USC Petitioner living abroad - Advice about my Proof of US Domicile

[I&G 2]

Hello All

I am in the process of going through the process of applying for a IV for my wife. We are living in Poland together and we hope to move over to the US together when she finally has her visa approved. I do not want to have to go back to the U.S. before her and set up a residence because there's no way to know how long the IV process will take.

Since we are applying from Poland, I understand that proving domicile is one of the trickiest parts of the whole process, and I would like to get some advice on the best way to proceed. I know there are other posts on VJ, but this one is specific to people in my particular situation living in Poland. I hope it can be useful for others in a similar situation now or in the future.

At the moment here is what I will be able to use to prove my US domicile:

• Lease agreement to live in the rental property my grandma owns - (is it a conflict of interest that this is a family member renting the unit to me? - We will be paying)
• US bank account statements
• US investment account statements
• Records of mortgage payments on a property that I owned with my brother - (This was sold in 2014 - so I am considering not including these, but I think this does show that my time abroad was always intended to be temporary)
• US Driver's license - It is a California license but we will be initially be moving to Illinois - Should I change it to an Illinois one or does it matter? We may end up in CA eventually anyway.
• I am considering buying a car over in the US closer to the time when the interview will occur. Naturally prefer to delay this expense, but will this help my case to have a car registered and be making insurance payments?

Does anyone with any knowledge of the process, know if this will be enough? What can I do to improve my chances of proving my case? (other than moving to the US ahead of my wife)

** This is the main thing I am worried about: I am self-employed in Poland, and in the interest of financial security, I don't want to close this operation down until my wife's immigration visa is approved. I will probably not continue being self-employed in the US, but I am not sure I will be able to have a job lined up in the US before we move over. Can this potentially screw things up for us?

Many thanks to anyone and everyone who can provide some insight and advice!

I&G

Edited February 8, 2015 by I&G

[DM_G 20]

Hello All

I am in the process of going through the process of applying for a IV for my wife. We are living in Poland together and we hope to move over to the US together when she finally has her visa approved. I do not want to have to go back to the U.S. before her and set up a residence because there's no way to know how long the IV process will take.

Since we are applying from Poland, I understand that proving domicile is one of the trickiest parts of the whole process, and I would like to get some advice on the best way to proceed. I know there are other posts on VJ, but this one is specific to people in my particular situation living in Poland. I hope it can be useful for others in a similar situation now or in the future.

At the moment here is what I will be able to use to prove my US domicile:

• Lease agreement to live in the rental property my grandma owns - (is it a conflict of interest that this is a family member renting the unit to me? - We will be paying)
• US bank account statements
• US investment account statements
• Records of mortgage payments on a property that I owned with my brother - (This was sold in 2014 - so I am considering not including these, but I think this does show that my time abroad was always intended to be temporary)
• US Driver's license - It is a California license but we will be initially be moving to Illinois - Should I change it to an Illinois one or does it matter? We may end up in CA eventually anyway.
• I am considering buying a car over in the US closer to the time when the interview will occur. Naturally prefer to delay this expense, but will this help my case to have a car registered and be making insurance payments?

Does anyone with any knowledge of the process, know if this will be enough? What can I do to improve my chances of proving my case? (other than moving to the US ahead of my wife)

** This is the main thing I am worried about: I am self-employed in Poland, and in the interest of financial security, I don't want to close this operation down until my wife's immigration visa is approved. I will probably not continue being self-employed in the US, but I am not sure I will be able to have a job lined up in the US before we move over. Can this potentially screw things up for us?

Many thanks to anyone and everyone who can provide some insight and advice!

I&G

Hi I&G,

I know it's been a while since you posted this but maybe it's still a current question.

I was in the same situation. All the items you listed I also had, plus some US Credit Card statements. I did not sign a lease or purchase a car until I came to the US.

Regarding employment, I was also self-employed in Poland. I did not close the company until before we left for the US and it was not an issue at the interview. But I think the most important thing is you need to do is to show that you will be able to work once you come to the US. A job offer letter from an employer is what many people do.

Me, I was going to continue to be self-employed in the US. So what I did is set up my US business, business bank accounts, etc while still in poland.

At the interview I was asked about what steps I took to reestablish domicile. The officer had all my domicile paperwork but did not look at it (maybe she look at it before talking to me).

So I said that I have living arrangements all set (had a letter from family member stating that I and my family can live there upon arrival), had a business set up where upon arriving I can go straight to work (she did ask what kind of work I will be doing), have bank accounts and credit cards. Was approved without any additional issues.

[I&G 2]

Hi I&G,

I know it's been a while since you posted this but maybe it's still a current question.

I was in the same situation. All the items you listed I also had, plus some US Credit Card statements. I did not sign a lease or purchase a car until I came to the US.

