IR-1/CR-1 Montreal DQ'd private message group goes public CONTINUED

[Skaur0609 145]

15 hours ago, Abhikochar said:

Hey guys, we have a bit of a situation on our end. All this while we were waiting for my husband's interview. We finally got the IL in Feb for interview on March 26th. But his Canadian police clearance doc expired in Feb 2021. My husband went to get a new police clearance the day he received the IL, but UPS probably lost it as we still haven't received it. So my husband got another one done yesterday which might not arrive before his interview date. Has anyone been in this situation having to go to interview with an expired police clearance cert? Do they even interview you or do they send you back? I am anxious at this moment. Not sure if we should just wait and keep this Interview date and mail the consulate the new police clearance after the interview is done or should we ask for another interview date? 

Please advise your thoughts if anyone has gone through this situation. 

We didn't have updated PCC. After consulte received PCC, it took 2 week to get status change to issue.

[han21 1]

On 3/2/2021 at 5:35 PM, Hawk Riders said:

Your visa is valid for 6mos after issuance, as is your medical exam. Whichever of those 2 has the earlier expiration is the due date for your visa activation. Individual mileage will vary

What you *don't* want to do is try to cross only to be told your medical exam has expired.

You are absolutely right. I actually called CBP to ask this and other issues I have. I need to cross the border before IV expires date which was 6 month after my medical exam. 

[Meghan.brooke 60]

Does anyone know the next cut off date for the next batch of interviews? 

[han21 1]

On 3/3/2021 at 5:27 AM, plvt said:

So I've been doing a ton of research regarding this. This is what I've found:

 

1. Close out your TFSA's because you will be taxed on it ALL every year, regardless of capital gains/losses. There is no fee to close out your TFSA. You are also correct regarding the non-resident contribution 1% tax. It is better to contribute to an American retirement account such as a Roth IRA

2. You can keep your RRSPs without penalties due to the Canada-USA Tax treaty. Keep in mind the treaty is a federal agreement and states are not bound to it. Some states do tax your gains. I do know California, CT, NJ do tax your income yearly on RRSP. I will try to find out which other states are included. I personally would not contribute to a RRSP as a Canadian non-resident because you cannot defer your taxes. 

3. You are able to keep a checking account in Canada when you become a non-resident. Be sure to change your address with the bank. If over $10k you have to file a FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts ).

 

From the IRS website: 

"... you don’t need to report foreign financial accounts that are:

• Correspondent/Nostro accounts,
• Owned by a governmental entity,
• Owned by an international financial institution,
• Maintained on a United States military banking facility, 
• Held in an individual retirement account (IRA) you own or are beneficiary of,
• Held in a retirement plan of which you’re a participant or beneficiary, or
• Part of a trust of which you’re a beneficiary, if a U.S. person (trust, trustee of the trust or agent of the trust) files an FBAR reporting these accounts.

 

I can't offer any advice on importing cars, not knowledgeable on that topic. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for sharing ! I guess I need to close my TFSA to avoid all headaches I might go through after moving to the USA. 

[Hawk Riders 814]

9 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

Does anyone know the next cut off date for the next batch of interviews? 

Of course not. We just see how far down the line the Consulate gets...

[han21 1]

On 3/2/2021 at 7:04 PM, Lovewithoutborder said:

Keep in mind that what you see on the CRA website is only going to tell you about Canadian taxes paid on your accounts while a non resident. 
 

I actually paid to speak with a cross border tax accountant to ask all the questions regarding my finances before I move.
 

The USA does not recognize Canadian tax free savings accounts as tax free so you would be subject to pay US tax on Canadian TFSA’s so if possible I’d recommend closing that out. 
 

RRSPs are under tax treaties and are not taxed by the USA (except for 2 states I believe, California and one other one I don’t remember). I only had less than 5k in mine so I withdrew all of my funds and cancelled out the account just because I wanted less stress.

