Tall, blond and pretty Canadian citizen
May 20, 2010 6:17 AM Subscribe
[Canadian citizen vs non-resident status filter]
Hi Metafilters!
A good friend of mine, an immigrant who became a Canadian citizen few years ago, returned to her home country, got married there, got a child and wants to stay there for indefinite length of time. She wants to keep her Canadian citizenship though. What problems she will face here in Canada if she became non-resident? What are the ramifications if she does not?
1. How being non-resident will limit her access to things that citizenship entitles? Is she loosing anything by becoming non-resident? What happened if she decided to come back to Canada with her husband and a kid?
2. What problems she should expect with Canadian government if she does not want becoming a non-resident? I am interested in all possible issues that she might expect from the Canadian side, for instance, difficulties in crossing the boarder if she decided to return, access to health services, school system etc.
3. Are there any legal alternatives to becoming a non-resident? Do you know about any legal options that would allow somebody to stay abroad for the extended length of time without giving up their citizenship?
Please tell me whatever you know about it from your personal experience!
Thanks a lot!
1. How being non-resident will limit her access to things that citizenship entitles? Is she loosing anything by becoming non-resident? What happened if she decided to come back to Canada with her husband and a kid?
2. What problems she should expect with Canadian government if she does not want becoming a non-resident? I am interested in all possible issues that she might expect from the Canadian side, for instance, difficulties in crossing the boarder if she decided to return, access to health services, school system etc.
3. Are there any legal alternatives to becoming a non-resident? Do you know about any legal options that would allow somebody to stay abroad for the extended length of time without giving up their citizenship?
Please tell me whatever you know about it from your personal experience!
Thanks a lot!
She may want to consult a tax accountant who has experience with Canadians living abroad. I'm not very knowledgeable about the whole process, but I'm lead to believe that a bit of pre-planning can save a lot of hassle later on down the road.
posted by kaudio at 6:49 AM on May 20, 2010
posted by kaudio at 6:49 AM on May 20, 2010
Another Canadian citizen non-resident here; I've lived in the U.S. for over ten years now. The only way for a Canadian to involuntarily lose citizenship is if she acquired it by fraudulent means; the relevant section of the Citizenship Act is pretty clear on this. (Scroll down to "Part II: Loss of Citizenship".)
One thing that you can't necessarily do if you live outside Canada for too long is voting: after five years, you are no longer eligible to vote from abroad. (See paragraph 222 of the Canada Elections Act.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:22 AM on May 20, 2010
One thing that you can't necessarily do if you live outside Canada for too long is voting: after five years, you are no longer eligible to vote from abroad. (See paragraph 222 of the Canada Elections Act.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:22 AM on May 20, 2010
A friend of mine is a Canadian citizen living in the US. I seem to recall that he is required to go back to Canada for some period of time every __ years in order to renew something or other. Not sure whether that's something specific to American permanent residency or Canadian citizenship, though.
Yeah, I'm just that helpful :P
posted by Madamina at 7:22 AM on May 20, 2010
Yeah, I'm just that helpful :P
posted by Madamina at 7:22 AM on May 20, 2010
She'll always be a Canadian citizen, however hat 256 mentioned about healthcare is likely to vary by province. I don't know how it works in other provinces, but in Ontario, there woudl be no way for her to "continue paying in" to health care since it's payed for through the general taxes that she would no longer be paying. There is also a premium which would be rolled into her income taxes withheld, but since she wouldn't be paying income taxes again she wouldn't pay that.
More to the point, entitlement to OHIP is not based on "paying in", it's based on residency. In order to qualify, she would have to spend 6 months of the year in Ontario. She's obviously not going to do that so when she visited or if she returned, her OHIP would not kick in for 6 months after her arrival. This will vary in other provinces, but I don't think there's any province in which there's entitlement based on "paying in".
Note that this has nothing to do with her being naturalized, but is true even of people who are born citizens.
Another thing that would be affected is her right to vote. In order to vote she needs to be a resident or plan to return to residency within 5 years. If she plans to return within 5 years she can register with Elections Canada to vote by "special ballot." Again, this has nothing to do with being naturalized, even born citizens who move are not allowed to vote during the period they live away.
She should register with the Canadia consulate wherever she plans to live just to facilitate communication and/or evacuation in the event of an emergency. They may also invite her to nice parties with delicious appetizers.
She should probably go to the embassy and get her child Canadian citizenship. If she wants to move back with her husband, she will have to sponsor him as an immigrant just as she would have had to do had she not moved away. This basically means she agrees to support him for 10(?) years after his arrival in Canada, should he be unable to support himself. This gets him residency (not citizenship, as people often mistakenly say). If he wants citizenship he can wait and apply by the same process she did.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:34 AM on May 20, 2010
More to the point, entitlement to OHIP is not based on "paying in", it's based on residency. In order to qualify, she would have to spend 6 months of the year in Ontario. She's obviously not going to do that so when she visited or if she returned, her OHIP would not kick in for 6 months after her arrival. This will vary in other provinces, but I don't think there's any province in which there's entitlement based on "paying in".
