Canasa

My husband (US citizen) and I (Dual Citizenship -> Canadian Citizen and US Naturalized Citizen) want to move to Canada. He has NO Canadian Status at all other then being my husband here in the States for the last 10 years.

How do we start this process? We have found a house we wish to buy as well, his company is global and told him he could transfer to Canada and work there. He is the one with the income, I don't work. We have no children to sponsor, it is just the two of us.

I see all this stuff about sponsorship, but I think what I need to be looking at is re-entering or landed immigrant? Can anyone help us and where do I start? I did my immigration by myself to the USA after we were married, so I understand most of it.

Can we cross the border, list all our contents, and then apply for his PR card and SIN#?

Help and thanks

RoyK

Sponsor him as your spouse nthrough VBuffalo RPC, fastest processing times.

You can do this while your in the states because you are Canadian see regulation 130 (2) you just have to arrive before or on the same date that he does.

Welcome Home

Roy
www.cvimmigration.com

Aou

You are already Canadian citizen, so just moving back. No problems here
at all.

As for your husband - let his company to transfer him. This will let
him to be able to live and work for extended period of time etc. And
start PR application then.

-Anton

Canasa wrote:
> My husband (US citizen) and I (Dual Citizenship -> Canadian Citizen and
> US Naturalized Citizen) want to move to Canada. He has NO Canadian
> Status at all other then being my husband here in the States for the
> last 10 years.
>
> How do we start this process? We have found a house we wish to buy as
> well, his company is global and told him he could transfer to Canada and
> work there. He is the one with the income, I don't work. We have no
> children to sponsor, it is just the two of us.
>
> I see all this stuff about sponsorship, but I think what I need to be
> looking at is re-entering or landed immigrant? Can anyone help us and
> where do I start? I did my immigration by myself to the USA after we
> were married, so I understand most of it.
>
> Can we cross the border, list all our contents, and then apply for his
> PR card and SIN#?
>
> Help and thanks
>
> --

sgallagher

Canasa wrote:
> My husband (US citizen) and I (Dual Citizenship -> Canadian Citizen and
> US Naturalized Citizen) want to move to Canada. He has NO Canadian
> Status at all other then being my husband here in the States for the
> last 10 years.
>
> How do we start this process? We have found a house we wish to buy as
> well, his company is global and told him he could transfer to Canada and
> work there. He is the one with the income, I don't work. We have no
> children to sponsor, it is just the two of us.
>
> I see all this stuff about sponsorship, but I think what I need to be
> looking at is re-entering or landed immigrant? Can anyone help us and
> where do I start? I did my immigration by myself to the USA after we
> were married, so I understand most of it.

Obviously, as a Canadian citizen, you can return simply by showing
proof of Canadian citizenship at a port of entry. For your husband to
reside and work in Canada, you will have to sponsor him for family
class immigration. Once approved, he will be given permanent resident
status (formerly referred to as landed immigrant status). This status
is the equivalent to holding a green card in the US, and it will allow
him to live and work in Canada unrestricted. After three years, he can
even apply for Canadian citizenship if he wishes.

More information on family class immigration can be found on the
website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada at:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/sponsor/index.html

You can sponsor your husband from abroad, and then once his visa has
been issued you can both travel to Canada.

As a side note, you may also want to know that as US citizens, any
worldwide income that either you or your spouse earn, even outside the
US, will continue to be subject to US taxation,
in addition to being subject to Canadian taxation (due to the fact that
you would be residents of Canada). There are credits and some
exemptions that can be taken to minimize double taxation, but a US tax
return must still be filed as if it would be if you were living in the
US. Most other countries, including Canada, do not use citizenship as
a determining factor for tax liaiblity, they generally use residency
(they tax you if you are a resident) or sourcing (they tax you if your
income was earned in that country). The US also chooses to use
citizenship and all US citizens are subject to US tax, regardless of
where they live.

dbcctbc

What everyone on here fails to state is that you should be aware that if your husband should ever lose his employment, living in Canada, there will be serious problems finding a new job.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Be prepared to return to the USA for employment should that problem arrise.

sgallagher

(snip)

> What everyone on here fails to state is that you should be aware that if
> your husband should ever lose his employment, living in Canada, there
> will be serious problems finding a new job.

Not if he enters Canada by having his wife sponsor him for permanent
residency. A permanent resident is free to take any employment in
Canada that someone wishes to offer him. As the spouse of a Canadian
citizen, obtaining permanent residency (under the "family class")
should be fairly straightforward as long as he meets the health and
security requirements. He would be issued an immigrant visa to
Canada, and they could then move to Canada where he would be able to
work for any employer, or simply keep his current employment as he
would like to. If he were to lose his job, there's nothing that would
hinder him from accepting work from a Canadian employer. Permanent
residents have the right to live and work in Canada, as long as they
maintain their permanent resident status.

ilovecats

You missed my point:

Obtaining good employment is difficult for most people in Canada, period. For those that weren't born and educated Canadian, there is a solid-brick wall type barrier among the vast majority of employers....ie. they don't even want to interview a "newcomer".

You say he'd be allowed to take any employment, blah, blah, blah. Employers many times don't care what document the Canadian government issued a person, if that person wasn't born and educated Canadian, or they don't know the right person, 95 times out of a 100 forget about it!

I've known people with permanent residency in Canada who could take any employment, I've known people with work permits that allowed them to take any employment.....these were all highly educated people, yet they got little to nowhere in the Canadian job market.

