US Immigration from Canada

Hoping someone could confirm what I think to be correct regarding TFSAs closure and needing to declare interest on US taxes.

I closed my TFSA and converted it all in USD and placed all this into a non interest generating checking account a few months before moving to the US and getting married. My husband and I are planning to file Married Joint for 2019 (moved to US and married in July ).

Since closing the TFSA the sum in USD has not generated any interest income so nothing to report there. When I closed the TFSA there was some interest generated I believe, do I report this on our US taxes? If so do I need to convert to amount into USD ? at what exchange rate?

Also does the fact that I bought US currency before leaving Canada have any tax implications for the Canadian taxes? I read somewhere something about if you bought US currency and the exchange rates are now different (which probably they are) you have to see if there was a gain or something? I'm really confused since it seems like a lot of hassle for something that is just bringing my money with me when moving countries. However, I want to make sure I don't overlook anything or accidentally make a mistake on taxes.

Thanks for any input!

Hi everyone,

I know these posts haven't been updated in a long while but I was hoping someone could shed some light on the whole TFSA thing in the situation that the TFSA was closed before moving to the US and the remaining money was put in a checking account. My account is still open even after moving to the US. Do I still need to report any interest if we end up filing Married Joint even though the TFSA interest occurred before I got married/moved to the US. Also I believe since moving it into the checking account the interest has been very little and I'm pretty sure my bank hasn't given me any kind of interest earnings statement. In this case do I just go month by month and add up the amounts?

Thanks!

here's my experience of POE at Blue Water Bridge (Sarnia/Port Huron). My husband and I drove from Kitchener, ON to Chicago,IL together.

we got to the bridge around 12:45PM. the border was quite busy and there were only 3 auto lanes open.

we got to the border kiosk. My husband handed over our passports and informed the officer right away that he was with his wife who is immigrating today. the officer asked if i had my packet. i said that it is a cr-1 visa not k-1, and everything is electronic. the officer told us to put the car in park. (thought maybe he was gonna search the vehicle). but he just walked over to the neighbouring kiosk and spoke to that officer (im assuming he was asking for assistance). he came back to his kiosk and told us to pull up to the office and go inside (as we were expecting).

after we pulled up to the office. the officers standing outside told us we could take any papers and id/wallets, but to leave any bags/purses, and phones in the car. we started walking to enter the office and then noticed the officer open our left side back door to peek inside. my husband told them to be careful with the right side as we had the car super packed and things may fall out. the officer said "oh i was just taking a peek to make sure there weren't any other people in the vehicle". (all that to say they didn't inspect the car or anything, despite it being packed with my personal belongings).

once inside, an officer called us up and took our passports. again, this officer asked me if i had my packet. i told him no as everything was electronic. he then told us to have a seat. a while later he called just me up and asked if i had any forms or anything. i told him all i got was the "welcome to usa" info paper. i grabbed it from the car and gave it to him. showed him the bolded line where it says that everything is electronic and all i need to bring to the border was my passport. he took a quick glance at it and dismissed it (im assuming he realized there wasn't any info on there that helped him). he told me to sit back down. after a while a second officer was with him and they seemed to be going through stuff on the computer together.

finally, they were able to pull up my file and the officer called just me up again. he asked me when we first met. i told him dec 2014/jan 2015 in Michigan at a church conference. He looked at me like are you sure. i looked back to my husband sitting and second guessing myself asked him "we met in 2014 right?" he said yeah. and then the officer asked me when we started dating. i told him march 2017. and again he had the same are you sure look. and then he said that it says on the file that we met "at church in 2016". at no point has 2016 ever been a milestone marking year for us, so we were very confused. husband assumed it was a human transcription error. i tried to convince the officer that we def met in 2014 and that i wasnt sure what the 2016 date would have referred to. he said he'd let it slide, but from this point on, the officer was quite suspicious of the validity of our relationship.

he told me to sit down again. after some time, both my husband and i were called up. the second officer (seemed more senior), then explained to us the whole thing about the stamp (temp, authorized to work,etc). the original officer proceeded to stamp my passport and wrote the date and expiry. then told us to sit down again so he can just finish processing [on the computer].

after a while, he called jsut me up. and asked me again how long we've known each other and how long we've been dating. i was not ready to do any simple math, so i just said since [dates] again. i told him earlier that i was recently unemployed due to this visa process, and he asked me about my last job. then he asked me if i've ever met his family. and i told him yes we visit each other every 1-2 months since we've gotten married. he was then looking at me as if he was trying to think of some more questions to ask me, but then he finally handed me back our passports and let us go about our way.

we were out of there around 2:30PM

not the smoothest experience (based on other people's POE accounts), but we made it through, so i'm thankful.

So, my k1 has been approved as of Feb 26th 2020, the interview went well. The lady said "looks like everything is in order. Congratulations" and with that I left the consulate. And then worries started hitting me.

Was I supposed to stick around after the interview to sign anything? They scanned my finger prints and did the oath and all that. I haven't heard anything since.

The https://ais.usvisa-info site says my current status is "appointment". And the https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/ just says my number is invalid but I've heard a lot of people have that issue.

Do I just wait? She said it'd take about 3 weeks. Anxiety inducing with the unknown.

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are in the process of waiting the I-130 to be approved. Meanwhile, I want to ask for this year's tax return, do I need to include my income and financial information into my husband's tax filing? My husband(U.S. citizen) is in U.S., and I am in Canada now. All my incomes are Canadian dollar.

One more question:

If my husband starts to move to Canada to work soon, does his Canadian dollar income also need to file the tax in U.S. or not?

Thank you so much for your information!