his employment for the Canadian firm. His selling territory in the United States embraces customers in the States of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California and Washington. These customers are produce packers whom he calls on for the purpose of selling them these bags as he has in the past 2 years. He enters the United States for this purpose 3 or 4 times a year for a period of 10 days to 2 weeks. The applicant is paid a commission of four-and-a-half per cent and earns approximately $1000 a year on the sales he makes in the United States. The employer testified that it would not be profitable to engage a salesman in the United States to sell these products since there is not enough business to warrant such employment. Under the provisions of section 101 (a) (15) (B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act a nonimmigrant visitor is defined as an alien having a residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning and who is visiting the United States temporarily for business or temporarily for pleasure. The applicant satisfies the first part of this definition and the remaining question is to whether he is a visitor for business. The term "business" as used in section 101 (a) (15) (B) refers to legitimate activities of a commercial or professional character but does not include purely local employment or labor for hire (22 CFR 41.40 (b)). Innumerable cases have arisen, some of which present borderline situations which require a determination as to whether the applicant is a nonimmigrant or an immigrant. Previous cases have laid down the following significant considerations to be stressed: (1) there is a clear intent on the part of the alien applicant to continue the foreign residence and not abandon the existing domicile; (2) the principal place of business and the actual place of eventual accrual of profits, at least predominantly, remains in the foreign country; (3) while the business activity itself need not be temporary, and indeed may be long continued, the various entries into the United States made in the course thereof must be individually or separately of a plainly temporary nature in keeping with the existence of the two preceding considerations.1 Both the special inquiry officer and the Service representative at oral argument have cited a number of cases to sustain their respective positions. None of the cited cases appears to be particularly helpful. Analyzing the facts in the instant case, there is no doubt of a clear intent on the part of the alien applicant to continue his foreign residence and not abandon his existing Canadian domicile. The principal place of business of the firm which employs him is in Canada and it appears that the applicant is paid in Canada. The actual accrual of profits from his work (or wages) appears to take 1 Matter of G- -P255; Matter of M 4 I. & N. Dec. 217; Matter of G6 I. & N. Dec. 533. 6 I. & N. Dec. place in Canada. Since he is a full-time salesman the amount of commissions he earns from sales in the United States would appear to constitute a minor part of his total income. There is no doubt that each separate entry is of a plainly temporary nature in keeping with the existence of the two previous considerations. His situation appears to be similar to that of a sales representative of a Canadian. advertising firm who was admitted as a temporary visitor for business to solicit accounts of long standing which would continue indefinitely in the future. It is believed that the entry of the applicant is in furtherance of international trade or commerce and that he may properly be regarded as a nonimmigrant. The order of the special inquiry officer will be affirmed. Order: It is ordered that the appeal be dismissed and that the order of the special inquiry officer dated July 10, 1958, admitting the applicant as a temporary visitor for business for a period not to exceed 14 days be and the same is hereby affirmed. 2 Matter of G- 6 I. & N. Dec. 255, 257, footnote 3, citing Matter of SA-6877300. See also unreported Matter of H, A-7142296 (June 17, 1949), and Matter of G, A-7142287 (June 22, 1949), in which Canadian farmers coming here for 2 days to solicit orders of farmers and hay dealers in Bangor, Maine, for purchases of hay obtained in Canada were held to be coming temporarily to do business of a commercial nature which was not permanent or continuing, although both had been here a number of times before. MATTER OF MDS & LG & W-DC In EXCLUSION Proceedings A-11135619 A-10367389 Decided by Board December 12, 1958 Resident alien-“Commuter"-Commuter status lost when alien has been out of employment for 6 months regardless of validity of Form I-151 as reentry document. Regulation authorizing use of Form I-151 as reentry document for resident alien who has been absent from United States for period not exceeding one year does not cause any change in long-standing rule relating to commuters. Loss of commuter status occurs, as before, when the alien has been out of employment in the United States for more than 6 months. (Cf. Matter of L—, 4 I. & N. Dec. 454, and Matter of H——0— 5 I. & N. Dec. 716.) EXCLUDABLE: Act of 1952-Section 212 (a) (20) (8 U.S.C. 1182(a) (20))—No visa, no passport. BEFORE THE BOARD Discussion: The cases come forward on appeal from the District Directors at Detroit, Michigan, and at Buffalo, New York, from decisions rendered by two special inquiry officers on September 12, 1958, September 29, 1958, and October 6, 1958, directing that the applicants be admitted as Canadian resident commuters. The cases have been combined inasmuch as they involve a common set of facts and point of law. The first case involves a native and national of Canada, 51 years old, widow, female, who was admitted to the United States for permanent residence at Detroit, Michigan, on November 26, 1957, upon presentation of a nonquota immigrant visa. Her status was adjusted on the date of her admission to that of the Canadian resident commuter and she has always maintained her residence in Riverside, Ontario, Canada. She