US citizen live/spending in Canada funded by a US salary?

April 4, 2008 12:44 PM

Is it possible for a US citizen to live in Canada and work remotely for a US company?

I'm currently applying for a skilled worker's immigration for Canada.

In lieu of that, what are my options, if any?

I'd like to move to Vancouver BC, but retain my current employment/relationship with a small web development company here in the US. My company does have a few professional contacts in the Vancouver area, but I can't imagine they'd sponsor me for a work visa if I'm not actually going to work for them.

Should I become an independent contractor? And if so, how would that work with a temporary visa - especially contracted with a US company?

Long term, I would like to gain permanent residency in Canada, hopefully with dual citizenship on the horizon.

Any suggestions? TIA

posted by whycurious to work & money (6 comments total)

You really need to talk to Immigration and see what they think. If you are self-employed, you need to be here for athletics or culture. If you are an entrepreneur, you need to bring $300k. See Immigration Canada. If you're coming here to work as a skilled worker, you need to be adding value to a (Canada-based) company that could not find a Canadian to hire.

You might be allowed to come as a visitor and maintain your US-based business. But perhaps you should ask Immigration that question anonymously.

IANAL or any kind of expert, although I used to work for Immigration Canada. This is not advice.
posted by acoutu at 1:24 PM on April 4, 2008

I have no idea, but I'd talk to a tax accountant in addition to a lawyer. I could easily see you getting screwed on taxes.
posted by meta_eli at 1:27 PM on April 4, 2008

[warning: exhaustive]

[and on preview, covered more succinctly above. But I just typed all this, so here goes.]

Okay: I'm currently working on getting my fiancée to move up here, and we've looked at a lot of the options pretty exhaustively. One of those, of course, has been a worker's visa.

Question 1: can you possibly jigger your job description to meet a NAFTA-listed job? That makes the whole process much freakin' easier, if there's a company thatwants to hire you. Check out the list of NAFTA jobs (link goes to PDF); if you can make yours fit, things get a little less strenuous.

Assuming you don't have a "NAFTAble" job, what needs to happen is:
a. A Canadian company needs to say "yes, we want to hire this person."
b. They have to prove that they have looked for somebody else to do the job, within Canada. This means placing ads, inquiring at temp firms, and whatever else needs doing to create a paper trail that proves that they absolutely positively had to import out-of-country talent.
c. They have to pony up fees and loads of paperwork (and some lawyerin') to give to the government.
d. They have to actually, well, hire you. If you don't wind up working for that company for the minimum time stipulated (not sure how long that is -- we never got that far), you get the boot.

That's for a fast-tracking employment visa.

You can also apply for a plain ol' "I just want to move to Canada and work there, all right?" vanilla visa. This is basically you saying that you have education and skills and are a swell person that would be a benefit to the country. This is also a fine way to get in, but is very difficult and takes forever unless you're a doctor, architect, or can cure cancer through the power of touch.

There are also Rich People Visas, that have something to do with investment and starting businesses, but I never looked at those as I'm poor.

Finally, there's the marriage/Permanent Resident Sponsorship route, which is what my fiancée and I are doing, but permanent residency takes 13 or so months to process and you can't work legally in the interim.

That being said...

On a casual no-you-can't-work-but-please-do-come-up-and-spend-money basis, any American citizen can spend up to six months in Canada for no particular reason, no visa required. You can't work legally while you're up here, but you can definitely find a place to crash where you want to live, look into employment opportunities, and if you find a company that likes you see if they will do the employment visa song and dance.

And that being said...

While you're "visiting," there's nothing that legally prohibits companies from outsourcing "virtual" work south of the border. If you have an official residence in the U.S. and a company is willing to bill you through that address, pay exchange, etc. there's nothing that says you can't be a supplier for that company, in town for a rather long business meeting.*

There are reasons that this is a bad idea; primarily the fact that you'll be an American citizen on Canadian soil, without your usual citizens' rights and without health insurance coverage.

If you have some disposable income, a post-secondary education (and even better a post-graduate degree) and some time to explore, I'd say you should get the ball rolling on a "vanilla" visa process, come and visit for a while to see if there are companies that will hire you, and then if you find a willing company start the faster employment visa option going.

Once again, company-that-will-hire-you + NAFTA-approved job = visa magic.

*well, maybe there is. IANAL, etc.
posted by Shepherd at 1:27 PM on April 4, 2008

When you say 'possible', do you mean regarding the Canadian gov't letting you live there? I am a US citizen who moved to Canada in 1996 and became a dual citizen in 1999. I did it the easy way, I married a Canadian. Without marrying a Canadian, you will be helped if you a) have a skill that is sought after and relatively uncommon b) have no criminal record, and c) speak French. Yes, speaking French will help you to live in Vancouver, even though Mandarin would be more useful. Canada is an odd place in some ways.
Also, having $5,000,000 will help a lot when you move to Vancouver.
If you were working for a US company and getting paid by them directly, you could probably just live in Canada and nobody would even know or care. Unless border controls have gotten stricter (I've been in the UK for the past 2 1/2 years so am a bit out of touch).
Not sure if this rambling answer was any help. Sorry and/or you're welcome.
posted by arcadia at 1:30 PM on April 4, 2008

I'll agree with a lot of what Shepard said. If you have a NAFTA-approved job offer from a company, you can get a temporary (one year) NAFTA work permit quite easily. This is a decent overview.

For this temporary permit (that can be renew ad infinitum, I believe), all you need is a job offer, proof of qualification, proof of US or Mexican citizenship and about $50 for the fees. They'll give you a temporary work permit at the border. I've known quite a few people who have done this, some Americans working in Canada and vice versa.

If you want to stay perpetually, I'd highly suggest looking into the BC PNP program. This also requires a job offer, but it fast-tracks your application for permanent residency.

If you don't have work with a Canadian company, as Shepard said, the whole process gets a lot more complicated and much slower.

I originally came to Vancouver from the States for graduate school. I'm now working for a small tech start-up and have applied for permanent residency via the BC PNP. I'm near the end of the process (if the sodding RCMP ever finish my background check), so if you want any more information, feel free to hit up MeFi mail.
posted by Nelsormensch at 1:56 PM on April 4, 2008

You can be contracting for a US company (as long as you're being payed in US dollars, into a US bank account) while visiting Canada, no problem. My wife did this while she was "visiting" me in Canada while awaiting her permanent residence, and I checked the legality with CIC multiple times. However, you would only have visitor status, which limits you to 6 months in the country at a time. It would in no way get you on a track toward a work permit or permanent residence.

There is also the possibility in this arrangement of being taxed in both countries. The CRA has a different definition of what "residence" in Canada means than the CIC, and you can be a resident according to the CRA without being a resident according to CIC. If CRA thinks you're a resident, you have to pay taxes in Canada on your US income, and you may also have to pay taxes on that income to the IRS, and you may not be eligible for the foreign tax credit that normally prevents double taxation.
posted by Emanuel at 3:59 PM on April 4, 2008