and have good credit, which means I cant cosign not that I would want to. So shes kind of hopeful that my momstepdad can cosign. Although things are basically going well and our relationship is serious, I told her that involving my family in a loan is a terrible idea, will complicate the relationship, what if we break up? etc. and that my parents basically see her as some girl I met in China, since theyve never even met her. I havent mentioned this loan cosigning prospect to my parents at all because I told her she needs to exhaust all other options before I even consider asking them--dont get me wrong, I have zero desire to ask them. As she has previously lived in the U.S., got a Masters in economics at Boston University, I told her she should look to her other U.S. contacts for a cosigner and try to offer them 2,000-5,000 as an incentive. She has a few decent friends there but its been 3-4 years now, so to me it seems like a long shot. Do you think anyone will bite? Shes a very good person, kind, hardworking, and trustworthy. Ive met her parents on multiple occasions and they are very good and trustworthy people as well, definitely upper class for China they live in Tianjin. Im 100 positive that my girlfriend would never intentionally default on the loan out of spite and let the U.S. cosigner pay it off even if it were me or my family and our relationship ended. After the MBA, she gets 1 year to stay in the U.S. and find a job, after which she has to go back to China if she cant get a visa. Foster has very high employment rates after graduation, which means she would be able to get a job that would allow her to comfortably make the loan payments Im guessing itll be about 1,000 per month after she graduates?. However, the visa system is a lottery system, and she has about a 30 chance of getting a visa. If she doesnt get it, its back to China after the 1 year is up. In China she could likely get a good job with a high enough salary to afford the loan payments even with her current job she could make the 1,000month payments if she was thrifty. Although I wonder exactly how she would make the payments from China--would she actually need to wire money to a U.S. bank every single month? Also, she says that if she were unemployed for a month or two, or otherwise couldnt make a payment, her parents would definitely be able to cover her for that time with what money they do have.Im really worried that basically Ill be forced to ask my mom to cosign her loan. My mom has paid off her house worth at least 250k in Minnesota and has good credit but shes a teacher and her income isnt crazy probably 50kyear. Im still paying off my college loans on which shes a cosigner about 8,000 left. Her new husband of a couple years is fairly wealthy but is frugal. Hes actually the president of a local bank but they dont do international student loans. They now live together in his house, which is probably worth 400k and also paid off.It just sounds insane to me to ask my mom to cosign a 120,000 loan for my Chinese girlfriend that shes never met. However, if I dont do this, the girlfriend will almost definitely not be able to come to the U.S., and all the money and time she spent on GMAT prep and testing, school applications, and the 1,000 she spent on Foster to secure her spot there, will be down the drain. And Ill feel like Im totally abandoning her. Ive been wanting to get the hell out of China for a while and return to life in the U.S. These past months Ive basically been waiting for her to go to the U.S. for her MBA so that we could be together as long as possible. I plan to live in L.A. and well visit each other every month or so. If she cant go to the U.S., Ill still want to leave. Is there anything else I can do? Given the situation, how crazy is it for me to get my mom to cosign? I care about the girlfriend a lot but this stuff is stressing me out big-time. My mom is already a pretty anxious person and I really dont want to saddle her with all this financial shit--even though in theory it seems that she wont have to pay anything.Any advice is much appreciated! I know this situation is insane.  <response>: You arent forced to ask your mom anything. Tell her youre not ok asking your parents to do that. End of story. Asking your mom, let alone thinking she would ever say yes, is crazy. There is no justification whatsoever to ask your parents to take on 120k in debt because of a girl you like that theyve never even met and who has no obligation to pay back the loan if she cant stay in the US. 