Guys,
If we are moving to Canda from US on a PR/Work Permit, how do we tranfer our money from a US bank account, for example BOFA.
Response would be geatly appreciated.
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You need to open a Canadian bank account first, and get the account number, routing number, the SWIFT code and any other info BofA requires to make the wire transfer. My bank usually charges $35 for one wire transfer and there’s a max limit ($10,000 if I remember correctly 
). It’s similar to how you will transfer money from USA/India
Anshul, thnaks for your response.
But how can I open a canadian bank account prior to moving to canada? Is this possible?
Also is it fine to keep my funds in my US BOFA account and move to Canada and then perform a wire transfer from BOFA to Canadian acccount?
Don’t know how it works!
No, in most cases you will have to land first as you only get your social insurance number (SIN) after you land and provide proof of landing to Service Canada (not Service Ontario, or Service Quebec etc, but Service Canada). They have an office in the airport which was closed the day I landed so I went to the Service Canada office in downtown Toronto. After I got my SIN I basically just walked for 5 mins in downtown and found RBC, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust in close vicinity. TD offered the best package with no fees for 6 months, a small credit limit credit card, US checking account as well, so I just took it. Other banks all had small fees that they wouldn’t waive. You will need your SIN number, passport, and stamped CoPR as proof or PR.
You can keep funds in US bank as long as you want and wire transfer it online. You might wanna take some cash/cashier checks etc to deposit in your Canadian account. Note that cash is immediate, cashiers check for me took 2 weeks to clear for some reason.
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Sounds good.
I just had a concern regarding keeping my funds in an US Bank account and leaving. But I guess I can access my US Account online and transfer funds to my Canadian bank account, once I set it up.
I had a similar concern about keeping my bank accounts and investments such as stocks in the US after having moved to Canada.
My understanding is that you’ll probably have to provide a US address for these firms that you have a relationship with. For instance, even though I choose paperless for banks and others, they still mail me notifications, promotions, or what have you occasionally.
I’d really love to hear from folks who have moved or are planning to move to Canada but have still have stocks, etc. in the US. What are other factors to consider, such as filing taxes? Thanks.
Hmm… good question I’m not sure how it works out after you leave because I haven’t left yet. Maybe give your friend’s address temporarily before you close your US accounts?
As an aside, you probably want to keep your US stocks/retirement/investment accounts, because it’s always more profitable to invest in US markets.
Doesn’t SSN expire/gets invalid when your Visa/EAD expires. Your US Bank account is linked to your SSN and when it expites, what will happen to your bank account and the funds associated?
No, SSNs never expire. Once you get one, it’s for life. The next time you are in US, say for work, you can use the same SSN. Whether or not it is “suspended” or “disabled” is a whole different question. You can go to your local social security office to re-activate or make sure your SSN still works by presenting the latest immigration documents.
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I know Canadian (citizen) friends who worked in US on H1 and they still have their US bank accounts.
Thanks Anshul for your replies. Realy appreciate it!
Keep in mind when you arrive in Canada it’s as if you’ve sold all your assets and re-bought them on that day. So if you had an investment that had gone from 20 USD to 100 USD Canada considers you got it for 100 USD so when you eventually sell it for say 150 USD you only pay taxes on 50 USD. This might be valuable when deciding if you should sell stocks, etc. As far I understand a house would also fall under this.
Also US has better investment options so if you have invested or want to do it now or if you already did then referee to the above. You can call most banks and give them your Canada address it’s fine all the big ones.
In addition to paying taxes for your gains of US investment in Canada, would you have to pay taxes in the US too for the same investment?
Thats a very complex question and requires detailed knowledge of your tax situation. There is a presence test you have to check if you satisfy also the rules are different for capital gains and other incomes. For the year you leave you have to pay full years taxes to the US and to Canada for the months you lived here. You can offset some taxes using credits you will gain for paying in either one of the countries.
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Hi!
We are moving to Toronto for good from the US and will be selling our house. What is the best way to move funds from the sale to Canada? We will move before the closing date of our house, hence the proceeds will have to be transferred later to our new bank account in Toronto. Any thoughts, advise or recommendations?
Might be worth opening a USD as well as a CAD account at RBC (or any other canadian bank which provides USD accounts). I guess it should be simpler to move money across same bank’s USD to CAD accounts. But I don’t have first hand experience yet on this, someone who might have done it should shed some light.
Hi Guys,
We moved to Canada recently and want to transfer the money from US to Canada. I checked transferwise as they give the best rate but they have an upper limit of $15K per transaction.
I also read that taxes in US/Canada have to be filed for any transaction above $10K.
Has anyone transferred large amounts of money from US to Canada (more than $20K) per transaction or as a total.
Thanks!
What… taxes for transferring money… Where do you guys get such information 
Can you please clarify… You can bring any number of dollars in Canada… Incoming is free and no issue…
Let me read your link too
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@RIVAL its your money you are transferring from US to Canada, there is no tax or anything at all. The simplest and cheapest way to do it is, open a US dollar account at any of the large Canadian banks, bring your US checkbook with you to Canada, write a check to yourself and go to the bank in person and deposit it into your USD account. This costs $0. You can convert that money to CAD at a later time at your convenience or invest it as is in USD or just leave it there.
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Hello @am1, could you please advice on the procedure to do online transfer from USA bank USD transfer to CANADA based USD account with RBC.
We tried couple of time but transfer gets declined stating recipient bank account not found though we double confirmed everything even with RBC banker.
Could you please share the process or any prior experience in general.
Thanks a lot.