living in US - Need a visa -
QUESTION: Hi I am planning on buying a house just over the border in Washington. Everything else I will leave here in Canada, banking accounting medical car insurance etc. I will be crossing the border almost weekly Can you tell me what the stipulations are for something like this and the downfalls.--------------------
david ingram replies:
I give you an older answer which although not the exact same question, will give you an idea. You can NOT live in a house in Washington State and commute daily or weekly to Canada unless you have a visa to live in the USA. If y9u have a full blown residence in Canada and are talking about a vacation place, the answer would be different.
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Could you
please advise me as to the following:
1) Can an
individual relocate from
2) Can a
Canadian work in the
3) Having
rental property left in
4) If a
relocation is possible, and working in the
Thank you
very much.
Regards,
david ingram replies
This question is too general to answer. A 300 page book could be written and still not cover it.
1. There are no restrictions between Calgary and New Orleans. They are cities. A person can relocate from anywhere in Canada to anywhere in the US if:
a. They are a dual citizen or have a US E5 visa (requires investment of $500,000 to $1,000,000), an E! or an E2 visa (requires major investment)
b. They have a valid work permit as an H1, L1, TN, O1. In general, this means that they have a valid job offer and the company is sponsoring them.
c. They are a diplomat
d. They have married an American and are being sponsored by their US spouse
e. They have an American parent who is living in the USA and is sponsoring them
f. They are an internationally recognized entertainer or athlete and qualify for a P1 which is the only visa one can apply for without an existing employer.
g. They won the diversity lottery but people born in Canada do not qualify to enter this, OR, I guess
h they put in an application 16 years ago and it has come up.
Go to www.centa.com and click on 'Entering the USA' in th second box down on the right hand side for more info on individual visas and their requirements for the H1, L1, TN, etc. or just click here http://www.centa.com/articles/entering_the_united_states.htm
2. If they have a visa, yes.
3. If you leave a rental property in Canada, you need to fill in Canadian forms T1161, 1243 and 1244 with your departing tax return due by April 30th of the year after you leave and you need to file form NR6 BEFORE you leave.
4. It is then treated as a Section 216(4) return with forms T1139 and T776 filed each year to report the rent to Canada. The figures would then be converted to US dollars and reported again on the US return on schedules E and 4562. If any tax was paid to Canada, you would claim a foreign tax credit on the US 1040 by filling in form 1116.
If you had other investments in Canada, the financial institutions in Canada should withhold 10% tax on interest and 15% tax on dividends before you are paid the investment return. If you are a non-resident, there is no Canadian tax on capital gains for publicly traded shares. However, your shares and mutual funds and bonds and any other investment have to be reported on the 1161 from mentioned above and may be subject to departure tax.
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david ingram replies:
Unless you are an American citizen and / or married to a US citizen or marry a US citizen who will sponsor you to live in the US, it is out of the question.
Nothing stops you from buying a house in Blaine and spending Friday Sat and Sun night every week and keeping an apartment in Vancouver for the four nights a week (have to be in Canada more than the US for US border rules and BC Medical) but you can't be sleeping in the US every night or living in the US without a 'live there' visa and there is not any 'live there' visa.
And if you can afford the Blaine House, the commuting gas AND the Vancouver Apt, you can likely really afford to buy something smaller in the lower Mainland.
If you could get a US employer to hire you as a management consultant or scientific technician or computer system analyst or librarian, etc., one day a week in Bellingham, you could get a TN visa which would have to be renewed every year but MC TN visas are hard to get.
The reason for the one day a week suggestion is that you could still work in Vancouver.
The problem is that to live in the USA, visas are only for employees or spouses as a rule. You can apply for a green card but the last I looked it was over 15 years waiting time.
goto www.centa.com and read the 'Entering the USA' section in the second box down on the right hand side.
Last, but not least, if you do manage to make the move by marrying an American, your BC medical is canceled because you have to 'live in BC' and 'make your home' in BC to qualify. If you have extended medical benefits at work, they are also canceled because you need the basic plan to qualify. To replace a good corporate medical plan in BC will cost you $400 to $600 a month US.
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david ingram's US / Canada Services
US / Canada / Mexico tax, Immigration and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
My Home office is at:
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
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Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax or phone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.
$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries
Catch - up returns for the US where we use the Canadian return as a guide for seven years at a time will be from $150 to $600.00 per year depending upon numbers of bank accounts, RRSP's, existence of rental houses, self employment, etc. Note that these returns tend to be informational rather than taxable. In fact, if there are children involved, we usually get refunds of $1,000 per child per year for 3 years. We have done several catch-ups where the client has received as much as $6,000 back for an $1,800 bill and one recently with 6 children is resulting in over $12,000 refund.
Email and Faxed information is convenient for the sender but very time consuming and hard to keep track of when they come in multiple files. As of May 1, 2008, we will charge or be charging a surcharge for information that comes in more than two files. It can take us a valuable hour or more to try and put together the file when someone sends 10 emails or 15 attachments, etc. We had one return with over 50 faxes and emails for instance.
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