Regarding employment, I was also self-employed in Poland. I did not close the company until before we left for the US and it was not an issue at the interview. But I think the most important thing is you need to do is to show that you will be able to work once you come to the US. A job offer letter from an employer is what many people do.

Me, I was going to continue to be self-employed in the US. So what I did is set up my US business, business bank accounts, etc while still in poland.

At the interview I was asked about what steps I took to reestablish domicile. The officer had all my domicile paperwork but did not look at it (maybe she look at it before talking to me).

So I said that I have living arrangements all set (had a letter from family member stating that I and my family can live there upon arrival), had a business set up where upon arriving I can go straight to work (she did ask what kind of work I will be doing), have bank accounts and credit cards. Was approved without any additional issues.

Hi DM_G

Thanks so much for your response. That's really insightful. We've just started the NVC phase so still current.

I actually did consider setting up a US self-employed business, but wasn't sure I could have both a Polish and US one at the same time. So I guess what you did was continue to operate your Polish one until it was time to leave, while the US one was established to help prove domicile, but was not actually making any money since you were still in Poland. Is that right? If that is true, I will most likely do the same.

Did you have to travel to the US to set up the business, or can this be done remotely? Sorry if that seems like a dumb question, but I haven't looked that closely into this yet.

Many thanks

[DM_G 20]

Hi DM_G

Thanks so much for your response. That's really insightful. We've just started the NVC phase so still current.

I actually did consider setting up a US self-employed business, but wasn't sure I could have both a Polish and US one at the same time. So I guess what you did was continue to operate your Polish one until it was time to leave, while the US one was established to help prove domicile, but was not actually making any money since you were still in Poland. Is that right? If that is true, I will most likely do the same.

Did you have to travel to the US to set up the business, or can this be done remotely? Sorry if that seems like a dumb question, but I haven't looked that closely into this yet.

Many thanks

That's exactly correct.

I continued to operate my polish business, and the US business I set up was just sitting idle, not making any money, as to not complicate my taxes with "Urzad Skarbowy". But it showed the consular officer that I have everything set up to start working and support my family once I arrive in the US.

I set it all up over internet and phone. There are companies out there that will register an LLC or other corp for you, for a fee, which means you won't have to personally be present. They'll even mail all your paperwork to poland. Once your business is set up, then you can set up a business checking account. It's a little bit more difficult remotely as many banks want you to come in to do it. But if you still have a US bank account with online access, then it should be no problem to add a business account remotely. Since you'll be using a US address for the bank, you need someone who will open your mail to get the forms they need you to sign, send those forms to you to poland to sign and mail back to the bank. But I guess in reality you don't really need a business bank account at this point, you can set one up within 1 hour once you arrive in the US so it doesn't impact anything.

[I&G 2]

That's exactly correct.

I continued to operate my polish business, and the US business I set up was just sitting idle, not making any money, as to not complicate my taxes with "Urzad Skarbowy". But it showed the consular officer that I have everything set up to start working and support my family once I arrive in the US.

I set it all up over internet and phone. There are companies out there that will register an LLC or other corp for you, for a fee, which means you won't have to personally be present. They'll even mail all your paperwork to poland. Once your business is set up, then you can set up a business checking account. It's a little bit more difficult remotely as many banks want you to come in to do it. But if you still have a US bank account with online access, then it should be no problem to add a business account remotely. Since you'll be using a US address for the bank, you need someone who will open your mail to get the forms they need you to sign, send those forms to you to poland to sign and mail back to the bank. But I guess in reality you don't really need a business bank account at this point, you can set one up within 1 hour once you arrive in the US so it doesn't impact anything.

That's great. I'm definitely going to go this route as well. Hope to have the same success.

Thanks again! Very helpful for us.

[I&G 2]

Hi again DM_G,

Don't know if you're still responding to posts on this forum, but I have some questions regarding setting up a U.S. company while still having a company in Poland.

I've looked into doing this and the one thing that bothers me is how would my U.S. tax return look, when I have two companies in two different countries? I've got to report my earnings from Poland even though there is a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. The US company is sitting dormant and has no earnings and I am not even physically present in the US anyway so how does that work for domicile? Is the case you can have a US company, but not actually live in the US?

I mean I have no idea how long it will take for my wife's Green Card to be approved so this US company could be lying dormant for half a year. I'm assuming I've got to include this US company in my upcoming US tax return, so its just more paper work. It just seems like a strange set up from that perspective. How did you deal with this kind of stuff?

I would prefer to avoid all these extra hurdles and just tell them that I will set up my US operation as soon as I know that my wife has her GC approved, but I know things need to be official for the interview so I'm willing to put up with this if it will make things easier. I am just wondering what your experience was in a little be more detail.

Any additional insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks