pyridine

7 minutes ago, Black Unicorn said:

@pyridineclearly things have changed and each country is different. That is each embassy in various countries have different processes. As I already stated we live abroad. Meaning I live outside of the US. However, i'm an American who has no intention of giving up citizenship so my domicile is in the US. Thanks!

Domicile is where you maintain a permanent home. It doesn't matter if you're a US citizen, obviously I've always been a US citizen - do you have residency in another country? Then that's your domicile, pure and simple. Unless you are maintaining another home in the US and live there the majority of the time and consider it your predominant place of residency.

18 hours ago, DCF-EC said:

@Black Unicorn any guide for the I-130 when applying via DCF with Exceptional Circumstances?  How does the domicile section work if the US petitioner is living in a foreign country, which is the purpose of needing DCF-EC...? Is the job offer the evidence? What did you specifically submit?

 

Also, how does the mailing address section work? Did you use the US citizen petitioners foreign address?  Seems contradictory to what's needed for approval. 

 

Thanks

I still get notifications for this thread. Do you live abroad with your spouse? My domicile was in Denmark at the time as we lived there together and worked there. I didn't use any US address for ourselves. The job offer letter (also added in some proof of pregnancy since we had double exceptional circumstances) was the reason - I contacted the US Embassy in Denmark first though specifically about how to request to do DCF there. They wanted the evidence for the DCF request first, and they then got permission from our jurisdiction's USCIS office (London) for us to submit the I-130 and do DCF. I had to submit some evidence including the job offer letter and copies of our Danish residence cards to get this permission. This process may have changed since 2018 but you should check with the embassy first since you can't just file I-130 at the embassy unless you're in a country where DCF is automatically allowed (Denmark was not) and you need permission to do so first via the exceptional circumstances.

On 2/14/2020 at 2:35 AM, familybasedvisa12 said:

 

 

 

Hey everyone,

 

Firstly, thank you for the prompt responses. What a great forum! 

 

I do not reside in London, but I do reside in one of the countries that they have jurisdiction over. Per their website (see screenshot) I should be able to file based on 'exception circumstances' at the discretion of the London office director - my understanding from the previous comment is that I can't contact the director directly, rather I need to inform my local embassy and they will make the contact. It is still unclear to me whether or not I can go to the embassy physically for this, wouldn't that be quicker than sending an email? Or are they quick to respond?

 

 

Also, given that I meet two exceptions, 1 - job relocation on short notice and 2 - medical emergency (expecting in August and can't travel after June), would they have a basis to deny the request?

 

 

 

Thanks again to everyone!

 

 

Ok then yes, you only go through the embassy. I remember posting something detailed before about exactly what I had to submit to the embassy, but anyway it all started with an email to them explaining things and then they sent me a list of what to send them. You might just be able to shortcut that if you find my list. I recall it being a copy of my residence card (the US citizen petitioner's), passport, a letter explaining the exceptional circumstances, and a copy of the job offer letter. There's a bigger list for the I-130 filing (which will be scheduled at the embassy soon after they approve your request to file at the embassy with exceptional circumstances) and a still bigger list for the interview, which may not even be at the most local embassy depending on the country.

On 2/12/2020 at 8:32 AM, familybasedvisa12 said:

 

Under London Jurisdiction with exceptional circumstances - job offer on short notice and pregnant wife. So you emailed the embassy or the USCIS field office? 

 

Thanks so much! 

 

 

Ok wait so where do you live? If you live in the UK, you may need to go through the USCIS office. Denmark has no USCIS office and is under London's jurisdiction but you never deal with them directly. You only contact the US embassy in your country. I emailed the US embassy in Copenhagen, they have an email address for non-visitor visas which actually all get handled in the last stage at the US embassy in Stockholm. The embassy needed to get permission from the USCIS office to handle your case, but you never have to deal with that and it was pretty quick for us (few days before we got approval to file the case there - then they will immediately give you a date and time to show up to file your paperwork, ours was in about a week - so have the documents for filing the I-130 ready to go when you do this because it can be fast. The I-130 documentation is less involved than what you need for the interview anyway).

2 hours ago, familybasedvisa12 said:

Hi everyone - thank you so much for sharing your experiences. Super helpful for helping us navigate the process.