I also know a graduate student in Canada, a citizen, born and raised there, who is extremely talented, but can't get anything better than a temp or part time job! We believe this is partially because he is dark skinned [and there is still plenty of prejudice, albeit unspoken, in Canada] and also because there are just not that many opportunities for highly educated people in Canada. A lot less than people claim.

I've talked to many Americans, British expats and others, who have experienced this problem...some with PHD, MA or BA degrees.

This is discussed in detail in the July 11, 2006 article "Canada NOT welcoming to immigrants, study finds" in the Globe and Mail [Canada's best known newspaper] and the article refers to a recent study by Canada itself....which outlines some of these obstacles.

Unfortunately, on this forum, there are consultants and immigration lawyers whom profit off of people filing PR applications with Canada...and they seldom admit the realities of the job market.

Having known victims of this process, and having been one myself to some degree, I feel obligated to share my experiences, over and over in order to provide balance in this forum.


At least on this forum, I can respond and people can read my reply. On other forums, I've actually been cursed at and had my posts deleted.

Simply type in "not canada" in a search engine and see what you come up with.... one needs to hear and study both sides of the story, but the immigration consultants on the web try to flood it with only positive sounding things, and deny the reality of over 50% of people who immigrate to Canada and are ruined by the lack of employment.

Canasa

Wow! Thanks for all the help guys...!! I will certainly take all the advice seriously so I don't run into the brick walls I hit while doing my immigration to the US.

His company is global, and they can pay him through Canada, or US. They have a Canadian head office. Human resources is just looking into his transfer now. He will not be getting a paycheck from the US office, so I don't understand why we would have to pay US taxes? *ugh* so much to learn once again. WE are planning our move for spring 2007. So I understand we will have a "partial income" there for the months we resided in the States and will have to do income tax returns for BOTH Countries for the year 2007, but after that, he will be getting his payroll through the Canadian office there after.

I will get the PR forms and get going on sponsoring him from abroad so that we can get the process moving.

What is the average time to obtain a Canadian PR card these days?

Oh and.. WOW about importing our vehicles. I think we will sell my vehicle and just have ONE to import. Makes that a whole lot easier. Its a 2500 Dodge RAM - 2001 year model. We have the title on that one, as well I will get the paper work showing that all the recalls have been done and are up to date.

Thanks again. I am sure to use this forum often, as my situation changes,or as I have more questions. I found these forums much more helpful when doing my US immigration.

Canasa

Moms4tne

Canasa Wrote:
> Wow! Thanks for all the help guys...!! I will certainly take all the
> advice seriously so I don't run into the brick walls I hit while doing
> my immigration to the US.
>
> His company is global, and they can pay him through Canada, or US.
> They
> have a Canadian head office. Human resources is just looking into his
> transfer now. He will not be getting a paycheck from the US office,
> so
> I don't understand why we would have to pay US taxes? *ugh* so much
> to
> learn once again. WE are planning our move for spring 2007. So I
> understand we will have a "partial income" there for the months we
> resided in the States and will have to do income tax returns for BOTH
> Countries for the year 2007, but after that, he will be getting his
> payroll through the Canadian office there after.
>
> I will get the PR forms and get going on sponsoring him from abroad so
> that we can get the process moving.
>
> What is the average time to obtain a Canadian PR card these days?
>
> Canasa
>
> --

IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT: Your husband will not be able to work in Canada,
even by transfer from his US company, unless he applies for and gets a
work permit!! You should get that first, before you come across the
border, otherwise he is just a visitor in Canada, cannot stay longer
than 6 months and is prohibited from working (or going to school). The
work permit will give him status and allow him to stay until his PR is
approved. After you're here you can apply to sponsor him as an "In
Canada Spouse" but I'd start working to get all the paperwork filled
out now, and get his fingerprinting and stuff done for police/FBI
clearance while you're still in the States. He needs an FBI clearance
plus a police clearance for every State he's lived in for more than six
months since age 18. There are posts on this forum about how long a
police clearance is good for (I think only 6 months) so be careful to
time it right. My suggestion for a timeline: get the work permit, get
the fingerprinting, get back to Canada, submit your PR application.
After you've got your application "in the queue" get the medicals done
in Canada (cheaper) and mail in the requests for criminal clearance.
You will receive the criminal clearance back to you so you can submit
to CIC after, and the Dr will automatically submit the medicals. Best
of luck! Oh, in case you don't have it, all the forms are downloadable
from www.cic.gc.ca

Canasa

Again, thanks for the heads-up!

We have a house to sell here. When he talked to Human resources today, they said they would keep on paying him on the US side until he had his paper work in order to be paid on the Canadian side. He is a computer consultant and travels to the clients sites. They need someone with his knowledge of thier products in Canada right now. They send in US consultants from the northern States right now to bigger Canadian cities. I am not quite sure how it will all work out. He can reside here at his Mom's if needed until we have all his paper work done (that is if our house sells right away). His company employs 10,000 people and the Human resources dept here SEEMS to know how to make this happen? Time will tell though. I want to make sure that the immigration paper work is in our control though. I believe they could file the work visa's and such but I would rather it be a PR card so that he can work out of Canada.

EEEeek! He has lived in a few States, as well other countries. He is ex-military! I belive though ONLY Arkansas, Texas and Washington States since becoming 18.
I hope we don't have to worry about when he was deployed to other countries and how would we obtain secruity clearances for them? Or does that play a factor?

Timing is going to be the key here. NO one can say when our house will sell, and I am not quite sure when to start filing everything. We may have to live apart from the sounds of it. Or have him visit while the process is in progress. Oh how I remember all the documentation I went through myself.

Doing a LOT of reading...

Thanks again..
Canasa