Smitten Canadian needs help!

First off I'd like to thank everyone for all the info on here, it's been a big help already. Now I'm a Canadian citizen, born and rasied and on a recent trip to Europe, I met an amazing girl from the US. Obviously at some point the issue of distance will need to be addressed and I was hoping some you folks could shed some light on the situation. As it stands, the most logical choice would be for me to go south, instead of her come north given our lines of work.

I understand the whole staying down there for only 6 months out of a calender year, and Canadians not needing visas if they don't intend to work. I am self employed in a sense, in that my income comes from day trading family capital in the stock markets. There is no company set up, just Canadian discount brokerage accounts set up in my parents name, so all I need to be fully operational is an internet connection. I am just wondering if this would qualify as "work" and if I would need a visa to be managing my own personal investments? If I were to require a visa, which visa would I be looking at? I would like to be able to be down there for 1-2 years if possible, which obviously requires a visa for that amount of time, so which visa would be my best option? I don't intend to work for anyone else or go to school, so having an employer/school sponsor me is not an option. I appreciate any help since I'd really like us to have a chance at carrying on a normal relationship, thanks.

Hey there,

In order for you to be in the U.S. for that length of time as a Canadian, you would need a work visa, or student visa. Unless you were both married and your gf applied for your GC, there is not many other options.

If you are self employed, you could look into obtaining the EB 3 visa where a substantial investment would be needed in order to obtain it. The only downside to this visa is that it requires a lot of money plus the amount of time it takes to get the actual visa could run on for years because of current backlogs.

You should take a look at the uscis website to check out the different visa options and see where you would fit in best.

EB-5 is the immigrant investor visa. But really the best option is to go down for a few months, see how you get along and if it works out okay get married.

Your problem isn't really whether what you do is considered work but whether it fits into the B visitor category, which it doesn't from the sounds of it. Plus you have the tax problem, if you are essentially self-employed and you are earning your income in the US while you are there then it's a very complex tax situation to be in, because essentially you are a non-resident alien self-employed person. To be honest it sounds to me as though you may have a Canadian tax problem as well, because buying and trading a few stocks is a lot different than deriving your main income from it because that is self-employment and requires tax installment payments and so on. You'd have to check the CRA self-employment guide.

But forgetting all that for the moment, there is no way to stay down there for years as a visitor. Even going down for six months is tricky when you say you're down there to meet up with your US citizen girlfriend.

by Steven » Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:31 pm

EB-5 is the immigrant investor visa. But really the best option is to go down for a few months, see how you get along and if it works out okay get married.

Oh ya! Oops.. Thanks. I always get the "E" categories confused.

Yes, the marriage option I think will work best in your favour.

I guess heading down for a couple months and seeing how it goes, then going from there is probably the way to proceed.