Note that this has nothing to do with her being naturalized, but is true even of people who are born citizens.
Another thing that would be affected is her right to vote. In order to vote she needs to be a resident or plan to return to residency within 5 years. If she plans to return within 5 years she can register with Elections Canada to vote by "special ballot." Again, this has nothing to do with being naturalized, even born citizens who move are not allowed to vote during the period they live away.
She should register with the Canadia consulate wherever she plans to live just to facilitate communication and/or evacuation in the event of an emergency. They may also invite her to nice parties with delicious appetizers.
She should probably go to the embassy and get her child Canadian citizenship. If she wants to move back with her husband, she will have to sponsor him as an immigrant just as she would have had to do had she not moved away. This basically means she agrees to support him for 10(?) years after his arrival in Canada, should he be unable to support himself. This gets him residency (not citizenship, as people often mistakenly say). If he wants citizenship he can wait and apply by the same process she did.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:34 AM on May 20, 2010
one correction to penguin's comment: the OHIP donut-hole of no coverage is three months after you get back these days. The only exceptions are people overseas for diplomatic service, military or full-time education.
If she pays Ontario income tax, she will owe the health premium, even while she gets no OHIP coverage (and it's an evil flat tax). Income tax is dependent on your tax residency. Canadian citizens always owe tax to Canada on Canadian-sourced income; world-wide income is only owed by tax-residents. You can be tax-resident even when living in another country if you keep a bank account and money here, and/or are not tax-resident in another country. Canada Revenue will be able to answer specific questions for each situation.
posted by jb at 8:12 AM on May 20, 2010
If she pays Ontario income tax, she will owe the health premium, even while she gets no OHIP coverage (and it's an evil flat tax). Income tax is dependent on your tax residency. Canadian citizens always owe tax to Canada on Canadian-sourced income; world-wide income is only owed by tax-residents. You can be tax-resident even when living in another country if you keep a bank account and money here, and/or are not tax-resident in another country. Canada Revenue will be able to answer specific questions for each situation.
posted by jb at 8:12 AM on May 20, 2010
Madamina, your friend has to leave the US to renew his US visa. This has nothing to do with his status as a Canadian citizen.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:19 AM on May 20, 2010
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:19 AM on May 20, 2010
jb, why are you assuming the OP's friend has any connection to Ontario? I don't see that in the question.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:22 AM on May 20, 2010
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:22 AM on May 20, 2010
You can be tax-resident even when living in another country if you keep a bank account and money here, and/or are not tax-resident in another country. Canada Revenue will be able to answer specific questions for each situation.
I could be wrong, but my accountant explained this differently. (And OP, your friend REALLY needs to speak to accountant.) I think as long as there's a Tax Treaty in place, as there was in the UK in my case, you can in practice only be resident in one country at at time - even if you still have RRSPs, accounts, etc.
The citizenship though, that never goes away unless you explicitly make it. Even then, I think you can get it back.
posted by generichuman at 10:24 AM on May 20, 2010
I could be wrong, but my accountant explained this differently. (And OP, your friend REALLY needs to speak to accountant.) I think as long as there's a Tax Treaty in place, as there was in the UK in my case, you can in practice only be resident in one country at at time - even if you still have RRSPs, accounts, etc.
The citizenship though, that never goes away unless you explicitly make it. Even then, I think you can get it back.
posted by generichuman at 10:24 AM on May 20, 2010
ethnomethodologist -- I wasn't, just correcting the information about Ontario, should they happen to be resident here. That's why I said "if" they pay Ontario tax. Of course, it's a not bad chance that they were resident in Ontario -- we're 25-30% of the population. And the world revolves around us.
generichuman - Yes, the person leaving Canada should definitely talk to an accountant, or Canada Revenue (they were very helpful explaining the specifics of my tax residency when I was overseas). Though what I mentioned about having bank accounts, etc, was based on the experience of a Canadian citizen in the UK, who had to close her bank accounts and remove her money from Canada to cease being tax-resident in Canada.
posted by jb at 11:01 AM on May 20, 2010
generichuman - Yes, the person leaving Canada should definitely talk to an accountant, or Canada Revenue (they were very helpful explaining the specifics of my tax residency when I was overseas). Though what I mentioned about having bank accounts, etc, was based on the experience of a Canadian citizen in the UK, who had to close her bank accounts and remove her money from Canada to cease being tax-resident in Canada.
posted by jb at 11:01 AM on May 20, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I'm a Canadian citizen non-resident myself. There's a whole page on what makes you a resident or not. But basically, if her home country considers her a resident and has any sort of tax treaty with Canada (which most countries do, AFAIK), then she will automatically be considered a non-resident.
The one important thing is that, if she's going to want immediate access to health care when she returns, she needs to keep paying into her provincial health plan. If she doesn't do so, then she will have a three-month waiting period upon her return before qualifying again for awesome socialist health care. Depending on how long she's gone for, though, it might make more sense just to let it lapse and buy private insurance for three months when she returns.
posted by 256 at 6:41 AM on May 20, 2010