Robbai

We entered through Dallas and are in California, as there were no direct flights to California from Argentina. Does not matter which POE.

You can use any PoE as long as it's on this list: https://www.cbp.gov/contact/ports

I saw no condition on the POE.  Also on international arrivals, you can't necessarily control the POE.  I live in Phoenix and my spouse's home city has no direct flights to Phoenix.  Coming in can mean connecting from Miami, Dallas, Atlanta or Los Angeles.  Price determines it from there.  The POE is not related to the final destination, except by airline logistics and supply/demand anyway. Nothing says you have to go straight home. :-) 

Our residence is located in Pennsylvania.  We used Washington, D.C. as our POE.  I have friends who live in Florida and they used NY as their POE.  

Absolutely no problem.   Enjoy your time in Seattle.   The Amtrak trip from Seattle to Chicago is really a lovely trip great way to experience the country.   Make sure to book a sleeping compartment and make sure she realizes that long distance Amtrak trains are not fast and efficient like trains in China.  Amtrak can be many hours late but if you have no scheduled connections on arrival in Chicago then it is a lovely trip.  But she definitely should not expect the experience to be anything like the Chinese trains...

makes no difference where she enters. just make sure she uses the cr1 visa and not a different visa for entry.

If you're denied due to lack of sufficient evidence of sponsorship, the denial will not be final. You will be given the opportunity to rectify the situation, for instance by providing a joint sponsor.

You will be applying for a visa - the law (INA) is that the Visa Officer make a determination, above and beyond the information in the I-864, as to whether the intending immigrant might become a "public charge" while in the U.S. It may be enough to show a career, career opportunities, and/or an active job search.
 
It's at the discretion of the interviewing Visa Officer.

The instructions for i864 asks for 6 months of paystubs. However, not all consulates are that strict. You might be approved with 1-2 months of paystubs + employment letter if the position is stabile, permanent and well paid. Ask other China filers to learn the requirements.

They usually ask for three years of tax returns. I don't know if that is an absolute requirement though. You also would then need to explain why you haven't filed taxes for those years you weren't working in the US. Or did you file returns from abroad while living in China?
 
You can't find anyone to be a joint sponsor, not even a relative or a friend?
 
P.S. You can do the I-130 DCF without having the I-864 ready. If you move back to the States, you won't be able to do DCF and then you're looking at minimum 1 year of waiting to get your wife's visa approved. So, if I were you, I'd at least go ahead and apply for the I-130 and get it approved first there before moving back. DCF filing is much, much faster than the mail-in traditional process.

According to the information in the U.S Embassy in Guangzhou: https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/visas/immigrant-visas/us-citizenship-immigration-services-uscis/petition-alien-relative-form-1302/
 
If married in China, please bring the original marriage certificate (结婚证) as well as a notarial copy (结婚公证书). Original passports for both the petitioner and beneficiary (if available) as well as copies of the biographic page of each passport. If the beneficiary does not have a passport, please bring his or her original birth certificate (出生证) as well as a notarial copy (出生公证书). Evidence of the petitioner’s residence in China. This may include: A Residence Permit for Foreigner in the People’s Republic of China (居住许可). A Chinese visa (签证) in the categories of D, J1, Q1, S1, X1 or Z. Please note that U.S. citizens whose principal residence is not China and/or are abroad for a short-term visit as a tourist or on business must file their I-130 petition with the Chicago Lockbox. For example, temporary travelers under L, M or F Chinese visas will generally not qualify for direct filing with the Guangzhou Field Office. In addition to submitting the above documents, please be sure to answer each question on the Form I-130 as well as have the petitioner (not the beneficiary) sign and date Part E of the Form I-130. Following these steps will enable us to complete the processing of your case in the most expeditious manner.

