Proving domicile when not living in the U.S.

[darth vader 131]

13 minutes ago, mikebike said:

They just took my word for it. However, I work in an industry where it's common to commute from out of country.

Thank you. I am just curious - what industry is that? Auto-industry in Detroit-Windsor?

[mikebike 9]

5 minutes ago, darth vader said:

Thank you. I am just curious - what industry is that? Auto-industry in Detroit-Windsor?

Aviation

[darth vader 131]

Hi everyone - I was wondering if obtaining a co-sponsor in any way helps with intent to re-establish domicile?

 

Basically, we are hoping to be at NVC stage in a few weeks, and my U.S.C. wife has secured a U.S. job. She will quit her Canadian job before NVC. We also have a lot of highly liquid assets (bank account). The only thing lacking would be domicile wise - since she will still be living in Canada with me. We do not want her to move so far ahead of the interview, because she is a Canadian PR and we don't want her to lose residency days, if we can help it. Now, I was just wondering if NVC can force us to get a co-sponsor if they are not happy with the intent to re-establish domicile?

Edited March 9, 2021 by darth vader

[T&S_MTL 112]

3 hours ago, darth vader said:

Hi everyone - I was wondering if obtaining a co-sponsor in any way helps with intent to re-establish domicile?

 

Basically, we are hoping to be at NVC stage in a few weeks, and my U.S.C. wife has secured a U.S. job. She will quit her Canadian job before NVC. We also have a lot of highly liquid assets (bank account). The only thing lacking would be domicile wise - since she will still be living in Canada with me. We do not want her to move so far ahead of the interview, because she is a Canadian PR and we don't want her to lose residency days, if we can help it. Now, I was just wondering if NVC can force us to get a co-sponsor if they are not happy with the intent to re-establish domicile?

You already asked this if I remember correctly. We got DQed with my wife (USC) living with me and working in Canada, no sponsor, met financial requirements with canadian assets only. We uploaded a simple letter to explain that we ll move after getting the visa. So you will be fine, don't worry! Especially because your wife will be in the US when you have your interview in Montreal.

[darth vader 131]

49 minutes ago, T&S_MTL said:

You already asked this if I remember correctly. We got DQed with my wife (USC) living with me and working in Canada, no sponsor, met financial requirements with canadian assets only. We uploaded a simple letter to explain that we ll move after getting the visa. So you will be fine, don't worry! Especially because your wife will be in the US when you have your interview in Montreal.

1. What did you guys do about the domicile - did you show a living arrangement with U.S.C.'s parents, or a lease or did you get away with not having any residence arrangement lined up?

2. Do you plan to have the U.S.C. leaver her Canadian job and take up a U.S. job before interview?

[T&S_MTL 112]

3 hours ago, darth vader said:

1. What did you guys do about the domicile - did you show a living arrangement with U.S.C.'s parents, or a lease or did you get away with not having any residence arrangement lined up?

2. Do you plan to have the U.S.C. leaver her Canadian job and take up a U.S. job before interview?

1. This is not NVC that ask for this but the CO at your interview. I ll probably bring a letter written by my parent's in law saying we will live at their place for a few months 

2. No my wife and I are moving together to the US. A few people did that lately and this was not an issue. 

 

To show domicile, at the interview, we ll use a letter from my in laws, as I mentioned. And also bank statements that show we moved money from a canadian account to a US one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ilovecancun29 17]

Hi- My husband and I are in the same situation.

 We live in Ontario since oct 2019, he is a dual citizen. We have a vehicle with US license plates, US investments accounts and Bank accounts with both our names and our PO box Address with regular street address in the application . 
 

Would that be enough? His US taxes were filed here in Canada and his w2 has  a Canadian address for 2020, is that going to matterbto them? 
are we good?

 

[KStene22 79]

On 3/12/2021 at 5:55 PM, Ilovecancun29 said:

Hi- My husband and I are in the same situation.

