Residence vs Domicile Question

[gpcovenant 2]

I have a rather specific case and wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this.

I have been living in Hong Kong for the past four years on tourist visas. I have not once overstayed my tourist visa so I am in good standing with HK. I rented a room from a friend for 3.5 years and six months ago I personally rented an apartment for myself and now wife.

The entire time I have never given up my residence in Florida where I lived for 4 yours before coming to HK. Upon leaving I changed my address to my parents address who are also in Florida. I have paid my taxes, maintained my bank accounts and credit cards in the USA, paid my student loans, have kept my salary based, internet job in the USA and have a current Florida drivers license. I simple live here cause my job allows me the freedom.

From my understanding this is no different then me having a second home. My domicile is my Florida address, while my current address is in HK. So on form I-130 I was going to list our current address in HK. On the G-325a form where it asks applicants residence I was going to list my domicile in Florida. Does this make sense?

Also it asks for intended address in USA. I do not know what it is yet. We will move to Seattle together when we return after she receives her visa. Should I simple list my Florida address and change it after we get to the USA?

Thanks for any input

Gregory

[oohpartiv 484]

Residence more so refers to where you are currently living. Domicile is, for lack of a better explanation, where you consider to be home. A good example would be military men who are stationed abroad - while their residence may be overseas, their domicile is Stateside. Am I making sense?

Wherever it asks for residence, I would put your current address in HK. If you've maintained your credit cards, bank accounts, and all those other ties to the States, proving domicile (which would be the only downside to putting a foreign address on the I-130) will be very easy for you once you get to the step in the NVC stage.

The thing is, if you put your Florida address your casefile will most likely get sent to your local field office where you could get called in for an interview, in which case you would have to fly back to the States to attend it or the petition would be denied. If you put your foreign address, the file would stay at NBC for processing, which would also result in a much quicker NOA2.