CEN-TA Cross Border Services - Tax, Visas, Immigration: B-1 for self-employed advertising consultant seeking U.S. clients -

As an advertising consultant specializing in creating website-enhanced sales text and audio narrative, as well as TV/radio ad campaigns, am I permitted, under a B-1 visa, to conduct 'cold' sales/prospecting calls in the U.S. over a 2-3 month period, seeking to create new clients, provided that I create no work whatsoever in the U.S., deliver no work whatsoever in the U.S. and arrange for all fees to be paid directly to my Canadian office?Thank you, David. (Would it be under the B-1 'sales calls', 'contract negotiations' or 'adevertising personnel' category that I'd qualify?)Sincerely,

-----------------------------------
david ingram replies:

As long as the work you do is in Canada, you may make all the salescalls you want to institutions in the USA. Three months is likely toolong. However, it depends upon what time the USCIS officer at theborder says. You can NOT make individual sales calls door to door inresidential areas but you can call on businesses.

If you take an order for a website or campaign and do any of it in theUS, you are deportable. For the record, I personally know and haveseen the paperwork banning a computer programmer from the USA for fiveyears. He made/produced a website for a motel/hotel in lieu of payingfor a motel room when his car broke down and he had to wait a week orso for it to be fixed. He did it on the premises while waiting for hiscar to be fixed.

If he had said, I will do it for you when I get back to Canada and themotel owner had trusted him enough to give him the room on spec. However, even then he could have been hit for accepting the paymentwithin the USA. Better, he had paid the bill with a credit card andthen they had sent him a cheque for the samre amount and he did it onhis return to Canada.

How did he get caught? Well, after waiting a week or so, the vehiclewas not repaired waiting for some exotic part. He returned to Canada. when he went to go back and get his car he told the USCIS border agenthe was going down to get his car and after close questioning why andwhat had happened. KAPOW!, he had confessed to working and was bannedfor 5 years

Another person I know very well was banned for TEN years in similarcircumstances. He was from India and had been in the US workingillegally by overstayong his visa. Rather than return to India, heklept on working in the US and applied to Canada as a skilled immigrant.

He got Landed Immigration status in Canada and flew up to Toronto to'land' and find a job at the same time. When he went to fly back toCalifornia to get his car and television set, he was questionedextensively and his overstaying his visa staus came up. VABOOM, he wasbanned for TEN years. He had to hire someone to go and get his carand close up hi9s apartment in California.

If this seems wierd. let me give you a comparison. If eithr of thesepeople had robbed a convenience store three or four years ago, youwould expect them to be arrested and jailed.
Well, in the USA, Canada, Russia, Germany, etc., etc. violatingimmigration law can be equally as serious as a spontaneous robbery andcan have equally disastrous results.

As the IllegalIMMIGRANT AND LEGAL IMMIGRANTRESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996. says:

Overstayyour visa more than 180 days and you ARE banned from the U.S. for threeyears. Overstay your visa by more than 1 year and you ARE banned fromthe U.S. for 10 years. (Section 301 - effective April 1, 1997)

On February 11, 2008, DavidIngram wrote:

It is very unlikely that blind or unexpected email to me will beanswered. I receive anywhere from 100 to 700 unsolicited emails a dayand usually answer anywhere from 2 to 20 if they are not from existingclients. Existing clients are advised to put their 'name and PAYING CUSTOMER' in the subject lineand get answered first. I also refuse to be a slave to email and donot look at it every day and have never ever looked at it when I am outof town. e bankruptcy expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service and help

However, I regularly search for the words"PAYINGCUSTOMER" and always answer them first if they did not get spammed out.For the last two weeks, I have just found out that my own email notesto myself have been spammed out and as an example, as I wrote this onDec 25, 2007 since June 16th, my 'spammed out' box has47,941 unread messages, my deleted box has 16645 I have actually lookedat and deleted and I have actually answered 1234 email questions forclients and strangers without sending a bill. I have also put aside847 messages that I am maybe going to try and answer because they lookinteresting. -e bankruptcy expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service and help

