US Wife, CDN Husband, in Canada last 8 yrs, move to USA now?

Hi everyone..

so about 8 yrs ago I (canadian) married my wife (US Citizen), she moved here to Canada, we applied for PR inland, got it, and have been living here happily since..

But... now we are thinking of moving to the USA, and see how life treats us in Sunny South Carolina where her family is.

We currently live in Canada, and own a house here.
Only I have a job. (which I would obviously give up to move)
We Do own vacant land in the USA, but that is a bush property we visit for Camping trips, there is no address or mailbox or anything there, and we won't be living there when/if we move..

I have been looking this morning and everything I find says the USC must be living in the USA to sponsor me.. this is not the case tho..

it's been about 7 yrs since we've delt with any Immigration stuff (and even then, it was CIC) so this is all new to me again.

There are so many visa's for entry to the USA, and I really don't know where to start.. can someone please help me with which one to look in to??

.............I feel like just asking some questions at the Border in Buffalo on a trip to our Land, but I don't want to cause any troubles there either..

Oh, just to add, we were married in the USA, but have never lived together in the USA..
We got married in Michigan as it was quicker and cheaper than in Ontario.

Your spouse does not have to be living in US to petition you, but must at leas thave the intention to move there, and support you (or, at the very least support each other) financially.

See the IR-1 visa info on visajourney.com

She also needs to make sure her US tax filings are up-to-date (yes, she needed to file 1040 all these years).

ok... yeah we never filled out any US tax returns for her, she has done Canadian returns, but they were always pretty much $0. she worked for a few weeks one year, but thats it..
Can we fill out past returns and submit to IRS now? since she had no income it's not like she ever avoided paying taxes.. tho the last year she lived in the US she did work, and never did a return for that year...


She has problems and can't really work, not anything full time to sustain us, thats why i work.. so not sure how she can prove she will support us there, cuz she likely can't..

If she had no income, she doesn't need to file 1040. However, if she has an RRSP, and bank accounts, she needs to report their existence every year to IRS on Form 8891 and FBAR.

The rule of thumb is past 3 years on this.

ok, so we can fill out the last few years of returns for that..

what about the sponsorship.. i found some posts and guides on VisaJourney that say we could get a co-sponsor in our situation.. like one of her family members.. but thats no go, they're all welfare bums or retired.. her dad is a Retired Marine, he's the only 'normal' one in her family, but being retired I doubt he would qualify??

I am a Licensed Auto Mechanic, I make over $50,000 here, and I would likely have a job there rather quickly, but I can't get job there without visa first..

Thus the problem you have. You can't get mecahics job without your wife sponsoring yoyr GC. Those jobs are not eligible for work visa.

yeah I knew my job didn't qualify me through nafta.. I'm just pretty sure I'll find work once I get there is all, besides, we wouldn't leave here untill i had one lined up there. lol. Would they accept my future employer as a sponsor of some sort? or just an offer of guaranteed employment work in some way?

well looks like I'll be working hard on this situation then.. we'll figure something out..

thanks for your help so far eh.

If u have been reading VJ have u seen the Proof of Domicile topic: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic ... in-the-us/

At one time( it ceased this past August) 1 could file for Direct Consular filing (DCF) Which sped up the process a bit (http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum ... iscussion/) But it is no longer!

But back to the 1st link----Since ur married for over 2 yrs, you would be going for IR-1 Visa and going to Montreal for the Interview!! Which is panfully slow, but seems to be picking up speed, saw 1 VJ member where it only took 7 months, which is very fast for a IR-1 visa!! BUT where MTL has been a huge pain is that they want some pretty concrete proof that the USA citizen is moving back to the USA--all covered in that 1st post!! What has happened, is that people get to the interview and Mtl is not happy! SOOOO the USA citizen ends up going alone back to the USA and setting up a home and then mailing in proof they have!! BUT Mtl being so slow (prob due to staffing) they get the required info, but takes awhile to approve the Visa were talking many weeks to well over a month!! So what some have done is the USA citizen move back prior to the interview and set up residence and thus they have the proof when the Cdn citizen goes to the Interview!! And yes this has ticked many people off!! maybe things have changed. Lot of super info on VJ,step by step instructions on how to fill out the paperwork and its free!! Even a Canadian forum on it. And lots of info on Sponsors and what the min $$$ requirements are. The process itself is not that hard,its the waiting thats the pain

Hi everyone,
I don't mean to hijack this thread, but DO want to piggy-back since we're in a similar - but somewhat different - position. I'm an American citizen with PR status in Canada; my husband is a Canadian citizen. We've been married (and have lived together) for almost 25 years and due to down-sizing of both our jobs we are considering moving back to my hometown in Wisconsin.

We've seen a couple of choice properties there that would enable us to start our own business and we could pretty much afford a home outright if the sale of our current property in Canada goes as planned. Do you think this type of proposal would be a positive or negative in the eyes of Immigration? We both have university degrees and could always continue applying for other positions once we get settled - one of us would probably want to do that, anyway, to obtain those all-important health benefits!

Do you know if my husband would be able to work for me in our owned business? Would we be applying for an IR-1 visa for him? Should we start the process now and if so, where do we begin? Like the OP, I haven't been keeping up-to-date on my US tax filing, either, since it was always a 0 balance - I think I only did it the first 2 or 3 years of our marriage. Is it possible this year to file for the past 3 years and will that be enough?

Thanks for your help!
W_C