Bone Fide Resident

[defulio]

What is the name of your state? GA and FL

Hi again. If I am married to a Florida resident, and have my name on the lease in Florida, but for a short time (couple of months) after the wedding, live in GA, with a GA employer, paying rent and bills for a GA apartment, I am presuming that I cannot meet the requirements of a bone fide resident in Florida. Am I correct?

Kirsty

 

[ImmigAttyLana]

Probably not. Where are you planning to or where did you file the petition for permanent residence on the basis of your marriage?

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if I may be of further assistance to you in this matter.

 

[defulio]

Thanks for your reply Lana. I will be living in Georgia at the time that we file the petition for permenant residency (end of March this year). I will have just over 1 month of my traineeship to complete here at the University in GA. My OPT status and thus F1 status expire at the end of May (hence the end of my traineeship). My then to be husband lives in Florida, where I will move on the first of June. Should we send our petition to the relevant office for Florida? If so, do I need to be living in Florida at that time? Or, if I am living in GA, am I required to file in GA? I am concerned that I don't inadvertently delay the receipt of my interim EAD card following my application for change of status. We set the wedding for mid March so that we wouldn't need to survive more than a month or so on my fiances graduate student wages.

The reason I asked about bone fide residency is that if I can become a Florida resident before I fill in my paperwork for change of status, I won't have to change my address three times in as many months. I am guessing that it is not ok to use a P.O. box? There must be so many people in transit at the time their immigration status changes. What a headache!

Thanks again

 

[evcalyptos]

Thanks for your reply Lana. I will be living in Georgia at the time that we file the petition for permenant residency (end of March this year). I will have just over 1 month of my traineeship to complete here at the University in GA. My OPT status and thus F1 status expire at the end of May (hence the end of my traineeship). My then to be husband lives in Florida, where I will move on the first of June. Should we send our petition to the relevant office for Florida? If so, do I need to be living in Florida at that time? Or, if I am living in GA, am I required to file in GA? I am concerned that I don't inadvertently delay the receipt of my interim EAD card following my application for change of status. We set the wedding for mid March so that we wouldn't need to survive more than a month or so on my fiances graduate student wages.

The reason I asked about bone fide residency is that if I can become a Florida resident before I fill in my paperwork for change of status, I won't have to change my address three times in as many months. I am guessing that it is not ok to use a P.O. box? There must be so many people in transit at the time their immigration status changes. What a headache!

Thanks again

One layperson's opinion: Rent a PO box in Florida and use that as your permanent mailing address. Your primary residence is in Fla with your husband, you are temporarily resident in GA for your studies.

I don't know where you got this concept of 'bonafide resident', I've never seen that as a legal term for immigration purposes.

I hope that if there is anything not kosher about my suggestion, that Lana will pipe back in.

 

[defulio]

Thanks. Here is the source of my information. The question is whether the law will see my predominant and principle home as the home I share with my husband, despite the fact that I have two months left on the lease of another home, in another state, when I receive a wage check from that state.

Title XV
HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTIONS Chapter 222
METHOD OF SETTING APART HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTIONS

(2) Any person who shall have established a domicile in the State of Florida, but who shall maintain another place or places of abode in some other state or states, may manifest and evidence his or her domicile in this state by filing in the office of the clerk of the circuit court for the county in which he or she resides, a sworn statement that his or her place of abode in Florida constitutes his or her predominant and principal home, and that he or she intends to continue it permanently as such.

(3) Such sworn statement shall contain, in addition to the foregoing, a declaration that the person making the same is, at the time of making such statement, a bona fide resident of the state, and shall set forth therein his or her place of residence within the state, the city, county and state wherein he or she formerly resided, and the place or places, if any, where he or she maintains another or other place or places of abode. [/I]