Therefore, if an email is not answered in 24 to48 hours, it is likely lost in space. You can try and resend it but if important AND YOU TRULY WANT OR NEEDAN ANSWER from 'me', you will have to phone to make an appointment. Gillian Bryan generally accepts appointment requests for me between10:30 AM and 4:00 PM Monday to Friday VANCOUVER (Seattle, Portland, LosAngeles) time at (604) 980-0321. david ingram expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service and help.
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:

4466 Prospect Road
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
(604) 980-0321 Fax (604)980-0325

Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax orphone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.

email to [email protected]
www.centa.com www.david-ingram.com

Disclaimer: This question has been answered without detailed information orconsultation and is to be regarded only as general comment. Nothingin this message is or should be construed as advice in any particularcircumstances. No contract exists between the reader and the author andany and all non-contractual duties are expressly denied. All readersshould obtain formal advice from a competent andappropriately qualified legal practitioner or tax specialist for experthelp, assistance, preparation, or consultation in connection withpersonal or business affairs such as at www.centa.com. If you forward this message, this disclaimer must beincluded." e bankruptcy expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service and help.

David Ingramgives expert income tax service & immigration help to non-residentAmericans & Canadians from New York to California to Mexico family, estate, income trust trusts Cross border, dual citizen - out ofcountry investments are all handled with competence & authority.

Phone consultationsare $450 for 15 minutes to 50 minutes (professional hour). Please notethat GST is added if product remains in Canada or is to be returned toCanada or a phone consultation is in Canada. ($472.50 with GST if inCanada) expert US Canada Canadian American MexicanIncome Tax service and help.

This is not intended to be definitivebut in general I am quoting $900 to $3,000 for a dual country taxreturn.

$900 would be one T4 slip one W2 slipone or two interest slips and you lived in one country only (but werefiling both countries) - no self employment or rentals or capital gains- you did not move into or out of the country in this year.

$1,200 would be the same with onerental

$1,300 would be the same with onebusiness no rental

$1,300 would be the minimum with amove in or out of the country. These are complicated because of theback and forth foreign tax credits. - The IRS says a foreign tax credittakes 1 hour and 53 minutes.

$1,600 would be the minimum with arental or two in the country you do not live in or a rental and abusiness and foreign tax credits no move in or out

$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries

$3,000 would be all of the above andyou moved in and out of the country.

This is just a guideline for US /Canadian returns

We will still prepare Canadian only(lives in Canada, no US connection period) with two or three slips andno capital gains, etc. for $200.00 up.

With a Rental for $400, two or threerentals for $550 to $700 (i.e. $150 per rental) First year Rental -plus $250.

A Business for $400 - Rental andbusiness likely $550 to $700

And an American only (lives in the USwith no Canadian income or filing period) with about the same things inthe same range with a little bit more if there is a state return.

Moving in or out of the country orpart year earnings in the US will ALWAYS be $900 and up.

TDF 90-22.1 forms are $50 for thefirst and $25.00 each after that when part of a tax return.

8891 forms are generally $50.00 to$100.00 each.

18 RRSPs would be $900.00 - (maybeamalgamate a couple)

Capital gains *sales) are likely$50.00 for the first and $20.00 each after that.

Catch - up returns for the US where we use theCanadian return as a guide for seven years at a time will be from $150to$600.00 per year depending upon numbers of bank accounts, RRSP's,existence of rental houses, self employment, etc. Note that thesereturns tend to be informational rather than taxable. In fact, ifthere are children involved, we usually get refunds of $1,000 per childper year for 3 years. We have done several catch-ups where the clienthas recieved as much as $6,000 back for an $1,800 bill and one recentlywith 6 children is resulting in over $12,000 refund.

This is aguideline not etched in stone. If you doyour own TDF-90 forms, it is to your advantage. However, if we put themin the first year, the computer carries them forward beautifully.

