Bankruptcy and US Citizenship
A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney comments on bankruptcy with regard to not being a US citizen...
Some debtors are not US citizens but they have debts in the US, and some even live in different countries. The question now is whether or not they are eligible to file bankruptcy in the US. 11 U.S.C. 109 allows any person to file bankruptcy in the US if they reside, have a domicile, place of business OR property in the US. What constitutes sufficient “property”? That depends on the court, but for most, even a simple bank account will suffice. Sometimes merely depositing funds into an attorney’s trust account meets the requirement. In other words, in most cases almost any asset here in the US will make a person eligible to be a debtor in bankruptcy. For practical purposes, you also must have a mailing address in the US where you regularly receive mail. This is not a legal requirement, but is practically necessary.
The next question becomes wherein the USA you can file bankruptcy. Typically, federal venue laws require that your case be filed in the district where you have resided (or domiciled or have your principal assets or business) for the greater part of the 180 day period prior to filing your bankruptcy case. But what happens if you’ve lived outside the US for more than 180 days? There is no definite answer to this, but in this situation you can file your bankruptcy case anywhere in the United States. Ultimately, the need to appear for the 341a meeting and the costs associated therewith, may outweigh the benefits to filing the bankruptcy. In some cases, depending on the reasons why, the US Trustee’s office or the court may excuse physical appearance at the meeting, but this usually requires a showing of medical necessity or military obligations.
If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!
