BBCC

We had the same problem. I was the USC living outside the US. During my entire extended time abroad, I kept a US address, filed taxes from a US address, maintained bank and all other accounts at my US address and anything else I could think of under my US address. When I filed my documents with USCIS and NVC, I always stipulated my US address even though I was rarely physically present there. This was all enough for USCIS and NVC. I had no problem as the financial sponsor on my wife's I-864.
In my particular case, I did not qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion with the IRS so I had no need to file my taxes from our foreign address.
For proof of domicile, the US address on all my coincidental documentation seemed to be enough. I never had to submit a copy of my US home title or rental agreement (I sold my US house in the middle of our visa process).
In spite of all the docs with a US address, we initially showed an apartment lease at our foreign address as proof of our relationship on the I-130 to the USCIS and this still was not a problem.
So I got both financially sponsor on the I-864 *and* be with my wife during the entire paperwork process. Woohoo!

The co-mingling of domicile and finances are the most important indications that USCIS use as proof of a bona fide relationship. There are other indications, but these are the big ones. For this reason, yes, I would say it is vital to keep that joint account open when you file for ROC.
You could possibly compensate a lack of a joint bank account with accumulating some of the other documents, but why go to all that trouble? The joint account is a strong indicator to them.
For our ROC, we used our joint bank account that really didn't have a lot of financial transactions listed on the joint bank statement. This was not an issue to USCIS. They approved our I-751 with it, no questions asked. Because of this, perhaps you could consider each of you open your own separate bank accounts at the present time and still maintain separate finances if that is what you need to do. But just hang on to the joint account and keep a small amount of activity on it.
You will also want to use a statement from a joint bank account a little after that to file for Naturalization, assuing that is also in your plan.
It is a good idea to keep the joint account open only as long as you intend to file immigrations or petitions. Once you've concluded your business with USCIS, then go ahead and close the joint account.

Were you referred for secondary inspection each time you returned to the US?

We were approved May 21st and received the 10 year card on May 28th.
We didn't receive any tracking number for the card. It arrived by US postal service priority envelope.
Congratulations!

Someone I know in California split with his asian wife. She took their three year old with her.
Not wanting to be deported, she went into the local county prosecutor's office and walked out with a charge called Spousal Copulation filed against her husband. Look it up. Very popular tool of prosecutorial misconduct in the state of California. The astonishing difference between rape and Spousal Copulation? The state does not have to prove penetration or present any form of physical evidence. Solely on the accusers testimimony, they obtain a conviction. Macabre, to say the least.
After several years in prison, he now registers as a sex offender for the rest of his life and never sees his daugher again.
Yes. It is possible. Happens every day in this country.
Domestic litigation has been this ugly for a while. The need to preserve one's immigration status in the US has a lot to do with it. Everyone from the arresting officer all the way to the presiding crminal court judge have everything to gain professionaly by adjudicating it.
So, yes, I advocate being *very* careful in this situation.

Someone I know in California split with his asian wife. She took their three year old with her.
Not wanting to be deported, she went into the local county prosecutor's office and walked out with a charge called Spousal Copulation filed against her husband. Look it up. Very popular tool of prosecutorial misconduct in the state of California. The astonishing difference between rape and Spousal Copulation? The state does not have to prove penetration or present any form of physical evidence. Solely on the accusers testimimony, they obtain a conviction. Macabre, to say the least.
After several years in prison, he now registers as a sex offender for the rest of his life and never sees his daugher again.
Yes. It is possible. Happens every day in this country.
Domestic litigation has been this ugly for a while. The need to preserve one's immigration status in the US has a lot to do with it. Everyone from the arresting officer all the way to the presiding crminal court judge have everything to gain professionaly by adjudicating it.
So, yes, I advocate being *very* careful in this situation.

This has to be the most naieve statement in this thread. Nothing could be further from the truth.
She can file them after the fact now that she is back in the US. You need to be VERY careful about this.
It would be a better world if that were true. Sadly, is very likely that she will get VAWA relief. No evidence whatsoever is needed to obtain relief. The best thing the OP could do is not only refuse any contact with her but disappear altogether. He will very likely be arrested on false charges if he does not. They will be needed to justfy her relief for a green card under VAWA. Grave felony misconduct by US LE is completely certain in his circumstances. I know of people who have gone to prison all by foreign spouses who use this nuclear option just to obtain status in the US by nefarious means.
Do NOT under-estimate how bad this situation could go. It has for many all due to the felony misconduct of both LE and judges in this country who ply their trade under VAWA. They earn BILLIONS of dollars in annual Title IV allotments by the number of cases they falsely adjudicate. They are rewarded handsomly for this universal criminal misconduct.
Be VERY, very careful and be grateful that there are no children involved in the dispute which would only makes matters even worse. I know of people who have been falsey convicted of felonies from this precise situation, now registering as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.
Never underestimate what someone will do to you in order to obtain a green card when that is their only option. This happens every day.
You need to seriously not only consider never being in contact with this person again but disappear altogether. You will not know about any VAWA criminal complaints against until the handcuffs are on you and it will then be too late.
The best protection you have if she has filed false charges against you is to remain out of reach of LE. They are far too lazy to find you. If you are not in their direct reach, they will not work very hard to find out. But once they have you, it's all over.
Trust me. Nothing I have written is any exaggeration whatsoever.