 

Regarding -  "December 11 - submitted request to file DCF with US embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark"

 

How do you go about submitting the request? Do I actually show up physically at my local embassy? Do I email them? Should I email the USCIS field office that would be handling the request? 

 

Would be great to get some clarity on this topic

 

Thank

I contacted them by email. It was not even possible to call.

As for the talk about DCF not being available anymore, I obviously haven't looked at this in a while but will say that DCF was technically already impossible WITHOUT exceptional circumstances in every country except those with a USCIS office, which was only UK and Germany in Europe. If they just eeliminated that and still allow the same exceptional circumstances at the consulate as before, then it may just mean it's now equal everywhere, they closed the USCIS offices and consulates may no longer need permission from them to proceed (Copenhagen had to get this from London), and everything could otherwise be unchanged if the definition of exceptional circumstances is the same 

On 1/21/2019 at 11:51 AM, Boiler said:

I think the concept was for all of them to go.

If we all went, at most could apply for reentry permit and then head back within about a year (since his green card is conditional and expires end of March 2020). I was actually intending to try to hold out here in the US with our daughter, since this is where my job is that I just started less than a year ago, and I earn quite a bit more than he will at this UK position.

On 1/21/2019 at 10:01 AM, mmsk said:

1. Remove his conditional status.

2. Apply for Re entry permit. Usually it is valid for two years.

3. Comply to pay taxes while abroad. He may be qualified for some exclusion ( Avoid the exclusion using bona fide resident test. You may use the physical presence test instead).

4. Re apply for Re entry permit if he wants to extend his absence. Usually the second Re entry permit is valid for another 2 years. After spending four years or more out of US, the third Re entry permit may be denied or valid for 1 year only.

5. He should keep ties in US. You and your child is one of the ties plus bank account and etc.

 

I highly do not recommend to visit US every 6 months to maintain the green card. There is a legal way to maintain the green card by applying for Re entry permit. You pay for it but it worth 

 

*** he must be in US while filing for Re entry permit. He may leave after filing and come back for biometric test. 

 

good luck in your journey 

 

We have to wait until March 2020 before conditions can be removed. Can't wait that long.

We used the foreign tax credit while living in Denmark. There's no point to using the exclusion in higher tax countries generally, and there's also conveniently no physical presence test.

If he can get a reentry permit for the ~1 year until his conditional green card expires, return to the US for some time for removing conditions (not sure if allowed when he was away?), then get another reentry permit, it could work. The company is a US company with a couple US locations but the position he's interviewing for sounds like it's solidly in Glasgow, unfortunately. If he went, he'd be visiting much more often than every 6 months anyway, given that myself and our daughter will be holding out here. He'll be visiting as much as humanly possible...

We'll have to figure everything out if he gets a job offer. Interview at one of the US offices is happening next week now. Thanks for the tips.

On 1/18/2019 at 3:04 PM, mlh said:

One thing to consider if this move happens before ROC, as a resident he will still have to file his taxes, and while his income is outside the US, he will still have to show it as foreign income (depending on his salary level, he may or may not have to pay additional taxes), however, submitting copies of your tax returns shows proof of a bonafide marriage when you remove conditions, and they MAY look and see that he has foreign income and question that.

 

Also as another poster said, you have to provide your previous addresses for 5 years, and that foreign address would coincide with the foreign income, which they could argue that he's no a US resident, so doesn't need a green card.

 

Someone may come up with an argument against this, but just throwing it out there a food for thought...

I'm not too concerned about the tax returns. He was already earning foreign income while resident in the US this past year (from April-October on a remote part-time contract from his original employer in Denmark) and we just use foreign tax credit. Been doing this for years (albeit not while US residents) and nothing is directly reported to the US from other countries, I think you'd have to be audited for them to investigate any of it further. So we'd just continue to file jointly under the US address and file for the foreign tax credit on any foreign income. There's always a small possibility of cross-talk between the IRS and CBP, but I think it's rather unlikely.

On 1/18/2019 at 3:28 AM, Nitas_man said:

Conditional?  Lol thats a pain.

We left in 2009, with a year and a half left on that one.  Stayed out 11 months, got chewed out by the officer when we came back in but he said go through.  Left 3 weeks later, filed to remove conditions, returned after 5 months to take biometrics to remove conditions, no problem at re-entry.  By then we had the extension letter. We left after biometrics, then got another letter saying the fingerprints were rejected.  We couldnt go back to retake them, so we filed the form and turned in the green card at the consulate.

