Best way to go to USA from Canada without being hassled?

Thanx for the info

I am a retired woman married to an american. I was told i had to apply for a green card to beable to visit my husband for an extended time. I have commitments in canada so I can only leave for a couple of weeks at a time. Summers sometime for a month. I would like to know does this affect my canada pension if i apply for a green card.
I have been told that i can not return unless i show them 12 years of taxes and bills and bank statements can they do that. And would it be better to get a nexus card and how would that help me.
canukprincess

Your CPP and OAS are unaffected by getting GC.

I don't know where you are getting any of this other info, but it is purely fiction.

you can live anywhere in the world and still collect CPP and OAS. You contributed to it, it's yours.

Well, no one 'contributes' to OAS, you get it for breathing.

you have to contribute to CPP though, and have to had worked XX number of years in Canada before you are eligible for OAS.

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/isp/ ... as.shtml#1

there are conditions to OAS listed thru that link.

No, you have to have lived so many years in canada, as an adult, to collect OAS.

You need to work one year in Canada to collect CPP.

It's always good to be familiar with what the references actually say.

semantics

accuracy.

You are a moderator after all.

I am a retired woman married to an american. I was told i had to apply for a green card to beable to visit my husband for an extended time. I have commitments in canada so I can only leave for a couple of weeks at a time. Summers sometime for a month. I would like to know does this affect my canada pension if i apply for a green card.
I have been told that i can not return unless i show them 12 years of taxes and bills and bank statements can they do that. And would it be better to get a nexus card and how would that help me.
canukprincess

Best option here is to get your husband to file for you on I-130 and you get LPR status in the US. You have to be out of the US for more than a year to lose it so spending substantial time in Canada won't hurt, in fact if you spend more than six months in the US each year you can still qualify for citizenship after five years.

Bear in mind however as soon as you get LPR status your tax home automatically becomes the US. This does not affect your receipt of OAS and CPP, but I think CPP is taxed at 85% of the US income tax rate, can't remember the treaty provisions off-hand. Your RRSP (if you have one) is covered by treaty provisions so don't worry about that one.

That stuff about 12 years of guff is wrong, even the IRS only go back seven years.

There have been a lot of threads on here in the past about pensioners getting married "for love" but for whatever reason they cannot live in the same country. There are various problems doing this that you should consider - if your tax home moves to the US you become exposed to departure tax. Because you're married, you can only have one principal residence so one of your homes will be exposed to capital gains tax. If your assets move to the US, they can become exposed to US estate tax. Probate will need to be performed in the US when you die, etc. All of this has various implications for you and your heirs.

Really the best plan is to talk to a good cross-border accountant before moving forward on this. e.g. www.serbinski.com or www.ustax.ca - there are others.