 

Other than that you are allowed to keep open Canadian bank accounts and credit cards while being a non Canadian resident, however, keep in mind that when filing your taxes in the USA you will have to declare any out of country assets you have over $10,000 usd (I think?). Also he mentioned that you have to file a form or something the year you move since you will have income in both countries, i spoke with him a few months ago so I don’t remember 100% what he said but basically the first year you move the taxes will be more difficult, but after that as long as you stay a non resident of Canada and have no Canadian income you won’t have to file taxes in Canada. I told the accountant I spoke with I wanted to keep everything as simple as possible and when I move I only want to file taxes in the USA and not have to worry about any of it because I am illiterate when it comes to taxes and numbers and accounting. For that reason I am closing out all of my bank accounts and credit cards and my RRSP here except for 1 chequing and one credit card just to help with the transition period when I move, as well as easier transfers to friends and family in Canada. 
 

If you or anybody else has any questions regarding finances I can try my best to answer them based on what I was told by the accountant during my consultation. 

Thank you for sharing the precious information. I am illiterate as well for all this tax issues. My husband and I have an accountant in US, and he said only bad thing about keeping TFSA because I guess it gives him so much headache. I haven't seen him for 2 years because pandemic. Sadly, i guess I need to close TFSA. Thank you! 

[Meghan.brooke 60]

4 minutes ago, Hawk Riders said:

Of course not. We just see how far down the line the Consulate gets...

Well I wasn't sure! Everyone seems to think you know everything but I guess not lol good to know..

[Hawk Riders 814]

7 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

Everyone seems to think you know everything but...

[legendqueue 163]

What a coincidence on the car import TPMS question. Peace Arch *may* let you import the car that's missing TPMS if you have the letter of compliance showing all you are missing is the TPMS but are otherwise compliant. However it's a bit of a roll of the dice as some officers will be fine with it and some won't -- when I crossed without my letter of compliance the officer didn't care about TPMS, but the officer I called after getting my letter did. An aftermarket one is apparently fine (again, probably depends on the officer).

 

This would be a big inconvenience any year, but any other year I'd just put the car up for sale and go north and unload it, then buy a new one down here with my wife. This year that's obviously not an option since I no longer have a place to quarantine for two weeks, plus quarantining two weeks alone so I can sell a car seems absurd.  So I'm hoping the aftermarket TPMS does the trick otherwise I don't know what I'm gonna do.  Can you even insure a car that's not imported?  Does the 1 year to officially import the car come with a "temporarily imported" thing?  The WA requirement is to register a car within 30 days of moving to Washington, and my ICBC insurance is only good as long as I'm conforming to all WA regulations, therefore my ICBC insurance is no good in a bit over two weeks.

[sjb17 192]

On 3/1/2021 at 3:56 PM, legendqueue said:

To a mailbox on the road in front of the house. I hope you get yours sorted quickly. Mine didn't arrive by courier or anything like that, it was unceremoniously put into the box along with a septic cleaning service ad and a copy of my wife's W2.

 

On 3/1/2021 at 4:42 PM, Dania A said:

I'll be moving to WA state and am now wondering what we can do to prevent that, especially if the apartment/mailbox slot will most likely be under my partners name and not mine. I hope you'll be able to get yours without any problems though, please keep us updated! 

 

On 3/1/2021 at 4:51 PM, SSS24 said:

I'm also moving to WA state and will need to figure this out too. Thanks for the heads up!

 

 

 

Thanks for adding your experience @DGF. Happy to report I got my SSN in the mail on Monday night (2 weeks after POE)! 🙏 I had called the SSA office again and the second person I talked to assured me that if your mailbox just has a number associated with it and no name attached at all (as is the case for me), then the mail person will drop it off without issue. It's only in instances like DGF mentioned, where you're in an apartment and there IS a name attached to the mail slot, that you can possibly run into the issue of not having your mail dropped off if your name isn't included (apparently to prevent risk of fraud). The SSA office similarly recommended taping your name onto the mail slot if you can't get the building to add your name to it in time. Hope this helps for everyone wondering!