A year later, I filed another I130 at the consulate, they processed it DCF, we got an IR1, went home, she got a 10 yr green card.

We lived in the US over 2 years.

We left again in 2014 with a travel document.  Didn’t come back until 2015, no issues after more than a year out.  We left 4-5 weeks later, the travel document expired 2016, but we just stayed out until we wanted to come home for good last year.

I was going to file another I130 but we applied and got interviewed for SB1 returning resident visa.  They ruled she / we maintained ties and granted her one, so we re-entered on that, left 3 weeks later to wrap things up over there, arranged our move etc, and came back in for good 3 months later.

We banked in the US, we had 2 registered/insured cars there, kept credit cards, health insurance, cell phones, US landline, retirement, kept taxes up to date, drivers licenses up to date, and basically did all of our business from US accounts.  

Note:  She was never allowed to work as my sponsored dependent and that might have been a factor.  She was accompanying me and I was the one working.  

So its a pain but you have to be prepared at anytime to re-file and start over if you have to.  As long as that’s acceptable then it doesn’t matter.

I'd be fine with starting over again but it means I'd have to follow him to be able to do DCF again (at least UK is a DCF country...they eliminated it most places now except with exceptional circumstances which meant in Denmark, I had to both have a job offer requiring short notice relocation AND enough money in the bank because of no proven US-based income yet). Problem is if I want to stay here, then we have to sit in line for 1+ year with an I-130 filing to the NVC...no thanks. So I basically have no choice but to join him in Scotland if we're ever going to be together in the US again. This is definitely a problem. And if I go, then there goes all the US ties so we'd really be throwing it in. Definitely can't afford to keep US abode, health insurance, etc if I don't have a job in the US.

He's now got an on-site interview for the Glasgow job at the Colorado office next week, so I'm not thrilled. I'm still holding out some kind of irrational hope that they'd somehow let him be based out of the Colorado office. I just don't see how Glasgow can work for us because of all this immigration mess, not to mention that we have a 6 month old?! 

So he's basically conditional until end of March 2020. If he applied for a reentry permit and was issued one until then, what do you then have to do? Can he come back to the US at that point and still remove conditions, then maybe apply for another reentry permit (yeah I know this is pushing it), or does it reset the clock? 

On 1/18/2019 at 12:18 AM, milimelo said:

Any re-entry permit received will match the expiration date of his green card - it certainly won’t be for two years. 

This is what I've come to understand...he'd basically not even be able to get 1 year on the reentry permit by the time this job likely started...blah. An update on it is he passed the phone interviews and now has an on-site interview next week, although at the Colorado office and not Glasgow. The job is still in Glasgow though, unfortunately. Everything local has fizzed out lately and I'm pretty furious it's coming down to this after the months I spent putting his CR-1 visa application together to get him the green card. 

10 minutes ago, Nitas_man said:

 

 

Answers above.

 

We did this for awhile on my wife’s green card.  She still has it. After the travel document expired and we were out an additional 1 1/2 years she had to get a returning resident visa.  Your worst case is that you would have to re-file a new I130, but starting with a travel document that’s 3 years down the road (minimum).  We managed 4 1/2 years, the ruling at the consulate when we applied to return was that she had not abandoned residency.  You MUST maintain ties to the US to do that.  Can’t stress enough how important they was.  

 

Someone who has been in the trenches! Could you elaborate on how you maintained ties exactly? Was she ever questioned at border control? So you went until the green card physically expired? My husband only has a conditional one from the CR-1, we would have had to remove conditions on it next year...maybe complicates this more? I see that CRs can get the returning resident visa as well. Hmm how was your wife able to justify it? I feel like taking elective employment abroad wouldn't be a great case for that.

1 minute ago, millefleur said:

It honestly sounds like he's more interested in a career than in being in the US. Who can blame the guy when he's dedicated so much of his life to his work?

 

Being overqualified for jobs here (i.e. if you have a PhD) is a thing. It's possible even if he applied for other jobs he would just be immediately not the person to be picked because people would be scared of his credentials. Even people "not fitting in to the company culture" is a big thing here now, regardless of qualifications. It's frustrating, so I totally get where your husband is coming from.

