My wife and I are on an H1B and are about to send our passport next month to get the PR Visa but we don’t want to move to Canada immediately.
What are the implications of working in the US, on H1B, for 1 - 2 years, after the initial landing in Canada? My understanding is that if we move to Canada, 2 years after we get the PR, we would have to be in Canada for 730 days out of the next 3 years to maintain our PR. That seems to be doable, even with International travel during those 3 years. I have the following questions in this regard:
Would this affect our PR Renewal/ Canadian Citizenship in any way?
What are the tax implications of doing so? Specifically, is there any double taxation that would come to play?
If doing this is fine, any advice on how we should handle our 401k, ROTH IRA and Real estate investments in the US? Specifically, if anything should be done to these assets before landing, during landing and before moving permanently?
Also, does anyone here have personal experience doing this?
As a general advice, I would suggest that you comb through various existing posts to find the answers you need. And then cross-check the information you get with official sources. I am pretty sure some/most of your questions have already been answered. I will try to give quick responses to some of your questions. Take my responses with a grain of salt as I am not an authority, and cross-check it.
To maintain PR, you need to be physically in Canada for 2 out of preceding 5 years (not 3 years as you mentioned). If you are working for a Canadian employer for those 2 years, you might even get away with working remotely for that employer from another country and still count that time towards PR. But that doesn’t work for citizenship. You have to be in Canada physically for 3 years total. So, you have between 2-3 years that you can stay in US or elsewhere after you get your PR and before you move to Canada. 2 is safer to leave room for outside-canada vacations and such.
I don’t want to comment on taxes as I am not a tax expert and neither have I actually gotten the PR and had to deal with it.
About retirement investments, the general advice seems to be to just move it to IRA and keep it with a US bank and withdraw at retirement. US has a generally strong economy and so your money might grow faster there. I don’t know anything about real estate investments.
Thanks @vijay4454 !
I did search through posts but could not find any that talked about completely living and working outside Canada while on PR. I apologize if I asked a question that is well-answered.
Also, just to clarify, I did mention 2 years (730 days) out of 5. I said that if I stayed outside Canda for 2 years then I have to be in Canada for 730 days in the next 3 years, to satisfy the 2/5 requirement with a 1-year cushion for travel outside Canada.
@dousedfire Am also in the same situation, planning to stay in US for 1-2 years to see if S386 will make any progress. we can live and work outside of Canada after the initial landing, as long as we fulfill the 730 day requirement.
As far as taxes go, we’d be considered non-resident since we don’t have strong ties to Canada like owning property etc, and have 0 Canadian income, so we don’t need to file for taxes (not 100% sure about this, will probably check with a tax expert next year).
In terms of investments, I don’t have much, so I am planning to liquidate everything when I move. No need to do anything about these for the first landing though.
I am sure most of the folks here are maintaining their 401K accounts even when living in Canada.
Are you guys still paying the monthly maintenance charges ? Is there a way to avoid it ?
I am with fidelity and want to know if there is a way to avoid these charges.
Hello @ashpdx did you get an advise from tax expert? I am in same situation, I got PR last year and haven’t moved to Canada yet but living in US at the moment. I was wondering if I have to file a tax return in Canada also?
Hi @asavpatel92, I have not consulted a tax expert on this. This was just my interpretation of everything I could find online through CRA’s site. To be safe, please check on CRA’s site and consult an expert if you are not sure.