TD visa for wife who is a new PR in Canada?

Hi all,

I am working in USA for a couple of years. I got married this year to my wife who is not Canadian or American. She will be immigrating to Canada next year. I plan to bring her to USA immediately afterward. My question is

1. Does she need a PR/Maple Leaf Card when she applies for TD visa at US consulate in Toronto? She won't have her PR card for a few weeks I guess

2. Will they ask her why she is moving to US only a few days after immigrating? Will they deny the visa in that case?

3. How long does it take for US consulate in Toronto to issue a TD under normal circumstances?

Your wife can actually get the TD at the border when she crosses into the US. She'll need a copy of your TN evidence and maybe a copy of your marriage certificate.

I don't think she can get visa at the border. Only Canadian citizens can get visa at border/airport. Dependents who do not have Canadian passports have to go to US Consulate I think.

Canadian PR card has nothing to do with US TD visa. Since your spouse is does not have citizenship of any of the 2 countries in north America, you need to take appointment with US counsulate for TD visa and take visa like any other visa.

Yes, she will need an actual visa issued by the US consulate because she's not a Canadian citizen. I can't see why they would be interested in her PR card, but they will want to see the marriage certificate.

It's not a particularly wise idea for a Canadian PR to spend significant time outside of the country. The CRA considers a claim of permanent residence to be exactly that, so she must file taxes as a resident of Canada. If she doesn't it can cause problems later on.

How the tax laws work is that your spouse and you must file taxes in the same country. She has a residential tie to Canada because of her PR status. You have a residential tie to Canada because she is your spouse, so you must both file taxes as residents of Canada.

This isn't necessarily the end of the world, you can simply file as residents of wherever you live in Canada and file as non-residents of the US while you are in the US by filing Form 1040NR and 8840 every year, have a read of: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p151/README.html

However as Canadian tax rates are higher than US rates, when you claim the foreign tax credit for the US taxes with your T1, you will have to pay the difference between the US rates and the Canadian rates, so effectively you will pay Canadian taxes in total.

The other problem is that if she violates the residency requirement (i.e. spends too long outside of Canada) she can lose PR status and getting it again can be hard - however two years should be okay.

Steven,

Well, I am confused about the residency requirement. I know that she needs to stay 2 of of 5 years in Canada to maintain her PR but I also heard that if a PR spouse stays with her husband (who is a citizen) abroad, that time is counted towards her residency requirement (but not for citizenship).

Can you guys explain the above point for me.

Thanks

I didn't really think about the marriage bit because she has three years anyway, even if she wasn't married, so it doesn't matter.

The real issue is the tax situation, although filing as a non-resident in the US for a couple of years isn't a big deal and it actually saves you a lot of paperwork (frankly if you're there for 2 years there's no point moving your tax home to the US regardless of your marriage). It's just you pay more tax as Canadian rates are usually higher than US rates, depends on where you live in the US though.

A Canadian PR who gained their status thru marriage to a Canadian citizen does not lose their PR status if they live outside of Canada with their sponsor spouse. Any time spent outside of Canada however does not credit toward eligibility to apply for naturalization.

I'm a Chinese citizen and new PR of Canada. When my Canadian husband called the Canadian consulate to ask them if I would lose my PR status in Canada if I followed him to the States on a TD, they simply told me I could stay outside of Canada with my husband for up to 3 years without losing my status. They said nothing about this time not counting toward my becoming a Canadian citizen, which I wanted to do as soon as we move back to Canada. Is this really true?! If we had known this, my husband would never have taken the job in the first place, as it leaves me in a permanent state of limbo, unable to obtain a job or go to school in either country! Can someone address this question from a position of certain knowledge? Also, is it true that I will lose my PR status if we file income taxes in the US?

A Canadian PR who gained their status thru marriage to a Canadian citizen does not lose their PR status if they live outside of Canada with their sponsor spouse. Any time spent outside of Canada however does not credit toward eligibility to apply for naturalization.

No you won't lose your Canadian PR status if you file taxes in the US. The only way you'd lose it if you and your husband divorced and you continued to live in the US.

Time spent living outside of Canada does not count toward eligibility to naturalization. This is true of any LPR. It is cumulative however, so if you've lived in Canada for 1 year, and then you spend 2 years in the US and come back to Canada, 2 years after that you're eligible to apply.