 

I agree with what @Boiler said: you can try to carry along with this back and forth plan similar to the one you described, but the reality is that USCIS could pull the plug on it at any moment. It's risky but you can try.

As a PhD myself, yes overqualification (while at the same time being underqualified will more industry-ready skills) is exactly the problem here. We have a bit of a tug of war between us. I finished my PhD 6 years before him and I've been in more senior roles for a while, so this has been tough. 

And I'm not sure I'm the type of person who could live in fear of the plug being pulled with his LPR status at any moment. Still lots of thinking to do. I've been pushing at LEAST staying in the US to avoid these immigration issues. But he hasn't been staging the application process anymore. There's a remote chance he could negotiate this position to be based in Colorado but not holding my breath. Almost equally sucky from a family perspective anyway...

40 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

Tough situation that you face,  I feel for you OP and sincerely hope that it works out for both of you in time.  He's only at the early stages of interviewing for a job in the UK--no job offer yet so no decision needs to be made as he may not get the job.  Have you discussed relocating to a larger city/metro area in the US that would offer more opportunities for work for both of you?  If you are both looking for university/college faculty jobs, more and more search committees and department chairs and deans (my current role) are okay with and even encourage married couples to apply for two positions at the same university.  Or if one of you can find a job in a big city with lots of universities like Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, you can move there together and then the other will be more likely to find something, at least adjunct (part-time) teaching, or even a post-doc position.  It depends on how much you want to stay together vs the green card issue.  I totally understand the challenge of finding a job in a niche area--if it is a university faculty position he's looking for, it is truly a world-wide market and positions can be competitive and hard to find.  If your field is one in which jobs are more plentiful than in his area, maybe it makes sense to go where he can find a job, then you look for something in that city or region.  I recently hired a new faculty member who had been working in New York and her husband is here in the San Francisco area.  They had been living apart for more than a year and then she finally found a job here so they will be together in August when she moves here.  You knew about his niche area before you got married, so the challenges of him finding a suitable position should be something you understand and can empathize with.  Thankfully you have been together for most of your relationship so far, unlike many of us who have had months or years of separation while waiting for the long immigration process for our spouses to end.  This is a tricky situation, as it is for many dual-career couples, and I wish you all the best!

We are actually in the San Francisco Bay Area. I thought this would not be a problem here...that if there is anywhere we could both have careers, it'd be here.  But this may have been a misjudgment, since he's not a 25 year old software engineer. It's a mecca for me in biotech. Most jobs that he's even slightly qualified for in industry are down in Silicon Valley, which is fine...but I could name off the list of every company there where he has either been rejected from the most relevant group, or repeatedly gets no recruiter call despite the ads being put up over and over again. He's probably being hurt by his lack of software engineering skills (he's technically got a physics PhD, can't say his topic or it'd identify us for sure if this story already hasn't). There's a couple (too prestigious) universities here that have groups working in precisely his areas, for which he's applied to every postdoc that comes up tried contacting the professors, but they're slightly out of his network and it's been absolute total zero. He's had a much better response rate from industry but I fear he's still a bit too academic...we're both pretty old and he's now fearing age discrimination as well. He had a life before going back to finish his studies and comes from a poor family and does not want to give up what he worked for. 

I know many people with difficult situations with this. We frankly should have stayed in Denmark but that ship has long ago sunk. We took a risk and it hasn't worked out so far. Thanks for the kind words of understanding!

2 hours ago, thatguyuknow said:

 

I wouldn’t worry about that lol. I’d put everything I own on it not happening. Plus they’ve already said they’d guarantee the right of EU citizens if the enter before the 29th of March 

Still too early to worry much, he only just got through a recruiter screen today. We're keeping an eye on Brexit, but these jobs would sponsor...the main issue is whether there is even a system in place to sponsor in a couple months, should that be necessary. But yeah last of concerns at the moment.

2 hours ago, aaron2020 said:

Sorry that you are in this situation.

Here's the problem with having a niche Ph.D.  There are only so many places where he can find work.   He will need to choose between the work he wants and the green card.   

So reentry permit...would this be a valid use of it, if he intends to come back? I feel like that's the only real shot at preserving LPR. 

