US citizen moving to Canada - questions about taxes/finances

[deibler 0]

Hi everyone, my partner (Canadian citizen) is working under a TN visa in the US. We are planning to get engaged later this year. His company is hoping to move him back to Canada also later this year and I am hoping to go with him. I currently work from home for a US company, and they don't have an issue with me moving to Canada and working from there. Until we are married, I figured I could get a 6 month tourist visa. After we get married, I could acquire resident status. My questions are:

 

1. Can I acquire a tourist visa if my intent is to live there with my partner (not really be a tourist)? How long would the tourist visa last? How likely would an extension be if needed?

2. Can I acquire resident status while in the country on a tourist visa? So, if I move there under a tourist visa, we get married, can I get the resident status without coming back to the US?

3. Will I need to pay tax to Canada if I gain resident status, despite working for my US-based company?

4. How can I learn what is best to do with my financial accounts, for example my US IRA and 401k, investments, etc? It seems if I'm not working for a Canadian company or acquiring citizenship, I should just keep my US accounts how they are, but at some point if I want to work for a Canadian company, I would obviously have tax liability to consider.

[skyzee 182]

Hello

You are probably better off getting any Canada related questions answered in www.canadavisa.com, which is the equivalent of VJ for the US. But, I can answer to best of my knowledge having gone through the Canadian PR process recently to sponsor my spouse and understanding it rather thoroughly.

1) Yes, you can cross the land border with intent to visit for up to 6 months with no visa needed, but be extremely careful about what you bring with you (as minimal as possible), and what you say as well as the CBSA will scrutinize longer visits. You will also likely need to show strong ties back to the US in the form of a job and/or a lease/mortgage for longer stays. It's possible you may get by without being asked, but my spouse was denied entrance as she attempted to "move" to Canada after quitting job/no more lease and this continues to cause us nightmares going into Canada even after she got her PR. You can get an extension within Canada through the CIC. It's about $100 CAD and the first extension request is almost always approved automatically for another 6 months.

2) No residency status for visitor visas, but if you stay for more than half a year in Canada in a calendar year, you may need to file taxes. This information is available on the CRA website. As for family sponsored immigration, for Canada, there are two streams of immigration - inland and outland. Both require you to be married or common in laws for I think 1 or 2 years. Inland assumes that you will be living in the country with your spouse, and you will eventually receive a work permit after 3-6 months. The entire process is probably about a year right now. The stipulation is that if you exit Canada while inland is processing, and happen to get denied coming back into Canada, your application automatically gets withdrawn and you have to apply from the start again. You can also use outland, which is what my spouse and I did, and which is actually recommended for US/CA couples as it only takes about 4-6 months to complete and you would then get your full PR in Canada. Getting denied at the border, from what I understand, does not affect your outland application.

3 & 4) Probably no double-taxation due to friendly cross country tax treaties, but best to talk to a cross-border tax lawyer and financial planner about your specific situation and not just hear from some random joe blow on a forum.