Address verification requirements create a Catch-22: need a bank account to get a lease, need a lease address to get a bank account

Most US banks require a physical US residential address (not a P.O. Box, not a hotel address) to open an account. Landlords and property management companies in major cities run credit checks and require a US bank account for rent payments before signing a lease. So what? The newly arrived immigrant is trapped in a circular dependency: they cannot open a bank account without a lease showing a US address, and they cannot sign a lease without a bank account and credit check. So what? To break the cycle, immigrants resort to expensive workarounds like paying 3-6 months of rent upfront in cash (requiring them to carry or wire thousands of dollars internationally), using a friend or relative's address (which may violate bank terms of service), or staying in extended-stay hotels at $100-200/night while they sort out paperwork. So what? Paying months of rent upfront depletes the immigrant's savings reserve at the most financially precarious moment of their relocation, leaving them with no emergency fund during the critical first months in a new country. So what? Without a savings buffer, any unexpected expense (medical bill, car repair, flight home for a family emergency) becomes a financial crisis that may force them into high-interest debt or borrowing from informal sources. So what? The compounding effect of depleted savings, high-cost temporary housing, and inability to access normal financial products means that even a well-paid professional immigrant starts their US life in a financially weakened position that takes 1-2 years to recover from, compared to a US-born person who would simply walk into a bank with their driver's license. This persists structurally because the USA PATRIOT Act's Customer Identification Program (CIP) rules require banks to verify a customer's address, but the regulations do not define acceptable temporary address documentation, leaving each bank to set its own standards; landlords have no obligation to accept tenants without US banking or credit; and no federal or state agency coordinates the onboarding sequence for new arrivals to resolve these circular dependencies.