Immigrant visa from Mexico. Both husband and wife living in Mexico. Affidavit of Support question.

[Eric & Idalia 56]

Hi. My name is Idalia and my husband's name is Eric.

We met in USA when I was an au pair in Santa Fe, New Mexico (Jun 2011 - Jul 2013). We were going to get married in Santa Fe, but we broke up.

After the au pair time, I came back to Mexico and he stayed in Santa Fe. A couple of months later we got back together and he decided to move to Mexico to be together (I did not have any visa then).

We got married on March 29, 2014. We started the process for his residence here and he became a temporary resident in Mexico. He is still waiting for his work permission to work in Mexico (residence and work permission are separated in Mexico), but a friend told us that if we want to move back to US we need to start the process soon because it takes about a year.

So now we are reading about the forms. We know that we have to file the I-130 in Consulate general of the USA in Monterrey and planned to do it on Sep 18, 2014. We just read about the Affidavit of support and downloaded the form I-864. But in here http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/types/family/immediate-relative.html#4 we read that the sponsor needs to live in USA. Before reading that what we were thinking of doing it was: file the I-864 form with his information of the last 3 years he lived and worked in USA and get a joint sponsor. But it seems that he can't be the sponsor. I mean like at all because he is not living there.

My question is: Because he is living in Mexico with me we can not be a sponsor at all? So the joint sponsor will have to be the sponsor?

I appreciate any information.

Regards.

Edited September 4, 2014 by EricandIdalia

[Ryan H 3,812]

***Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to DCF Discussion.***

**Moderator hat off**

Your husband will need to show that he has either maintained a US domicile despite living in Mexico or is currently in the process of reestablishing a US domicile. I don't know how strict the Consulate in Juarez is on the domicile requirement. Some Embassies and Consulate on other continents find the requirement sufficient through remote maintaining or actively working to reestablish. However, others (Montreal being the primary example) require that the petitioner be in the US before they will accept the affidavit.

Hopefully you will receive a Mexico specific answer soon.