Thank you @spai. Your prompt response is much appreciated.
After our soft landing, we dragged our feet for almost a year before making the final move to Canada. A year later, despite some of the well known drawbacks (high COL, taxes, compared to pay etc), I think it’d have been better (in our case) to move asap after soft landing (glad that we didn’t bother much of 386/1044/140 dates).
So I can certainly understand the reason for hesitation 
As for your questions:
- IIRC, it is 5 years from your first landing
- Yes, you can enter Canada as long as your PR card is valid.
I read somewhere that the 730 days in last 5 years requirement is to renew the card. So entering on last day of validity and then staying for 730 days may be possible. You may want to confirm this with a lawyer or a registered immigration consultant. - Not sure
- Kubeir Kamal is quite popular, but I’ve no experience with their service.
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- Check if you have been (or will be) present in Canada for 730 days in the five years preceding September 2021 or December 2021 or another date- if yes then you keep your PR status.
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If you don’t meet your PR residency obligation and you travel to Canada with a valid PR card, I guess your entry will be at the discretion of the border officer.
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Probably not.
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No recommendation.
Good luck with 2016 PD.
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Doesn’t hurt to apply for EAD if company is paying for it. If you already have Canada PR you can only stay outside Canada for 2-3 years before you need to move here or risk losing PR. If you’ve not yet applied for PR it gives you more time and security in the US (note that CRS score is age-dependent so there’s that).
It appears 386 / 1044 has gone away again. And the dates of filing has gone back to Jan 2014… i’m kind of in the same boat but not sure if there’s much movement anymore at this point …
I completely understand the hesitation and the inertia to move.Have you considered other options of coming back to US from Canada like the TN visa, consular processing or plain old H1b?
- It is 5 years from date of landing.
- You may not be able to renew your PR if you don’t meet the residency requirements.
- Nope. I am in the same boat and checked with a lawyer about that and she said that since PR holders are allowed to travel from USA during covid-19 restrictions, that reason won’t stand. She said they haven’t been lenient and it is on a case by case basis only for people with extenuating circumstances.
- I did a phone consultation with a lawyer from myvisasource.com for a small fee, but that was the extent of my interaction with them.
As I contemplate moving this is one of the most difficult thing to answer - will the new admin do anything to help us? Biden says he’ll get rid of country caps and it almost happened with s386.
I am in a similar situation, I finished my landing and still living in USA. My pr card expires in jan 2024, and I have until jan 2022 to move to canada inorder to satisfy the 730 days condition to qualify for renewal. My usa EB2 PD is 2014 April . I am planning to get a job in detroit and see if I can live in windsor and work in detroit , knock on wood, and gods grace , peace
Hi guys! We are looking to make the move to Toronto from Chicago within the next couple of months. I’m in the data science space and so is my wife. We have a 2 year old and an 8 month pup that we will be bringing along too. While I evaluate my job offer from a fast growing fintech company in Toronto, I’m shocked at how expensive everything is. From housing to food to auto insurance to taxes ! I imagine a lot fewer dollars in hand at the end of the day to invest, save for retirement or for our child’s education. This is by far the concern especially with a new administration here in the US that may finally be able to fix immigration.
Would love to hear how you guys feel about the move from a financial aspect. I understand the freedom that comes from not having to fret about the next renewal but the trade off seems pretty large ?
@abscrazyfast could you give more specifics about what items (electronics, food etc) you are comparing and in which stores (Walmart, amazon etc) You will get more meaningful feedback if you include specifics.
Also for tax bracket, if you could provide which tax bracket you will be in Ontario vs Illinois, it be helpful in making the comparison. You can use https://neuvoo.ca/tax-calculator/ to do the comparison.
For savings and investment, there are things like tax free savings accounts (TFSA) in Canada which are not there in the US. Also, there is RESP for savings for education. You may want to do more research into savings and retirement in Canada specifically.
Regarding housing in Toronto and GTA, yes it’s very expensive and it is due to high demand. The difference might be quite large when compared to places like Chicago.
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I lived in the bay area for six years. Given the high cost of living there, I wasn’t surprised much here in GTA. I paid over 2700 in rent for a 2 bed apartment in CA. Now I pay about the same for a more spacious 3 bed townhouse in Oakville in a good school district. My utilities, groceries, internet are all about the same in CAD. I was able to use my past insurance history to get a good deal on the car insurance. I’m paying almost the same on my car lease. For daycare, we paid close to 2k a month in CA but it is about 1200 here. So I think it depends. From an expenses standpoint, GTA is more comparable to the bay area I would guess. Except for housing, I dont know how different it is from Chicago though.
On the bright side, I pay almost no premium for medical insurance. And I dont have to worry about a 300 grand college education for my kid.
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I never thought I’d say this: what you mentioned are some of the benefits of staying in the Bay Area. One is so badly bruised that it doesn’t matter where you move from the Bay Area, you don’t feel surprised. I used to pay 3k for a 900 sqft apartment plus utilities. State tax in CA is the highest in the USA. A two bedroom apartment is 800K and a livable single family house is 1.5M!
I am glad that I did not move here from the midwest, Texas, and Oregon! That would been really hard to digest!
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Which is exactly my issue haha. Moving from Chicago is definitely very different from SFO for instance and the sticker shock is real 
If your employer(s) permit it and if its something you prefer, you can set up a WFH arrangement, heading to the office (that too when they are ready to reopen) once a while as needed. Covid has accelerated remote work and made it more acceptable. You can find a nice house in the burbs or even in a town/village out of the GTA that’s more affordable.
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That is not a bad plan, before COVID many people used to do that and the half day spent in Canada counts as full day towards citizenship. Not sure how feasible it is after COVID and WFH.
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Objectively and realistically speaking, any immigration fixes made might take a while to positively affect skilled professionals depending on the fix and on individual circumstances. If fixes actually work then moving back to USA later might also be a good option after a few years.
Regarding expenses, yes everything is a bit more expensive here; I might be generalizing but Canada is largely an exporter of raw material and importer of finished goods therefore the added cost. Add to that the taxes. It does benefit you indirectly since healthcare is free, and government support is good during rainy days (Employment Insurance, Govt pension plans, and relatively safer communities etc.). If both are earning then it is not hard to save $$.
Houses are really expensive in GTA I agree, this is largely due to HUGE demand and insufficient supply. Things might change if zoning laws are relaxed but that is a long shot.
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Chinese-American, moved up here to BC from California. I’m going to write a blog post about the details of moving up, for anybody who’s interested. Short summary:
- Everyone says Vancouver is $$$, but compared to the Bay Area it’s still much better (for housing)
- You need a PR, or provincial nomination to buy a house.
- Eating out here, and the restaurant scene is much better than even in California. It’s cheaper, tax is lower, and finding variety of stuff is super close (15-30 min tops, vs say Bay Area I have to drive often more than an hour to get anywhere, or God forbid two hours to get to SF from South Bay)
- Gas is more expensive, so is car insurance.
- Bringing your car up here is a HUGE pain. It’s very convoluted, documentation very poor.
- I find much more nature and biodiversity up here. So many greenery, trails, waterfalls, and water everywhere. Of course it also rains much more.
- Tons of software and hi tech jobs here in greater Vancouver, and tons of green tech jobs too.
- HOWEVER, US tech jobs pay WAY more.
Overall: make your $$ in the US, but enjoy it in Canada.
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Hi, did you happen to write the blog post? We are planning for the move and will benefit from any details you have 