Anyone commute for work and keep a second residence?

[AussieDude 0]

Hi all,

I'm still a year away from removing conditions, but still want to make sure I'm prepared ahead of time. My situation is that I have a job in Northern California, and I'm required to be up there about half my time, however my company is flexible enough to allow me to work from home in Southern California when I'm not needed up there.

My USC wife was/is originally from Southern Cal, and there really isn't much work for her up north (TV/Film production which basically means 98% of the industry is in LA), and I didn't want to turn the job down as when I moved here my wife was unemployed (the wonderful TV/film industry is pretty much ALL freelance so you never know what you're going to get). She also wanted to pursue some of her own projects, so basically I was the money earner for about 6-9 months. So we decided I would commute and we got a place up there. (I work in the tech industry by the way and I have same problem in Southern Cal as she would in North Cal).

Here is my question. All of our correspondence comes to Southern Cal since that was her address before I moved here, and we have kept that on everything. However, the lease in Southern Cal is in her name and we don't want to change it as she lives in a rent controlled apartment (adding me means a new lease, and resetting the rent to current market rates). However, our Northern Cal lease is in both our names.

My dilemma is that in a year's time, what should we show? If I show the joint lease, it shows that we live seperately (even though its in both our names), which would raise question marks. The other option is not to mention it at all. Any advice, any other commuters out there who have filed for removal conditions?

Thanks in advance

By the way, for information, here is other things I do plan on showing next year:

* Bulk of our money rests in joint accounts, and salaries go into joint checking

* Car insurance is joint

* She had a bunch of student/credit card debt before we got married, and we've been paying those jointly

* Both our cell phone accounts are with same provider (not under joint name though)

* 90% of our bills get paid from our joint account

* We have all our correspondence to our Southern Cal address

* We have a lot of friends who know us as a couple

* Have photos from various events since I've arrived (eg Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, One year anniversary, Friend's wedding etc)

(Unfortunately, no joint loans/mortgages or kids yet, we want to wait till we're debt free)