Can he be both a US resident and a foreign one? My understanding is you either relinquish your green card or you have it taken from you when trying to re-enter the US. How would the US know about his UK residency? Responded to someone else about a green card holding Dane I knew in Denmark (definitely resident) who managed to keep it for years before giving up the charade. If I'm still here and he keeps all his ties here except his (presumably temporary) employment and visits a lot, it would be an easier thing than what that guy was doing anyway.

But yeah I understand the choice here. Just trying to probe what's possible (in another subforum was being told we couldn't do DCF so I don't necessarily believe everything I'm told).

2 hours ago, thatguyuknow said:

This might be personal and I’m sorry in advance.

 

If he’s never worked in the US in any job that’s going to definitely take a tole on him mentally. I understand the amount of work he must’ve put in to get his PhD, but sometimes you’ve gotta start at the bottom. If he’s never worked maybe you could steer him to try a lesser position for a while and see how he feels? Especially with all the complications of starting a new family. 

 

I hope you work this all out

Oh trust me I know...if I hadn't already exhausted this with him to death I wouldn't be asking here about this. It's apparently more important to him than I understood that he work in exactly this thing. He's had interviews for tangential industry roles where he at least has some core qualifications and after a few interviews with those (2 big on-site ones) that resulted in rejections, he feels he's exhausted these too and stands no chance. I search for jobs for him daily and have to admit we're kinda running out of companies. He's unwilling to go back to really basic stuff.

3 hours ago, millefleur said:

Him taking a full-time job in another country? Assuming this job requires him to live in Scotland, he has almost no chance of retaining LPR status. The entire point of LPR status is to live permanently the United States, regardless of being married to a USC or not.

 

Also, CR-1 visa you say? That means you have to remove conditions on the GC. It will be extremely difficult to do that down the road if he is physically living in another country.

 

As far as I know, there's no such thing as "dual residency" when it comes to US green cards. Dual citizenship, sure. Dual residency? I doubt it.

I knew someone in Denmark who had a US green card and was living permanently in Denmark and jumping through hoops coming back every 6 months in an attempt to keep it. His American wife wasn't living in the US either. He managed this for quite a few years before giving up. And of course he was a Danish resident...in the EU you can't really work there without holding residency. So I figured something might be possible if he maintained ties (especially if I stayed here and kept him on everything and he visited frequently), at least for a year or so...maybe? 

The concept of residency in the US seems distinct from the more fundamental concept of residency in the EU. In the US, it's just maintaining certain ties - no one really knows where you are.

We will be up for removing conditions next year, I guess you're right that this could be a complication if he's abroad. The green card has to be either relinquished or taken away from you at the border however, so if he does manage to play the game of trying to keep it, maybe it's possible? 

3 hours ago, dwheels76 said:

I noticed you didn't mention filing for Removal of Conditions. You did file for his Removal of Conditions between May 2018 and his green card expiring in August?

 

We would have only filed for removal of conditions 2 years from his entry at end of March 2019, since he came on CR-1 (we weren't quite married for 2 years yet when getting the visa). My concern at this point was only keeping things as open as possible with retaining the green card, knowing also how difficult this would be.

I'm an American citizen and my husband is from Hungary. We were living together in Denmark for over 5 years and came to the US about a year ago since I had a job offer with relocation. We went through the laborious and expensive process of getting him the CR-1 visa (used direct consular filing with exceptional circumstances, so filing the I-130 was very fast) and he is a conditional green card holder now in the US.

We both have PhDs and he has had a lot of trouble finding a job in our area. While there are probably other issues here with his ability to expand his job search to areas outside of his niche field successfully, and the job search was interrupted by having a baby, we've been here for 10 months and he still has nothing. He is depressed and has practically given up on finding a job here and has started applying to things worldwide in his niche area - these jobs are few and far between and scattered on distant parts of the globe.

He is now in the early stages of interviewing for a position in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm not keen on following him (and frankly think this entire situation is terrible...I worked my ### off to get him over here) and I've barely been in my position for a year. But feel I may have to at some point, but these are all things to work out. My question is how likely it is to retain is LPR status? Should he apply for a reentry permit before he leaves? Is establishing residency in the UK disqualifying for LPR if anyone finds out? He obviously will need to establish residency there to have health care etc. But can he maintain dual residency in the US?

There are two scenarios:

1. I stay in the US with our daughter and he works abroad until he (hopefully) finds a position in the US again. In this case he will still be on our apartment lease, car title, will be maintaining his drivers license, everything.