[sjb17 192]

18 hours ago, OhSoFaizy said:

Hello,

 

After my interview on March 1, I checked my application status on ceac.state.gov which was updated today....it says the visa is ISSUED but then it also says that it is going under admin processing. Is this typical? How long can potentially this AP go on for given that they kept my passport? Some people say it could take months? The officer did however say that i should expect my passport in 2 - 3 weeks. 

Yes, it's normal. Based on experiences shared here lately (and mine), your status should change to "Issued - your visa is in the final stages of processing" once administrative processing is finished. Lately, for some it's taken just a few days and for others a little longer. Just keep checking back for the change in language underneath the "Issued" status.

[legendqueue 163]

Oh, also found out that my GC is arriving this Saturday, 16 days after POE!  Apparently the lawyer advice we got, which was to pay the immigration fee only after crossing at POE, was good (at least for me, a small sample size).  He said that if you pay it before stuff can get mixed up for whatever reason and it can take months to get the GC, but if you pay after the various systems align and you get it quickly.  Your mileage may vary of course.  It's nice to have a couple of things in this process finally go smoothly 😛 

[sjb17 192]

15 minutes ago, legendqueue said:

Oh, also found out that my GC is arriving this Saturday, 16 days after POE!  Apparently the lawyer advice we got, which was to pay the immigration fee only after crossing at POE, was good (at least for me, a small sample size).  He said that if you pay it before stuff can get mixed up for whatever reason and it can take months to get the GC, but if you pay after the various systems align and you get it quickly.  Your mileage may vary of course.  It's nice to have a couple of things in this process finally go smoothly 😛 

Interesting - my green card is arriving today, 17 days after POE but I paid the USCIS processing fee before POE - so that may not be the rhyme or reason behind why some are received quick and others not. Who knows though. Wholeheartedly agree with you about things finally going smoothly in this process. It's been a long time coming!

[legendqueue 163]

3 minutes ago, sjb17 said:

Interesting - my green card is arriving today, 17 days after POE but I paid the USCIS processing fee before POE - so that may not be the rhyme or reason behind why some are received quick and others not. Who knows though. Wholeheartedly agree with you about things finally going smoothly in this process. It's been a long time coming!

Equally interesting! I guess there's nothing to be assumed from our two data points then and I'll go with "there's no rhyme nor reason to it" and that the lawyer I talked to just happened to have a set of people have good luck paying after and bad luck paying before. 

[Lovewithoutborder 69]

35 minutes ago, legendqueue said:

  Can you even insure a car that's not imported?  Does the 1 year to officially import the car come with a "temporarily imported" thing?  The WA requirement is to register a car within 30 days of moving to Washington, and my ICBC insurance is only good as long as I'm conforming to all WA regulations, therefore my ICBC insurance is no good in a bit over two weeks.

Here’s another question that is probably completely overthinking because all I seem to ever do during this immigration process is stress and overthink.
 

Hypothetically, If you have 30 days to register and insure your car in the state that you move to, and your ICBC insurance only covers you as long as you conform to that states regulations, can you register and insure your car while still having a BC license?

 

Like what happens if your SSN takes more than 1 month to arrive and you can’t get a drivers license for the state you live in without a valid SSN? Because then if you can’t register or insure your car in your state without a state drivers license, and you can’t get a state drivers license without an SSN, and your SSN is taking longer than the 30 days given to you to register and insure your car, and you’re no longer within the state guidelines so ICBC won’t cover you, then how are you suppose to get insurance or drive? It seems like there’s tons of rules for everything and certain fine print and stipulations for each government office and insurance office you deal with, however, none of the rules or offices or policies take each other into account. 
 

This doesn’t just go for car insurance or drivers licensing either, like getting a lease, getting a job, a lot of things seem to be like this, where you can’t do one thing without having the other, but you can’t do the other without doing the thing you can’t do without the other. I might be overthinking it, but from the sounds of it, if you don’t get your GC and SSN decently quickly, it could make your life really difficult trying to get everything switched over and organized and finding work really.