Bianca Jagger Evicted - Not a NY 'Resident.'
Bianca Jagger will have to move out of her NY apartment because she is only a visitor in the U.S. and cannot treat the apartment as her primary residence. The owner of the Park Avenue apartment can evict Jagger and raise the rent, currently over $4600 per month. Jagger had been withholding rent from her landlord due to issues with mould in the edifice. The landlord sued to evict Jagger and won. She must leave and pay back rent and possibly court costs.
The NY court of appeals agreed with the Landlord's immigration based strategy, focusing on the fact that a B-2 visa is for temporary visits and will not allow a person to 'live' in the U.S. or treat a U.S. residence as their primary residence. When NY rent-stabilized properties change hands, the rent amounts may be increased to the market rate.
This begs the question: What does it mean to live somewhere?
Under U.S. law, you may only live in the U.S. under certain types of visas, and a B-2 will not support anything but brief, casual visits (up to 180 days per visit for non visa waiver country nationals, and 90 days for those from the 27 visa waiver countries).
However, where someone 'lives' is not as simple as determining their nationality. Jagger had rented the apartment for 20 years, and routinely stayed in New York, although she also has an apartment in London, England. I submit that where someone lives is their own fiction, and where they feel at home. I routinely counsel individuals to know where they are entitled to live and where they are not, and to be very careful about the subtle but very important difference between living somewhere and simply visiting.
Work authorization and Tax returns are a good test. If you are allowed to visit, but not entitled to work or file a tax return in a country, you probably cannot consider yourself to be living there.
If you would like to learn more about this or any other U.S. immigration law issue, please contact one of our immigration attorneys directly at (206) 262-0561 Seattle; (360) 734-5260 Bellingham; (604) 495-6392 Vancouver; or email me - duncan@usborderlaw.com
We are happy to let you speak directly with an experienced immigration lawyer.
Park Avenue, New York
This begs the question: What does it mean to live somewhere?
Under U.S. law, you may only live in the U.S. under certain types of visas, and a B-2 will not support anything but brief, casual visits (up to 180 days per visit for non visa waiver country nationals, and 90 days for those from the 27 visa waiver countries).
However, where someone 'lives' is not as simple as determining their nationality. Jagger had rented the apartment for 20 years, and routinely stayed in New York, although she also has an apartment in London, England. I submit that where someone lives is their own fiction, and where they feel at home. I routinely counsel individuals to know where they are entitled to live and where they are not, and to be very careful about the subtle but very important difference between living somewhere and simply visiting.
Work authorization and Tax returns are a good test. If you are allowed to visit, but not entitled to work or file a tax return in a country, you probably cannot consider yourself to be living there.
If you would like to learn more about this or any other U.S. immigration law issue, please contact one of our immigration attorneys directly at (206) 262-0561 Seattle; (360) 734-5260 Bellingham; (604) 495-6392 Vancouver; or email me - duncan@usborderlaw.com
We are happy to let you speak directly with an experienced immigration lawyer.
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