Originally Posted by
Adam Smith
Yours is an interesting situation and may be an edge case that AC hasn't thought through. I'm not sure whether or not AC will consider you a US resident; [MENTION=46155]yyzgigi[/MENTION] had some helpful comments on that front.
Originally Posted by
keitherson
Keep in mind, AC is not the government. Their failure to carefully define resident in the T&C is likely intentional, like many contests, giveaways, promotions. There are many people they would likely want to include in this promo, such as snowbirds, students, diplomats, etc. or every Canadian in the US on a visa from TN to O1 who are not green card holders/permanent residents. Many of these people are also part of the potential market for a new credit card such as the new Chase Aeroplan card.
Originally Posted by
intenso_project
I totally get it and AC should definetely go after anyone and everyone that faked status, documents, etc. That's unacceptable. But they REALLY didn't think this one through. Is a person living the US on a student permit (a "non resident alien") excluded? Is in the immigration definition of resident? The IRS definition? Do you have to be residing ONLY in the US? What about dual-residents that spend time in both countries?
I think a very simple definition is whether you
reside in the US. A snowbird resides in the US (for part of the year). As does a student, diplomat, many TNs, etc.
They're not trying to exclude people below the definition of "green card holder". But they might be trying to exclude someone who is a "Canadian citizen that lives in Canada [and] also run a US-based e-commerce business".
What was their goal? To attract US-based frequent flyers. A Canadian resident who pays US taxes (which would actually include all US citizens living in Canada) was very clearly never their target.
You read the word "resident" and interpreted it a certain way. And maybe that was reasonable. But you were never their target. I have no doubt there.
Originally Posted by
intenso_project
Lastly, if they really wanted to just make sure you're living in the US -- send something in the mail with a code. Those how Amazon verifies physical address for sellers -- no need to share personal information.
There are dozens/hundreds of mail forwarding services. Or you can have friends/family receive it for you. That verifies you have (indirect) access to a specific physical address. It does not verify you live in the US.
When I worked at a large international company, I could have mail delivered to
any of our offices around the globe, and I'd have it on my desk within a week.
Originally Posted by
Quail
Also btw I did participate in the match and did not receive an address verification email. Most of my bookings start in the US and I flew enough to increase my status since the match.
I mentioned this upthread, but if all your bookings (for example) are round-trips from SFO, that looks a lot more like a US resident than if all your bookings are domestic Canadian round-trips. Or even round-trips from YYZ to the US.
Airlines are in very unique positions to make very good residency estimates. If 80% of your flights originate/terminate in YYZ, you almost certainly live in YYZ. I often book one-ways, but either I'm taking multi-day trips to YYZ, or multi-month trips to SFO. Though in either case it would be hard to argue I don't reside in SFO.