Unsure of where to start and in need of advice

[mellybear 2]

Hello, I'm brand new to the forums and looking for advice on how to sponsor my Canadian husband for US permanent residence.

For a little background information - I am a US citizen by birth. My husband and I got married in 2003 in Oshawa, Ontario. After our marriage I immigrated to Canada and have been living in Ontario as a Canadian permanent resident since then. We have a 2-year old daughter who I applied for (and received) a Certificate of Birth Abroad for earlier this year.

Since having my daughter, my husband & I have been talking and seriously considering moving back to the US so that I can be closer to my family. All of my family lives in Connecticut and being away from them has been hard....especially when such a young child.

I've been looking at the USCIS website as well as whole bunch of others and all that has managed to do is give me a huge headache.

I know that I will have to file the I-130 petition. However my problem comes with the fact that I have been living in Canada for the last 10+ years, so as a result I don't have a "domicile" in the United States. My mother has already told us that she would be willing to act as a co-sponsor for the Affidavit of Support since I know my finances alone will not be enough. I know that I could establish a "domicile" in the US by returning there alone (most likely with our daughter) and obtaining employement, etc....but given how young our daughter is I don't want our family to be separated. I know that we could also file for the I-129F so he could get a K3 visa in order to be able to come to the US and work while waiting for his immigrant visa to be approved, but then I see mention of having to apply for an adjustment of status? When would that need to be done if we decided to go that route.

As I mentioned, I could really use some advice on where to start as I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed.

[NikLR 13,232]

K3 is virtually obsolete. You see a few cases on here get it. Before this year 0.33% of all cases in 2012 ended up as K3 because the NVC were closing the I-129F when it arrived at the same time or after the I-130. Montreal also has a history of closing the I-129F if there is already an approved I-130.

K3 is roughly twice as expensive because of the adjustment of status. Your husband would be unable to work until you applied for that ($1070) and was approved for the EAD. (employment authorization document.) He would also not be able to Collect EI until EAD was approved but as an IR1, he could collect EI as soon as he moved to the USA because of family.

Personally I recommend the IR1 route. There is a thread in the Canada forum dedicated to proving the reestablishment of a US domicile for Canadian beneficiaries that you should browse. However the issue of domicile should not prevent you from filing the initial I-130. It takes anywhere from 4-12 months for the petition to be approved (with an average of 8 months right now) and then you have another 2-6 months at the second stage (NVC) until interview, which will only take place in Montreal. You will have plenty of time to figure out how to get through the domicile issues.

Edited March 15, 2014 by NLR

[NikLR 13,232]

Because of the length of your marriage your husband would obtain an IR1 visa after approval. This means a 10 year green card without needing to remove conditions. In 3 years he could apply for citizenship based on 3 years as an LPR married to a USC or in 5 years based off of being an LPR for 5 years. (No relationship evidence is needed for the second.) He does not lose his Canadian citizenship if he also becomes an American Citizen.

[naswagi 1]

I am reading your post I believe that your process will be fast if you filing direct . It is called direct consular filing since your already live there . If look under forum you find it . There whole part tell how to do it good luck

[Ryan H 3,834]

I am reading your post I believe that your process will be fast if you filing direct . It is called direct consular filing since your already live there . If look under forum you find it . There whole part tell how to do it good luck

Direct Consular Filing (DCF) is only available in countries that have a USCIS field office, Canada is not one of those countries.

Before you suggest that as an option, review the list below to see if a country is on it. If the beneficiary's country does not appear on that list, then DCF is not available.

http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-immigration-offices

[naswagi 1]

Ok I am sorry but you can be more kind with your words next time

[NikLR 13,232]

There was nothing unkind about what Ryan_H said.

[mellybear 2]

Since making my original post I've been reading through the Canadian regional forum looking at how to prove "intent to re-establish a domicile in the US" and it has left me fairly discouraged. It appears that the US Consulate in Montreal which handles all immigrant visa interviews for beneficiaries living in Canada is almost unreasonably strict when it comes to the domicile requirement of USC petitioners currently living in Canada with their spouse. As in, most people who go for their visa interviews get denied and asked to provide more proof of domicile before a visa can/will be issued.

I know it would be about a year from now that I would have to start worrying about this but it has me a bit concerned. I work in the retail/service industry so the chances of receiving a job offer from an employer who would be willing to wait for me to start until my husband receives his visa is most likely nil. My husband, daughter, and I would be planning on living with my mother upon our initial move to the US and I would be planning on drawing up an official rental agreement between us and her to submit with our AOS.

As I mentioned in my initial post. We have a 2-yr old daughter and I don't want to separate her from my husband. My husband and I cannot afford to maintain 2 separate households, and personally I cannot afford to move back the US with my daughter to establish a domicile since I'd only be able to work part-time and would have no one available to care for my daughter since all my family members work full-time.

This is all extremely stressful and I don't even begin to know who to contact for advice since hiring an immigration attorney is no where near financially possible for us.

[NikLR 13,232]

Unfortuneatly that is rather how it is because of the fact we share a border with the USA. Mexican couples tend to suffer the same stresses. Montreal is a very easy consulate in every respect but the domicile issue.

You do not need to maintain a second household. You need to establish that you have indeed moved back to the USA or are fully planning on it. Open a US bank account and put some money in it. Get a US driver's license and register for voting. Get a cell phone plan. Look into some housing for your family and perhaps apply for a few apartments or make sure you have a good rental agreement with your mom. Trust me, living with your mom is not going to be the end all of the solution. Many people think they'll be okay, and end up miserable so you will want a place of your own! Apply to a few jobs and print off the job applications (Costco, Target, Walmart, Petsmart, etc...) You may be separated for maybe only a month or two while you do those things. Heck you don't even have to be separated, just fly down and start the process. If you own a home, put it up for sale with a realtor soon before the interview. The worst that can happen is that you pull it from the market but hopefully you'll get an offer on it which would also prove intent to move.

[mellybear 2]

Oh, living with my mother would most definitely be a temporary accommodation, especially with having our daughter - it would just be until both my husband and myself are both employed and/or we have a steady enough income that we won't have to worry about not being able to pay rent & utility bills.

Would you know if it's possible to simply go down to Connecticut to start the process of establishing residence by importing my car, transferring my driver's license, and registering & insuring my car down there then return to Canada to be with my husband and wait with him until he receives his visa?

As for a home, my husband & I actually rent an apartment and we're technically on a month-to-month lease since our landlord doesn't require us to sign a new 1-yr lease every 12 months. So unfortunately we don't have a house we can put on the market and once my husband gets visa approval we would give our landlord our notice that we'd be moving out on XXX date since we only need to provide 1 month notice. My main concern about giving notice prior to his visa getting approved is that if the visa was delayed for any reason and he didn't get it by the date we gave our landlord we/he would have no place to stay in the interim period....and with a young child not having a place to live wouldn't be very good.

It just seems so odd that it seems to be easier to bring your fiancee to the US than it is to bring your spouse. Or it may just seem that way since the process of bringing your spouse to the US is a lot more difficult if you've been living out of the country for an extended period of time.

[NikLR 13,232]

it's only more difficult because you have lived in Canada for some time. My journey wasn't a great deal more difficult than a fiancee's but my husband never lived in Canada. I lived here, and he lived there. It was like that until after our first anniversary, but I had a pretty quick journey once we were able to start it. Majority of countries are not as strict on domicile as Montreal is because they're overseas. It's simply harder to establish domicile.