Canadian moving to CO for six months.....

I'm a Canadian citizen with a Canadian job.
I'm looking at going to Denver Colorado in November of this year (2007). I am not looking to become a US Citizen just yet, but rather "testing the waters" in Colorado. I am able to keep my Canadian job and work remotely from a home office that I will set up in Colorado.
I was wondering if there is anything that I have to do to make sure this is all legal. What are time limits for me staying in the states. I've heard of the six month rule. Also, I'm thinking of driving down there and using my own Canadian purchased car as a vehicle down there. Is there anything that I have to do for this?
Also, if anyone knows about bank accounts, and if I can open a US account with Canadian ID?
If anyone has information, I would greatly appreciate any help with this.
D.

First things first, welcome to the forum.

Second, no, it is not legal for you to go to the US and work without a work permit, even if you are working remotely to a Canadian job. As the law goes, if you are physically in the US and working, you must have a work permit. Which in your case, won't be possible to do if you're telecommuting to a Canadian job.

If you want to just visit (without working), as a Canadian you are allowed to do so for up to 6 months per calendar year, or per visit, whichever comes first. So if you get there in November as planned, you can stay til April of next year. Then you have to be in Canada for 6 months or more before you can/should return.

Yep, you can take your Canadian car if you are just visiting.

As for bank accounts, it is really difficult to open accounts without a US Social Security Number. If you have an account at Scotiabank currently, you can withdraw funds from Bank of America machines with no ATM fees. I believe you can also do this with accounts at Royal Bank, if they have any RBC Centura branches in Colorado.

Are you even eligible for citizenship somehow? Through parentage or something? Otherwise, its not as simple as just going there "to test the waters" and deciding to stay and "poof" you're a citizen. It takes several years, and thousands of dollars, and a whole whack load of crazy paperwork. Residency has to come first somehow, which also is a load of paper and $$ fees and and and.

If you have a TD Bank account in the Canada, you may be able to open a TD Ameritrade bank account (U.S. branch formerly TD Waterhouse USA) - call them and find out for more details. Its also very easy to transfer money between the two countries using this setup.