 We live in Ontario since oct 2019, he is a dual citizen. We have a vehicle with US license plates, US investments accounts and Bank accounts with both our names and our PO box Address with regular street address in the application . 
 

Would that be enough? His US taxes were filed here in Canada and his w2 has  a Canadian address for 2020, is that going to matterbto them? 
are we good?

 

The two strongest pieces of evidence to reestablish domicile you can have are proof of US employment (or seeking it) and/or a place to live.  All of the things you mentioned above are good, but probably not enough on their own.  

 

We had a rental agreement and a business plan for my husband who have his own business in the US, along with several other smaller things like you have mentioned.  

[KStene22 79]

On 3/8/2021 at 11:24 PM, darth vader said:

1. What did you guys do about the domicile - did you show a living arrangement with U.S.C.'s parents, or a lease or did you get away with not having any residence arrangement lined up?

2. Do you plan to have the U.S.C. leaver her Canadian job and take up a U.S. job before interview?

1. We had a lease agreement lined up that would begin upon our arrival.  

2. No.  We had a good, realistic, business plan in place and they were good with that.  

 

Having a co-sponsor is not related to establishing your domicile.  You will only need one if you cannot meet the requirements for supporting the beneficiary.  If you don't have a USD source of income you would have to use assets. Are you familiar with the guidelines for using assets?  I believe you need something like 5x the income requirement when you use assets.  

[Jimmy O 0]

On 2/25/2020 at 11:14 AM, Michelle_VM said:

We will be purchasing a home in the U.S. before moving. It sounds like the U.S. wont care about my Canadian status, but I might run into trouble each time I visit Canada as they try to figure out if I am a PR or not. May be held up at the border or something. Thanks for the info. 

I am a USC and have my PR in Canada. From my research, normally, if you are a PR, you are required to stay in Canada from 3 out of every 5 years, otherwise you would loose it. But, I think there is an exception if you are married to a Canadian citizen: if you reside outside of Canada but are physically residing your Canadian citizen spouse during that time, the time spent residing with your Canadian citizen spouse counts toward meeting the residency requirements of Canada. So, in essence, you could keep your Canadian PR even if you haven't resided in Canada for decades - as long as you keep the required documentary evidence that you have continued residing with your spouse and keep renewing your PR card. 

[Jimmy O 0]

Hi everyone. So, I just finished reading all the pages on this topic and was wondering if anyone had any opinions on my unique situation. 

 

I'm a US citizen (USC) residing in Canada with my wife who is the principal applicant. We've already had our I-130 approved and have just recently come across the "domicile requirement" on I-864. We're trying to spend the least amount of time apart as possible and are going the route of trying to "show that I am intent on re-establishing domicile." I have been seeing that Montreal cares almost exclusively about having a lease and a job offer in the US for the USC, but I am not going back to the US for a job but to further my education. 

 

My parents would be willing to draw up a lease that would commence upon us moving; so that wouldn't be that big a deal. But, I am not planning on getting a job but was recently accepted into medical school in Minnesota (I'm planning to defer starting medical school from Fall 2021 to start in Fall 2022 - that way we don't have the added stress of working on immigration stuff while being separated and being in medical school). I guess my question is this: Would admission to medical school (along with the lease) be enough to establish domicile intent? Or, could they reject me because school, by it's nature, is a "temporary" commitment (even though I'd hope they'd understand that medical education is pretty much a 10 year commitment)? We plan on staying in the US permentantly after my education anyway.

 

I'm also planning on including:

- a bank statement from my US bank whose address is at my parents house in Minnesota.

- voter registration in Minnesota (I don't know if this would be good or not)

 

The rough draft plan (please give me feedback on the realisticness or feedback of this plan):

We will finish up our paperwork for the NVC (with my parents co-sponsoring the I-864 to meet financial requirements) and then I will continue to reside in Canada with my wife until we have an interview date in Montreal (I've heard they are pretty backed up there and it could be up to 8 months before we get an interview, so that's why we've kind of decided for me to delay starting med school for a year). Then, once we got our interview date, I would move to the US to fully establish domicile (get a license, buy a car, officially start the lease)  so that my wife could bring evidence of this to the interview - hopefully, with all this happening before Fall 2022.

