My wife is a US citizen and permanent resident of Canada. I am a Canadian citizen. We sold our house recently and want to move back to the US. A friend, who was an immigration attorney (and is now deceased), advised that it would be no problem for us to travel to the US, wait a few months and then file for adjustment of status and begin the permanent residency process. Can anyone point me to a thread that discusses this or provide some advice?

well ur immigration friend is wrong!! Soem immigration attorney's do say to do that!! I had a free consult with 1 while I was visiting in the USA and thats what she told me to do as well. That is legal if one had NO intention of staying in the USA while they were visiting. Your case is different as ur in Canada, now with the intent of moving to the USA


Since the American spouse is a resident of Canada as well, you are able to Direct consular file (DCF),and that is normally much faster!! There is a DCF forum on Visajourney so give that a look
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showforum=82 and there is a CANADA sticky at the top of the page!! Best of luck!!

If I was to DCF in Canada, what would be the typical timeline before one could enter/move to the US? What it I have no intention of moving to the US and we go for a holiday only to discover we want to stay??? What's wrong with that?

but that doesn't seem to be the case with you because you stated in your first post that you wanted to move back to the US...

Looks like I'm getting in trouble with the thought police.

Lets try this scenario: I have NO intentions of moving to the US. We LOVE Canada. But we just sold our house and want to spend the summer traveling around the US visiting old friends and family before we buy our next house (in Canada) and settle into a new life (in Canada). Its still OK to do that, right?

Now, suppose our outlook changes while on our journey. We stumble across a great opportunity and decide to stay. What are the options for us? By the way we have a child who has dual citizenship. Must I return immediately to Canada and file for visa's etc or can I LEGALLY do it from the US.

BTW flames9 my friend may be wrong but she built a hugely successful business dealing with Canada/US immigration for many years. You yourself stated that that was the advice you received from legal council. Seems like a reasonable question in light of these professional opinions.

In theory, you can do what you are stating - go on a vacation in the U.S. and then stay there and file for AOS, as you had no "intent" to stay.

But you obviously have intent, so technically you would be committing immigration fraud because you have it all planned out. And, if you ask me, if I was a U.S. customs person looking at your story - you sold your house, went on a long vacation and then just so happen to decide to stay?? The selling the house part looks a bit fishy... but that's just my opinion.

Since you are able to do DCF - why not just do it the right way and not have to worry about getting caught committing immigration fraud.

I received that free info on a 10 minute consult while I was in the USA visiting. You on the other hand are in Canada with the Intention of moving to the USA--you can play the "Intention" game all you want, its NOT us that you have to convince. And yes more than likely it would work, but it may not!! Keep in mind if you decide to just stay in the USA and AOS, u wont be allowed to leave (well u can leave the USA, but most likely wont be allowed back in) until you have completed AOS or get AP.

No clue on the time frame on DCF, check out the DCF forum. The time line for Mtl is a bit slow, but has been picking up and the DCF track should be faster than going the regular cr-1 or ir-1 route.

I agree with what Flames has said, and - as he also mentioned - it's not us that you have to convince. It's all about the intent, if you have intention to take up residence in the U.S. and you cross the border and tell the border person that you are just going to visit and that is not your intention, then that is not true.

No one here is going to tell you to go ahead and give it a try, for two reasons - first, it's against the TOS on these boards, secondly because if it doesn't work out for you and you end up getting banned, we don't want to be responsible for that

As for a DCF timeline, there aren't that many IR1/CR1 Canadian folks who have done DCF here, a couple have recently though -

sroberts3000 - here is his timeline (just under 7 months):

Timeline: For IR-1 - DCF

Aug. 28/07 I-130 delivered and approved at Calgary Consulate
Sept. 7/07 I-130 Forwarded to Montreal from Calgary
Oct. 10/07 Packet 3 Received in the mail (reglular snail mail)
Oct. 11/07 DS-230 Returned to Montreal (regular snail mail)
Oct. 15/07 Checklist Returned to Montreal (regular snail mail)
Feb. 11/08 Received email with interview date set for March 12/08
Feb. 20/08 Medical in Vancouver
Feb. 21/08 Received interview letter in mail with correct address on it - finally
Mar. 12/08 Interview in Montreal, Visa approved.

Also Daisylynn - took a little over 8 months, but they had extra documents to get.

In our case, DCF for a CR-1 through Montreal took about 1 year; mostly because we had to file Bren's back taxes and that took some time (we lived in Edmonton). Has your wife continued to file her taxes with the IRS? If not this is something you need to look at as soon as you can; since you will need her tax returns for the Affidavit of Support (1-864).

Well, it's better than being in trouble with the Dream Police. The one thing about lawyers is that they are not the ones who will suffer any adverse effects. As my mother is so fond of saying, "it's not their stomach ache." The nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more, game used to work for Canucks but these days it doesn't pay to tempt fate. TOS aside, employees of the USCIS do read these boards and you aren't the first one to try this approach. I think that you've crossed the rubicon of satisfying the burden of proving mens rea, at least in the eyes of the USCIS. Better to play it safe and listen to all the people here who want you to succeed.

Oh my goodness. My brother is all grown up now

To the OP: better safe than denied my friend. Don't risk it.

I completely agree with what's been said here. You could get away with it but why even risk it when the lifetime ban that could result looms in the distance? If you both are together already, you're already far better off than most of us who go through the process. I wouldn't want to have to try to explain selling my home and quitting my job to a Consul at the time of the interview. Good luck!

Hi,
when my fiance and I were looking for options, I also contacted a lawyer and she told me the same. Yes, he can come on VWP and then we can get married and file for AOS. This is done a lot and a lot of times accepted, but it is illegal and it could cause problems.
So we decided to go the K-1 route, which is the save one. He now can get everything managed (leave his country legally) and we won't have any problems here.

If you really want to change your place of living, take the DCF route and you will be absolutely fine. Yes it is some paperwork, but you will have the paperwork with AOS, too, so no difference. As one poster stated, your wife being a US citizen still needs to file an anually tax return, make sure it was done or she will have trouble being back in US.

Wishing you luck.
Sib