U.S./Canadian Marriage...and high explosives -

My_question_is: Applicable to both US and Canada
Subject:        U.S./Canadian Marriage...and high explosives
Expert:         [email protected]
Date:           Tuesday January 29, 2008
Time:           05:57 PM -0000

QUESTION:

My girlfriend and I are thinking about marriage. She's Canadian and I'm American. We both live very close to the border (1.5hr drive  from my place to hers) We both have jobs that we love and neither of us wants to give up our jobs or citizenship. It seems that dual citizenship (of some form) is in order. Here come the questions:
1. I work for the U.S. xxxxxxxxxxxxx. By obtaining landed immigrant status in Canada will I still be able to keep my U.S. Gov't job?
2. In addition to having a U.S. Gov't job I will also be getting my blasters license for working with high explosives (job related) will this be affected in anyway? (I believe the blasters license is very similar to a class 3 weapons license in the sense that you need federal approval to obtain it.)
3. Will the effects be different (for the previous questions) if I became landed immigrant vs. Canadian citizen
4.If she obtains a green card or other form of residency other than U.S. Citizen is she obligated to pay "world" taxes to the U.S.?
5. Are there any questions that I should be asking that I haven't?

Thanks for doing the wonderful things you guys do!


 

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david ingram replies;

It is 10 x's easier for you to come to Canada then it is for you to take your wife to the US under the circumstances you describe.

If you  keep a full blown house / home in the US  and your job there and only visit on weekends, you can marry and spend time with her in Canada and she can visit you on alternate weekends in the US and neither of you need to immigrate to the other country.

If you decide to marry and your wife moves to the US, it will be harder and the resident rules are far more stringent and she loses her BC JMedical because she has a green card and is living in the US.  You will save a little tax becaus eof the joint tax return and federal foreign tax credits for the tax, CPP and EI she pays Canada.

If you move to Canada, you would qualify for BC Medical if you slept in BC more than 183 days a year.  Because you are a US Federal  Government employee, your US income is NOT taxable in Canada.  You woul dhave to file a tax return but would deduct all the US federal Government pay on line 256 under Article XIX of the US / Canada Income Tax Convention. If you became a Canadian citizen,

If you do not bother being sponsored as a full time resident and stay in the US and she visits you half the time, and vice versa, you can continue life as it is and she can as well.  You will save tax because you can file a US joint tax return and cut your tax down about $3 to 4,000.  -- And, of course, if you move to Canada, you can also file a joint return and save tax.

 

What you cannot do is carry any blasting caps or other explosives across the border.

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The following gives the paperwork she would need to file to sponsor you to Canada.  She nbeeds to use the guide at '1'  below