This from "ask an income trusts tax service andimmigration expert" from www.centa.com or www.jurock.com or www.featureweb.com. David Ingram deals on a daily basis with expatriate taxreturns with multi jurisdictional cross and trans border expatriateproblems for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, UnitedKingdom, Kuwait, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan,China, New Zealand, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, Georgia,Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Scotland, Ireland, Hawaii, Florida,Montana, Morocco, Israel, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Mali, Bangkok, Greenland, Iceland, Cuba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, StVincent, Grenada,, Virgin Islands, US, UK, GB, and any of the 43 stateswith state tax returns, etc. Rockwall, Dallas, San Antonio Houston,Denmark, Finland, Sweden Norway Bulgaria Croatia Income Tax andImmigration Tips, Income Tax Immigration Wizard AntarcticaRwanda Guru Consultant Specialist Section 216(4) 216(1) NR6 NR-6 NR 6Non-Resident Real Estate tax specialist expert preparer expatriate antimoney laundering money seasoning FINTRAC E677 E667 105 106TDF-90 Reporting $10,000 cross border transactions Grand Cayman ArubaZimbabwe South Africa Namibia help USA US Income Tax Convention. Adviceon bankruptcy e bankruptcy expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service and help .

David Ingram expert income tax service and immigration help andpreparation of US Canada Mexiconon-resident and cross border returns with rental dividend wagesself-employed and royalty foreign tax credits family estate trust trustsincome tax convention treaty advice on bankruptcy

New York, Boston, Sacramento,Minneapolis, Salem, Wheeling, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta,Pensacola, Miami, St Petersburg, Naples, Fort Myers, Cape Coral,Orlando, Atlanta, Arlington, Washington, Hudson, Green Bay, Minot,Portland, Seattle, St John, St John's, Fredericton, Quebec, Moncton,Truro, Atlanta, Charleston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego,Sacramento, Taos, Grand Canyon, Reno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Sun City,Tulsa, Monteray, Carmel, Morgantown, Bemidji, Sandpointe, Pocatello,Bellingham, Custer, Grand Forks, Lead, Rapid City, Mitchell, KansasCity, Lawrence, Houston, Albany, Framingham, Cambridge, London, Paris,Prince George, Prince Rupert, Whitehorse, Anchorage, Fairbanks,Frankfurt, The Hague, Lisbon, Madrid, Atlanta, Myrtle Beach, Key West,Cape Coral, Fort Meyers, Berlin, Hamburg, Warsaw, Auckland,Wellington, Honolulu, Maui, Kuwait, Molokai, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo,Manilla, Kent, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Red Deer, Olds, MedicineHat, Lethbridge, Moose Jaw, Brandon, Portage La Prairie, Davidson,Craik, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey,Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Oslo, Munich, Sydney,Nanaimo, Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, Perth, Athens, Rome, Berne,Zurich, Kyoto, Nanking, Rio De Janeiro, Brasilia, Colombo, BuenosAries, Squamish, Churchill, Lima, Santiago, Abbotsford, Cologne,Yorkshire, Hope, Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon, Fort MacLeod, Deer Lodge,Springfield, St Louis, Centralia, Bradford, Stratford on Avon, NiagaraFalls, Atlin, Fort Nelson, Fort St James, Red Deer, Drumheller,Fortune, Red Bank, Marystown, Cape Spears, Truro, Charlottetown,Summerside, Niagara Falls, income trust, Income Tax Treaty Convention. - e bankruptcyexpert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service andhelp.

davidingramInternational non-resident cross border expert income tax service &immigration help estate family trust assistance expert preparation& immigration consultant, income trusts experts on rentals mutualfunds RRSP RESP IRA 401(K) & divorce preparer preparersconsultants Income Tax Convention Treaty. adviceon bankruptcy expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Taxhelp.

Be ALERT, the world needs more "lerts". bankruptcy expert US CanadaCanadian American Mexican Income Tax service help. -expert us Canada Canadian Mexico income taxservice and help help