oh thank you all for yr suggestions..
piranha...i have  a debit account with wachovia for last 2 years but they dont offer credit cards to internationals..so have to look for some other banks

As per the secured card suggestion, I looked the Bank of America website..but still I wasn't clear..,do you have to decide the credit limit in these secured cards? and does that mean i have to make sure after every month, my account has that much of money?( as it talked abt paying the monthly expenses)

any more suggestions? esp for unsecured ones as well?