A 2020 forbearance is a lender-by-lender obstacle, which means it's shoppable. HELOCs aren't underwritten to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, or VA guidelines. Banks and credit unions set their own credit criteria for them (the products are still federally regulated; the credit box is just each lender's own). So when several lenders tell you a past forbearance disqualifies you, that may genuinely be their in-house policy, and another lender's policy can differ. The workaround is to shop widely and specifically. Call every credit union in your county, and be ready to explain the forbearance precisely: when it started, when and how it ended, and whether the missed amount was repaid, refinanced, or added onto your loan balance. That last detail matters, because a tacked-on forbearance balance on your current mortgage statement is often what tips a lender off in the first place. The CARES Act explains why some borrowers sail through. Accounts in a pandemic-era forbearance had to keep being reported as current (assuming you were current going in) rather than delinquent or specially flagged. Someone who exited forbearance, made a few on-time payments, then refinanced shows a clean history, because the refinance paid off the old loan. If you're sitting on significant equity and still hitting walls, widen the lender search, and in some cases a refinance is a cleaner path than a straight HELOC application.