In the past, when postdocs at the lab have purchased houses, the mortgage lender hasl called HR and gotten a verbal confirmation of employment. The conversation goes something like this:

LENDER: Can you verify the employment of John Q. Smith at LANL?
LANL HR: Yes, he is a postdoc here.

And this is sufficent to convince the lender that the lendee is gainfully employed for the forseeable future. For some reason, when Wells Fargo called LANL to confirm my employment, the conversation went like this:

LENDER: Can you verify the employment of Mouser Q. Branwallis at LANL?
LANL HR: Yes, he is a postdoc here whose contract expires on May 1st.

Great. It is important to point out that all postdoc appointments at the lab (and everywhere else) are limited term, and are generally not longer than a couple of years. I think it is only because mortgage lenders don't really understand how the postdoc system works that they accept postdoc status as a sign of gainful employement. In my case, however, they are convinced that I am some sort of special case postdoc with a limited-term contract and they want proof that I'll still have a job after May 1. Why HR decided to disclose my contract expiration date to Wells Fargo, I'll never know. But for the time being my loan is in limbo and I'm not sure what the outcome will be. My broker assures me that this is not a problem and it'll get resolved before the next-wednesday deadline. I'm less confident.

On the other hand, I did get a call today from someone in HR requesting a CV to include with my conversion package which would then be shipped up to the lab director's office for final approval. There is still no one who will give me anything short of hot air when I ask for a timeline on conversion, but it sounds to me like its in its final stages.

I guess the "good" news is that if my mortgage falls through, I'll probably be converted before I can get another one set up, and that might qualify me for a lower rate or something.