2. We follow him abroad, in which case most things in the US establishing ties will have to disappear (would a reentry permit still work for this case? I know this would make it easier to redo getting a CR-1 visa since we could do DCF again, but the cost of all the application fees and medical exam is far from negligible).

Thanks for any guidance!

2 hours ago, dpillion said:

@pyridine Thanks! What I'm confused about is how the "new job offer with short notice" reason works.  The criteria on the USCIS website for an expedite lists "Severe financial loss to company or person." (https://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria).  I'm not sure if this is the same as or different for DCF.

 

Did you have to prove that this is some sort speciality job or something only very few people can fill? Also, for the "short notice" part, do you have to prove that the company urgently needs your presence or will incur "financial loss" without you.  I guess what I'm getting at is it must be more than just a simple job offer with a short notice of start date to qualify for DCF?  We're trying to determine if our case would qualify for the DCF exceptional case.

This isn't an expedite at all so make sure not to use that terminology with the consulate. An actual expedite is extremely difficult to get - this is not that (which I think caused some confusion from others claiming definitively this was impossible), it's just doing the filing of the I-130 in another location not ordinarily approved for non-DCF countries but usually approved if you have any of the listed circumstances, that happens to make things much much faster than the normal route. You can find the official list of exceptional circumstances maybe earlier in this post or my earlier one, but it merely says a "short notice job relocation or new job offer".

I asked our attorney what constitutes "short notice" and she said there's no clear definition but that 3 months, which was what I had before needing to start, most certainly qualified. Beyond that, I guess it's getting more uncertain but any realistic offer will start well before Chicago lockbox would go through so it's always worth a shot trying this. And 3 months was quite far out too, I pushed it as far as this company would allow and it's definitely not standard, they wanted me in more like 1 month but too bad, I couldn't do that.

You don't need to prove anything about financial loss to company or about specialty of your role. I only submitted the job offer letter and attorney made it sound a bit dramatic how important the company's work was and my role at the company in the letter, very briefly, but I tend to doubt that was necessary. 

I will say she also expounded on the fact that I'm pregnant in the letter as well and the hardship to be caused by being separated from my husband, which is a second exceptional circumstance, but I didn't send anything proving that. You just use whatever you've got, but our situation was definitely such that I wasn't going to go for this job and would renege on the offer unless we could do DCF because it just wasn't worth it. He's now trailing me going by 3 weeks and I'm glad it's not any longer since I'm already getting a bit disabled by pregnancy. 

On 3/2/2018 at 9:04 AM, dpillion said:

@pyridine what evidence and supporting information did you send to the consulate to request filing a DFC? Congrats by the way!

 

The embassy sent a list of what they wanted when I asked. It's basically just evidence of the exceptional circumstance. I submitted a letter written for us by the attorney detailing the situation (could easily have written ourselves), copy of job offer letter, and they wanted copy of my residence permit and passport. I think that was it. At that point it's only about the petitioner wishing to file the I-130, it becomes about the beneficiary once the I-130 is approved. There was another list of stuff we brought for filing the I-130 once DCF was approved. Good luck!

1 minute ago, Jorge V said:

This seems to be embassy specific, and the embassies frequently contradict themselves. It's really annoying. The official instructions in Mexico recommend that the petitioner accompany the beneficiary, however, the embassy only allows entry to the beneficiary. Petitioners are denied entry

 

Conversely, the instructions for the embassy in Honduras state that the petitioner is not allowed to accompany the beneficiary, but VJ users have reported that they were in fact allowed to enter.

I guess it was fair enough that the attorney didn't know, then. I did expect that I wouldn't be allowed into the interview, although I guess since it's conducted shouting through a bullet-proof window nowadays, that could also mean you can't go into the embassy at all. I looked at all the correspondence from Stockholm to my husband and there was no guidance whatsoever about whether I could be at the interview other than it all being directed solely to him. At Copenhagen, only I needed to be there to file the I-130 but they still let my husband in with me without any problem and we were at the window together.

3 minutes ago, geowrian said:

That is the case there, actually. Montreal is notoriously strict on domicile (probably the most strict consulate anywhere IMO). The CO has discretion to determine if US domicile requirements are met, and they tend to want to see actual domicile much more than intent to establish domicile.

