Thanks for the informative reply. I don't understand what it means when you say: "Pay close attention to US domicile for your USC spouse, and required US based income to sponsor you, Montreal is very strict on domicile. If your USC spouse has a valid job offer in the US, ask the Montreal US Consulate if they will accept the I-130, DCF (direct consular filing), which is much faster than the regular process."
My husband is self-employed and his business has always been US-based, currently in Nevada, so adequate US income with decades of history of earning it that way, so we should be OK with that. What is Montreal very strict about about domicile, can you explain what they are strict about? We live in Canada currently. We are considering buying a property in the US, but we know we can't live there until I get my paperwork done, but would visit as a vacation property in the meantime. Would that worry them?
I never had a problem visiting the US during my K-1 process, is there something I should be more concerned about with this process?
Also, I should mention that I am retired (I'm in my 50's) and not a job-seeker in the states (I never did work there, I kept doing contract work in Canada when I had my green card). I'm assuming that will have no bearing on anything bureaucratically, but should be seen as less of a threat by border security (when I first started visiting in my 40's, they were a little more high-strung and worried that I was going to be job-seeking and stay, but they have lightened up considerably for the past decade, partially I think border security culture has just become less abusive, especially since the Covid years, they are much more reasonable. I also have a long history now of never over-staying, and they would see that in their records)
Thanks again for the info, it really helps.