 

Thank you all so much for your help, I've really appreciated reading through this topic. 

We've really been stressing out about how to go about this - any insight would be helpful.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Jimmy O

[SJS8581 28]

Husband was approved! Many thanks to all who gave such helpful insight. Below is a recap of what we submitted on CEAC about five days before his interview in regards to more evidence of intent to reestablish domicile (I’ve lived in CA since 2016 as a PR.) Surprisingly he was not asked for copies at the interview nor did he need to present them to explain. 
 

see my full Montreal consulate review on my profile

 

other proof of domicile:

(Submitted to CEAC before interview)

formal 5 page lease-with family

notarized letter from family that we will be living with them including their signature and address

copies of correspondence between us and CA realtor to sell condo

Uhaul CA quotes

Copy of my MI license

job app emails between me and US employers

Husband US recruiter correspondence

submitted at NVC: statement of intent to reestablish domicile with bulleted list and copies of -US bank statement, US credit card statement, US IRRA statement, proof of MI registered voter

[SJS8581 28]

On 3/24/2021 at 3:40 PM, Jimmy O said:

Hi everyone. So, I just finished reading all the pages on this topic and was wondering if anyone had any opinions on my unique situation. 

...

Hi Jimmy it sounds like a good plan - read my post above for our experience. I was nervous especially bc I was not moving before our interview and turned out that did not seem to be a big concern the officers. I suppose we submitted the right evidence to satisfy them as my husband was never asked for copies or to explain much. They wanted to know what he does for work and will be doing for work as well as my plan. I don’t have a job offer yet but proof of husbands pension and savings submitted at the NVC stage were able to suffice AOS. They only asked him at the interview if that had changed (no).

[Jimmy O 0]

1 hour ago, SJS8581 said:

Hi Jimmy it sounds like a good plan - read my post above for our experience. I was nervous especially bc I was not moving before our interview and turned out that did not seem to be a big concern the officers. I suppose we submitted the right evidence to satisfy them as my husband was never asked for copies or to explain much. They wanted to know what he does for work and will be doing for work as well as my plan. I don’t have a job offer yet but proof of husbands pension and savings submitted at the NVC stage were able to suffice AOS. They only asked him at the interview if that had changed (no).

That's good to hear. Thanks for sharing your experience and for the encouragement. Yeah, I've been starting to think that maybe we will try to do it without me moving there in advance - so it's good to hear that someone else has done this. Or maybe I'll just travel to the states, sign a lease at my parents, get my license so that I can submit those to CEAC before the interview (I didn't know you could submit more on the CEAC website before the interview, so that's good to know.)

Thanks so much!

 

I have a question regarding the Montreal Consulate: How long was your wait time between getting your NVC finished and then your interview date?

Edited March 30, 2021 by Jimmy O

[Jimmy O 0]

2 hours ago, SJS8581 said:

Hi Jimmy it sounds like a good plan - read my post above for our experience. I was nervous especially bc I was not moving before our interview and turned out that did not seem to be a big concern the officers. I suppose we submitted the right evidence to satisfy them as my husband was never asked for copies or to explain much. They wanted to know what he does for work and will be doing for work as well as my plan. I don’t have a job offer yet but proof of husbands pension and savings submitted at the NVC stage were able to suffice AOS. They only asked him at the interview if that had changed (no).

Nevermind about my last question (I saw that It took you from July to March). But I am curious: When you went to the Montreal Consulate, did they say anything about lowering the wait time between NVC and Interview date? (I saw that yours was about 8-9 months). I was thinking they might be speeding up because of catching up from Covid and a new presidential administration. Idk if that makes a difference. I think it made a difference for our I-130 approval wait-time, when I checked wait times when we submitted in  mid January, it said 7-9 months (while Trump was still in office) and then it only took like 2.5 months...