K3 sponsored by stay-at-home-mom, both living in Canada

[laura428 0]

Ok... bit of a complicated situation here. I've read through a bunch of the forum topics but haven't found any that quite match what we're doing, so thought I'd start a new thread and see what insights you all might be able to offer.

I'm a US citizen currently residing with my Canadian husband in Canada. We were married in the States nearly five years ago, immediately after which I finished my immigration process to Canada and moved here. We have decided to move back south of the border to be close to my family. I'd planned on filing the I-130, and for the K3 and K4 (for my kids), but think I just ran into a snag. My husband is the primary breadwinner... I've been a stay-at-home mom for two years (I've filed my US taxes, but have had no income since November of 2003). Looking at the I-134 and the I-864 forms, this may present a problem as I have no way of personally supporting him at the moment.

My husband is employed with a very decent income, by a small company who has offices both in Canada and the US. Will his income count towards our application? Or does the ability to support him have to come from my (non-existent) income? I've read about bringing on a co-sponsor, but my parents have very little money, and not much income... not sure where we'd come up with someone to help us out.

Should we be looking at a work visa for him??? And if so, will this greatly increase our waiting period? (I'm assuming a 3-6 month wait time on the K3 visa and approximately one year on the green card.)

We don't have a lot in savings right now, but will have approximately $100k USD after the sale of our house. Unfortunately, we won't have our hands on that cash until well into the immigration process... were planning on selling right before we moved down.

What do you think? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. Thanks!!

[meauxna 15]

Hi,

You will find a way with the financials; the equity in your Canadian house can be used as an asset and if your husband will be transferring jobs, that will be taken into account.

I think your timelines are off, but if you'd like a way to get closer to the Green Card, faster, and move your move up into your date range, you should consider Direct Consular filing, which has recently been OKd for USCs living in Canada.

DCF Guide: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...custom&page=dcf (ignore what it says about Canada; I haven't updated this yet)

Canada DCF thread: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=621

[laura428 0]

Hi,

You will find a way with the financials; the equity in your Canadian house can be used as an asset and if your husband will be transferring jobs, that will be taken into account.

I think your timelines are off, but if you'd like a way to get closer to the Green Card, faster, and move your move up into your date range, you should consider Direct Consular filing, which has recently been OKd for USCs living in Canada.

DCF Guide: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...custom&page=dcf (ignore what it says about Canada; I haven't updated this yet)

Canada DCF thread: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=621

Thanks so much for the quick reply! This is fantastic information... I've read through the links you've given me and plan on calling my local consulate (Calgary) on Monday morning.

You mentioned that you thought my timelines might be off. After reading through the info in those links, I'm cautiously optomistic that our wait may be much shorter than I thought. Is this what you meant? Or will we have a longer wait, do you think?

[meauxna 15]

You mentioned that you thought my timelines might be off. After reading through the info in those links, I'm cautiously optomistic that our wait may be much shorter than I thought. Is this what you meant? Or will we have a longer wait, do you think?

Cool.. glad you caught on to it

I meant that your original timelines were on the bright side for the K-3; I don't think it would complete that quickly.

As for the DCF timeline, you effectively cut many months of waiting on US-side processing and skip right to the consulate stage (Montreal). Unfortunately, they are still a bit slowish,

User "tawney"/Tanya is the first VJer to file through a Canadian Consulate. They have had the IV interview scheduled(?)(almost scheduled?) so hers would be the timeline to watch. calgal is right behind her. The point is, it doesn't matter which Consulate you file the I-130 in, everyone is going to MTL for the visa appointment, and you just have to wait on their schedule.

You will be *much* happier if you are not married to a specific date/timeline.

You should also start looking into the topic of 'domicile' to make sure you have a place in the US to go to (so you are eligible to file the I-864).

You'll have lots of good company

[laura428 0]

You mentioned that you thought my timelines might be off. After reading through the info in those links, I'm cautiously optomistic that our wait may be much shorter than I thought. Is this what you meant? Or will we have a longer wait, do you think?

Cool.. glad you caught on to it

I meant that your original timelines were on the bright side for the K-3; I don't think it would complete that quickly.

As for the DCF timeline, you effectively cut many months of waiting on US-side processing and skip right to the consulate stage (Montreal). Unfortunately, they are still a bit slowish,

User "tawney"/Tanya is the first VJer to file through a Canadian Consulate. They have had the IV interview scheduled(?)(almost scheduled?) so hers would be the timeline to watch. calgal is right behind her. The point is, it doesn't matter which Consulate you file the I-130 in, everyone is going to MTL for the visa appointment, and you just have to wait on their schedule.

You will be *much* happier if you are not married to a specific date/timeline.

You should also start looking into the topic of 'domicile' to make sure you have a place in the US to go to (so you are eligible to file the I-864).

You'll have lots of good company

There isn't a specific date we're looking for... just as soon as possible, of course. The reason we're going is that my parents and grandmother aren't getting any younger, and we want them to have some quality time with our kids before they're too old to really enjoy them. So if we can get down there sooner, all the better for everyone involved. The reason I'd thought the K3 would take so little time was because that's what an immigration attorney told me during a telephone consultation - I didn't believe it when he told me - he said 60-90 days for the K3 and one year for the green card... if we file at our local consulate (which I didn't remember until you mentioned it in your reply). And then I read some stories on this website (I think it was here) that backed that time frame up. If it's longer, we'll deal with that, but I'd absolutely love for it to be shorter.

Now, as far as the domicile goes... wondering if my parents' home could be used as such...? I've used it as the contact address for a few things (US bank account), and plan on opening a checking account with a local bank when I go down for a visit in March (and applying for a credit card with the same bank)... this was to re-establish my credit in the States (which is an entirely different and complicated issue... got some bad advice from my banker five years ago and closed all of my US-issued credit cards when I crossed the border, so now have had no revolving credit in the States for several years). Of course, we'll be buying a house down there, but not until we've actually moved down there... there's a chance it may happen before then, but I doubt it.

Hey, since you seem so knowledgeable (wink wink)... would you mind me asking a somewhat unrelated question? I read on the AMCITS site something about how my husband may not be able to enter the States during the application process. Big problem here, as we have tickets to go down on March 30th for a little over a week, to visit the family, do some house hunting, etc. Are we going to run into trouble?

Edited February 12, 2006 by laura428

[laura428 0]

And, if we might run into trouble, would we be better of waiting until after we make the trip to start all of this?

[meauxna 15]

Hey, since you seem so knowledgeable (wink wink)... would you mind me asking a somewhat unrelated question? I read on the AMCITS site something about how my husband may not be able to enter the States during the application process. Big problem here, as we have tickets to go down on March 30th for a little over a week, to visit the family, do some house hunting, etc. Are we going to run into trouble?

hi, I don't know the specific text you're referring to, but your situation is a bit different from the norm in that you are *both* resident abroad. This dilutes your spouse's "immigrant intent" a bit. Carry proof of *your* residence outside the US and evidence of your joint ties to your home in Canada.

Also, an I-130 filed at a Consulate is likely not entered into the USCIS system (the consulate is adjudicating it instead) and the border agent will likely not be aware of it. But you're not doing anything illegal or wrong; answer the questions asked of you honestly. That's really all you can do

PS: domicile is highly subjective, but those look like good steps to take. Here's some links to past discussions on the topic:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums2/index.php?showtopic=63474

http://www.visajourney.com/forums2/index.p...howtopic=73734&

This is the link to search posts from before the server reset (Jan 28). Look for the posts from tawney and calgal for Canada specific info:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...Search&mode=adv

[laura428 0]

Once again, so so helpful... thanks so much for your insight.