Canadian not working in US but wants to stay?

[moosejockey]

I was working in US under TN visa for an American company. Wife and kids and I moved down. Recently laid off and managed to obtain a job outside of North America working for non US company. Due to this TN status is no longer.

Put wife and kids on B-2 so kids can finish school and we can decide what to do with our house. When I come back to the US I just state I am visiting family and explain the situation.

Is there a way I can live in the US pay taxes on my worldly income or what ever it takes and just keep on living even though I am not working in the US? Is there a visa for that? I wish to keep Canadian citizenship so becoming a US citizen is not an option.

Any help is most appreciated.

[axolotl]

No. You can only stay in the US for a maximum of 6 months out of a year on a B-2. You will have to leave once your 6 months are up. There is no status that lets you stay in the US indefinitely, apart from permanent residence -- but you would need to be sponsored for that.

By the way, you don't lose your Canadian citizenship when you become a US citizen, you become a dual citizen. Canada does not recognize the renunciation aspect of the oath of citizenship as having renounced Canadian citizenship. You must fill out and sign forms in the presence of Canadian consular officials to actually renounce your citizenship.

[Reba]

Unfortunately, there is no visa option for what you want to do, as Steven said. You and your family will have to start packing and head back to Canada before their B2 status has expired.

[axolotl]

I'm not Steven!

[Reba]

BAH! Sorry ax, I'm just so used to Steven being underfoot all the time, I wasn't even paying specific attention to who posted!

[Steven]

Well anyway...

There's no way of doing this I'm afraid because if you live in the US you are actually employed in the US even if you work for an employer outside of the US. The only way to do it would be to set up your own company on E-2 perhaps, but this requires a "significant investment" and is complex. http://toronto.usconsulate.gov/content/ ... ment=evisa

Children also cannot attend school full-time in the US on B-2, the regs were changed to stop this back around 2003. Some CBP guys never bother to read the FAM updates but it is in there. Children have to be 14 or older to attend public schools in the US and have to have to be in F-1 - which is basically very hard to get as most public schools are not registered with the State Dept and cannot issue I-20s. Even if they can they can only do it for one year maximum. Commuter students get a new category called F-3.

[coolgeek9]

It depends on How does the European employer pay your wages... in your USD$ account held in USA or do you have another European account ?

For wages going into your USD account in the USA:

I know another friend who had a European employer and lived in the USA.
The way to do this is to find a sponsor employer to do your TN or H1b, usually a small company to do the payroll processing. Your European employer should pay your wages to this USA based smaller company, who should do your payroll, and pay you your salary. The downside is, this USA company will keep their share (say 10-15% of your earnings) for your payroll processing. But it gives you a legal status, since they being a USA employer will apply for your TN1 or H1b visa to give you a legal status in the USA.

The way the visas work is that you always need the umbrella of a US based company. An resident alien cannot be an independent consultant, he has to be "tied" to a company. This system, actually helps the US employers and foreign workers have to work through them.

[Steven]

There's been a crackdown on this recently by USCIS because a lot of Indian companies were doing it. Plus a few years ago they introduced a requirement that companies with a significant number of people on H-1B (more than a dozen) have to advertise the job locally prior to being able to file a labour certification for a non-resident alien.