commuted daily to Detroit, Michigan, where she was employed as a saleswoman by a jewelry firm until December 10, 1957, but has not been employed since that date. She testified that she stopped working on December 10, 1957, in order to be with her husband, then seriously ill, who passed away a few days later. She then lost the services of her housekeeper upon whom she depended to look after her child while she was employed in Detroit and was not able to find another satisfactory housekeeper until a month before her application for admission. For this reason she was unable to seek and procure reemployment in the United States but she now has been offered employment by her former company or another prospective employer, both of whom have solicited her services. She claims that she has not abandoned her commuter status and that she is still entitled to the privileges reserved for a returning resident alien. She is in possession of a "temporary” Alien Registration Receipt Card which she used as a border-crossing identification card while commuting to work. She apparently had been issued this card when admitted for permanent residence and one of the conditions specified on the card limited its use to returning after absences not exceeding 6 months. Another Alien Registration Receipt Card was mailed to her at her Canadian address on December 8, 1957, but she has no knowledge of receiving this card. The second case concerns a native and national of Canada, 26 years old, married, male, who was admitted to the United States for permanent residence on November 18, 1957, upon presentation of a nonquota immigrant visa. His status was adjusted immediately after admission to that of a Canadian resident commuter upon a showing that he was returning to his residence in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and was destined to employment as a salesman for a department store in Detroit, Michigan. He was laid off on December 28, 1957, and since that date has made constant and almost continuous efforts to find other employment in the United States without success. This appears to have been due to the widespread unemployment in Detroit since the spring of 1958. In the meantime he did odd jobs in Canada and availed himself of unemployment benefits to support his family. He has found that an opening may be available again with his former employer in the United States and seeks to reenter as a commuter despite the fact that he has not been employed for almost 9 months. He is in possession of an Alien Registration Receipt Card, Form I-151 (edition of September 11, 1956), which serves as a border-crossing identification card. The third case relates to a native and national of Canada, 21 years old, married, male, who was admitted to the United States on September 10, 1957, as a nonquota immigrant. He retained residence in Canada and was employed in Buffalo, New York, from October 12, 1957, until March 14, 1958, as a production man for General Motors. At the time of his employment he obtained a Form I-151, Alien Registration Receipt Card, which serves as a resident alien's border-crossing card. During his employment he was recognized as a commuter. However, he was laid off on March 14, 1958, be cause of lack of work and has sought employment in the United States on various occasions since then without success. He now desires to seek work in the United States. He testified that about 3 months prior to his application for admission he desired to move to this country from Canada but his wife was then pregnant and was unable to move. Since that time she has had a child. The applicant intends to establish actual residence in this country within a short time and intends to have his wife and child join him as soon as they are able to do so. The three cases have a common set of facts. In each case the alien was admitted for permanent residence upon presentation of a nonquota immigrant visa, their status was immediately adjusted to that of a commuter, they were employed in the United States while residing in Canada, and in each case the alien has been out of work for more than 6 months. It appears to be the Service contention that the so-called commuter category is available only if the person has not been unemployed in the United States for 6 months and that beyond that period they are no longer eligible for the commuter classification or for treatment as returning resident aliens. The special inquiry officer, however, has equated the status of the aliens with that of permanent resident aliens and in view of the extension of the period of validity of the Form I-151 to a period of one year, has concluded that the aliens are eligible to return in possession of Forms I-151 as returning residents. The applicants belong to a class known as commuters, namely, aliens who are lawfully admitted for permanent residence but continue to retain their place of residence in foreign contiguous territory while commuting to their place of employment in this country. This anomalous class of immigrants known as "commuter" is fully treated in Matter of L, 4 I. & N. Dec. 454. After the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act, since that act was silent with regard to commuters, it was again necessary to consider the question and it was decided in Matter of H—0——, 5 I. & N. HDec. 716, that this long-standing practice had not been disturbed by the enactment of the new act. In numerous cities along the international boundary lines to the north and to the south of the United States live many aliens who each day journey to their jobs on the American side of the border and at the end of the same day usually return to their homes on the other side of the frontier. At the same time there exists a somewhat smaller daily movement of Americans to and from jobs in Canada and Mexico. This flow of aliens across the frontier posed no administrative difficulty until the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 which laid down universal rules for documentation and classified all arriving aliens as immigrants unless they fell into |