Are you aware how easy it is to obtain a TN work permit under NAFTA for software development work?
Not sure you qualify for one with the ban. I would DEFINATELY hire an immigration attorney who specializes in this specific type of case and demand a review and then a court hearing over this.
You have that right.
Do NOT roll over on this no matter what the CBP officer threatened you with. If you were coerced into signing the statement, and it is very clear that you were, stand up and fight it.
The ranks of the CBP are often nothing more than a job corps for the most obese, mentally retarded people. You have to expect this kind of criminal misconduct on their part but you don't have to take it. It will take time to resolve.

I was amazed at how quickly the California Service Center received our package and sent it back for correction, probably knowing how close it was to expiration. We posted on Fri 31 January, probably arrived on Mon Feb 3rd. They had it back in our hands for correction by the 6th. So it seems that the arrival of your package today should probably be registered in their system today the 23rd and you'll be OK. Cross fingers. Use the tracking number to know when it arrives. Let us know how it goes!

You have two choices:
1. US Citizen spouse files their taxes as they always have except they file as "Married Filing Seprately." In that case, the USC spouse just files the return with their own earnings.
2. Or, you can apply now to the IRS for a Tax ID number for the non-resident alien spouse. In that case, you would use the Tax ID number to file a joint return as "Married filing jointly." To do so, you would need to include a letter with the return that you voluntarily elect to treat the non-citizen spouse as a non-resident alien for tax purposes. You would then include the non-resident alient spouse's income on the "wages, salaries, tips" line on the return. The advantage of this approach is you are able to count the non-resident spouse as an exemption and lower the taxes paid/increase your refund (assuming the foreign spouse does not make a lot of money).
This is the basic summary of what you can do. There are sample letters all over the net on how to draft the letter. irs.gov has good helpful information on how to do it.
Hope that helps.

It's all on the USCIS page for the I-130.
Also check out this great wiki:
http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/How_Do_I_Bring_My_Spouse_%28Husband_or_Wife%29_to_Live_in_the_United_States%3F
Hope this helps.
Don't hesitate to post any specific questions and issues.
Best of luck!

Let us know if you ever put a mattress up on Craigslist for sale

The rules for a permanent resident of the US (Green Card Holder) is a re-entry permit is required if you will be out of the US longer than 12 months.
You must apply for this prior to departing the US. You must have valid reason for doing so.
If you are gone less than six months, it is unlikely to cause any scrutiny at re-entry.
If you are gone more than six months, there is a possibility that the CBP officer at entry may scrutinize your trip abroad and request more details.
If he believes you are residing abroad, you risk losing your permanent residency status.
If you leave the US for more than six months and less than 12 months and you appear to be living abroad, you might lose permanent residency status.
A friend of mine returned to US after 14 months in Montreal last year. The CBP officer confiscated the green card. After appearing upset, the officer returned the green card and told them to never again leave the US for more than a year. He was VERY lucky. This could also happen for absences more than six months.
The point I'm trying to make here is if you are gone less than six months, than you probably won't have any problem.
As you can see, the longer you are gone, the risk of losing your status changes.
Once you are gone for more than 12 months, it becomes likely you will lose the status.
All of this behavior on the part of the CBP officer varies and is subjective to circumstances, time of day and the mood of the officer as they have complete discretion and so there are no concrete answers for longer absences.

Been there. I am a US citizen and was denied entry driving into Canada in 2007. Albeit I was going in the other direction, I wonder if my solution might also work in the other direction.
Find out exactly what incident they are referring to, date and especially the jurisdiction. The border officer needs to tell you that.
In my case, they flagged a false indication of an arrest 8 years prior. I can only assume it was someone else with the same first/last name. They gave me the date and jurisdiction of the arrest.
I had to physically go to the jurisdiction that the CBSA claimed was the arresting jurisdiction. For $10, I got a letter that stated I had not been arrested over a time period that included the incident in question.
The next time I went to Canada, in 2010, I presented the letter at secondary inspection. The letter was entered into my file on the CBSA records. I was told that this resolved the matter and I have been admitted in Canada ever since. The CBSA officer entering this new letter into their system told me that I wouldn't need to use the letter again but just to be safe, keep it with me just in case whenever I enter Canada.
One other interesting point- For months, every subsequent time I entered Canada even with a NEXUS card, I was asked if I had ever been denied entry into Canada and then sent inside for secondary inspection where they asked to see the letter yet again. Eventually, the initial entry officer suggested that I when I go inside to show the letter again, ask that the flag be removed. So I asked the secondary inspection officer to remove the flag. They forwarded an email off to Ottawa requesting this. I was told it would take about six months. The next entry, however, about a week later already showed the flag removed and I haven't been asked about the denial of entry since nor asked to produce the letter.
Hope this helps.