Ok, gotcha. At any rate, it's still gonna be a good deal faster than Chicago Lockbox to have the I-130 filed there and then to go reestablish proper domicile before handing in the I-864 at the interview. And definitely easier from Canada than from most other places.

They were super easy about the domicile in Stockholm - apparently just the job offer letter was enough for them. Good because I had practically nothing else, although they didn't even care to see the other minor evidence I had included (pretty much just a one-way ticket, and state drivers license that I never traded while over here. Like an idiot I forgot to take my official resignation letter for my job here and something showing I purchased health insurance in the US starting March 1st). Funny because I had to try so hard to prove I had no US domicile to not have to uselessly pay state taxes while living abroad, and now it was just the reverse. 

On 2/10/2018 at 12:10 AM, NikLR said:

No one has really tried because despite saying "job relocation" is an exceptional circumstance, due to Montreal's strictness about domicile.  Most USC who were living in Canada must be living in the USA or have a US job by interview regardless.  Since Canada and the USA also share a large border and it doesn't normally take more than 5 hours to fly from one side to the other... I personally cannot see how this is an extrordinary circumstance.  

 

Do you currently work? If you are not wholly dependent on your wife's income and are unable to work, they may decline the exceptional circumstances. 

Pretty much the only expedites we even see on VJ are for military orders and extreme safety issues like a natural disaster. 

You can request it, of course, but you've wasted time if it's declined in several months. 

And the list of exceptional circumstances is the same everywhere and short notice job relocation or new job offer is one of them, quite explicitly. The same memo is posted on all the USCIS field office websites including the one for Mexico City (for which this whole thing ONLY applies to Canadian residents in their jurisdiction). At any rate, it certainly doesn't hurt for the OP to:

1. Write to Montreal asking about filing DCF with an exceptional circumstance and what their procedure for this is

2. If they say it's possible, then send what they ask for and try to do it. There's absolutely no harm done than perhaps a week or two lost when the I-130 could have already been in the mail to sit in line for 6 months with Chicago lockbox. So long as OP and wife are long-term residents of Canada, and the wife has a job transfer within the next ~3 months or so, I believe this is almost guaranteed to go through. Although I know you won't believe me, so let OP try it and let's see how it goes.

And it will be no more than a week or two lost, because per the USCIS manual, the USCIS field office is required to give their response about permission to file the I-130 locally for exceptional circumstances within 3 days, IIRC.

Worst thing that happens if they are bitchy about domicile at the interview like you warn about, is the wife has to move there and work a bit first. It's still a buttload faster than Chicago Lockbox will ever be. OP should ask advice about it from Montreal rather than listen to strangers online saying it's impossible.

There were also lots of people on here telling me flat out that I could never get an exceptional circumstance approved, despite that everything everywhere official from USCIS said this was possible. Turns out it was possible and quite easy, and everyone telling me this ####### was dead wrong.

2 hours ago, NikLR said:

 You are speculating.  Just because it was done a certain way and you were able to do it does not mean the OP will.  Unlike most countries where you are required to show evidence of "intent to reestablish domicile", Montreal requires domicile of the USC to be in the USA by interview.  Without a home and a job or school already established, beneficiaries have been in AP for months to a year.  

So while you can provide the OP with insights due to a unique position, I suggest you be careful with your optimisim on their ability to replicate due to different circumstances. 

The USCIS operations manual is the same regardless of what country you're filing this from. I had checked once on the Mexico City USCIS website for someone and it gives precisely the same information about DCF (specifically for Canadian citizens, since that's the only other country aside from Mexico in their jurisdiction) that the London USCIS website gives for countries in its jurisdiction. The list of exceptional circumstances is the same anywhere. I fail to see how they would implement different procedures in both places, although I will not say it definitively because I have of course not gone through the procedure in both places and I think this can only be 100% definitively answered by someone who has (have you tried??)

I was also required on the I-864 to list my country of domicile as the US and per very clear instructions on the I-864, to provide proof of intent to reestablish that domicile if you are currently a US citizen living outside the US (there is no exception for residents of Canada). Where are you getting that Montreal requires the domicile is already established, exactly? The I-864 is the same regardless of where you live, so I'm just having a hard time believing what you're saying, unless the consular officers at that particular embassy are all being more strict than they need to be about it.