Absolutely not, your lawyer is just wrong, she doesn't know what she is talking about.
Yes, the letters/application forms are all great evidence of domicile. It's kind of a moot point now since he will actually be physically living there, so I assume he will have his driver's license, car insurance, maybe a bill or two in his name with his U.S. address etc etc.
Proving domicile when he is actually living there should be a piece of cake really.
I wasn't going to bother posting the whole domicile information thing - since it won't really help you at this point, however, I can see that you are questioning the validity of what your lawyer told you and you will probably find this information useful - so here goes.
If you look at the instructions for the I-864, although they are not easy to interpret, they do outline the basics of proving domicile:
15. Country of Domicile. This question is asking you to indicate the country where you maintain your principal residence and where you plan to reside for the foreseeable future. If your mailing address and/or place of residence is not in the United States, but your country of domicile is the United States, you must attach a written explanation and documentary evidence indicating how you meet the domicile requirement. If you are not currently living in the United States, you may meet the domicile requirement if you can submit evidence to establish that any of the following conditions apply:
A. You are employed by a certain organization. (lists organizations on the I-864)
B. You are living abroad temporarily. If you are not currently living in the United States, you must show that your trip abroad is temporary and that you have maintained your domicile in the United States. You can show this by providing proof of your voting record in the United States, proof of paying U.S. State or local taxes, proof of having property in the United States, proof of maintaining bank or investment accounts in the United States, or proof of having a permanent mailing address in the United States. Other proof could be evidence that you are a student studying abroad or that a foreign government has authorized a temporary stay.
C. You intend in good faith to reestablish your domicile in the United States no later than the date of the intending immigrant's admission or adjustment of status. You must submit proof that you have taken concrete steps to establish you will be domiciled in the United States at a time no later than the date of the intending immigrant's admission or adjustment of status. Concrete steps might include accepting a job in the United States, signing a lease or purchasing a residence in the United States, or registering children in U.S. schools. Please attach proof of the steps you have taken to establish domicile as described above.
So what does all this mean?
When you look at the instructions above it makes it obvious that the sponsor can prove domicile even if they are not physically residing in the United States.
For most people who are temporarily abroad and fall under category B - it's pretty transparent - should not be too hard to prove domicile if you have only been out of the U.S. for a few months for example.
However, what if you and your spouse are living together in another country, like Canada - this is where Item C comes in.
All they are asking under this category is that you intend in good faith to reestablish your domicile in the U.S. - basically, at the same time as, or before the immigrant.
This applies equally to sponsors who have never lived in the U.S. - which is where it can be misleading - how can you 'reestablish' something that you never physically established in the first place?
The bottom line is domicile, for U.S. immigration purposes, does not mean that you have to physically be in the U.S.
So how do you go about proving C?
All I can tell you is what we did (and neither one of us had lived in the U.S. prior to immigrating). Really you just have to think through what would prove that you are intending to move to the U.S. with the new immigrant. This will mean different documentation for different situations, but basically this is what we sent in (in total - initially we did not send enough proof of reestablishing domicile and received an RFE from NVC for more):
- A letter from my Sister in Nebraska, stating that we would be living in the U.S. with them after my Husband received his visa and that we had come to an agreement regarding money for accommodation. She also stated that they should feel free to call her if they had any questions.
- I opened a U.S. bank account with my Sister in Nebraska and deposited a small sum of money there. I sent along a bank statement from them.
- We opened a U.S. dollar account with a Canadian bank and moved most of our funds there.
- We applied in March of 2007. We sold our rental property in January of 2007 - we sent letters from our lawyer stating we had sold that house.
- An online quote from Upack for shipping our goods from Calgary to Nebraska.
- A copy of the letter of acknowlegement from the SS office, stating I had applied for my SSN in March 2007 and the card should arrive in 2 weeks.
That's about all I can think of. There may have been a couple of other documents.
So you can see how this all goes back to putting yourself in the mindset to figure out what might prove domicle in your situation - a voting record, applications to schools etc. I believe it would be much easier to prove if the sponsor had actually lived there before and already had established bank accounts etc.
It's all about saying...hey, we are moving! - then documenting everything required for that move, as well as providing documentation of ties to the U.S.

just curious - is this a pinnable topic? sounds like something that comes up time to time yet obscure enough that not everyone is knowledgeable about it to answer if someone posts.

@Robbai Since you are living in china now you may want to look into the option of doing a direct consular filing (DCF), it can speed things up a lot. I'm not familiar with what is required for you to qualify but there is a lot of info online and several people here can also help.
 
Regardless of if you do DCF, one other issue to be aware of since you are currently living overseas. You may be asked to show intent to re establish domicile in the US. It shouldn't be a big issue for you, but it is an extra piece of information that may be relevant for you since you are not currently living in the US.

Yes, you should send a copy of the bio page of your UK passport, and write US/UK dual citizen where it asks for citizenship on the petition. You will need to send a copy of every single page of your US passport, though, and/or your US birth certificate (documents that support your US citizenship and thus your eligibility to petition your spouse). 
You can explain in your petition that you are including your UK passport bio page to support your identity on the marriage certificate. It shouldn't cause a problem. 
 
However, as others have mentioned, the current wait times on I-130s suggest that you will be waiting significantly longer to bring your wife to the US. But soonest begun, soonest done, right?
 
Good luck!

I assume you are doing DCF? If you haven't filed yet for CR1 and you aren't doing DCF then I'm not sure how you are thinking that you would be entering with your wife in 6 months. Current processing times are ~10-12 months for non-DCF (which is most of us).
 
I would think that you can just include copies of both your US and UK passport and include a short explanation so that it will be clear to them what is going on. But sorry, no direct knowledge of people previously in this situation.

To immigration, a marriage is a marriage.   If you are legally married in another country, you are legally married in the US (with the exception of polygamy).
 
As long as your name is the same on both passports and marriage certificate, you should be fine I believe.