Girlfriend (CA) lives in Vancouver, I'm (US) relocating to Seattle. How can we spend the most time together?

[sammy4427]

My girlfriend is a Canadian citizen studying for her bachelor's degree in Vancouver. She's got 1.5-2 years left, depending on a couple of factors. She lives with her family in a very large house in Langley. I'm moving to Seattle in July to work for Microsoft as a software developer. I'm allowed to work remotely 2/5 days of the week, and if my team gives me their approval, I could work remotely 100% of the time.

As I prepare for the move, we're trying to figure out what our schedule could be like and what a long-term plan could look like. So far we've been hoping that her classes will fall on two consecutive days during the week. That way I could spend those two days in Vancouver with her and her family and she could stay with me in Seattle during the others. We understand that as visitors in each respective country we can only stay for 6 months total, so we would be trying our best to split our time roughly evenly between the two cities. However, I'm not sure if I would run into any issues working from Vancouver. I don't know if I'd owe taxes to Canada for working remotely within the country, despite this being for a US company and position. I'm not sure what my legal standing would be like here. I'm also not sure how border patrol would feel about us crossing two times a week.

Besides this, I'm also wondering if it would be possible for me to rent an apartment in Vancouver. If she ends up unable to cram her classes into two consecutive days, it would make sense for me to rent an apartment in Vancouver so that I (assuming I can go fully remote) can stay with her there for 3 or 4 days a week working remotely before driving back to the US to work and stay at my Seattle residence. I've been told that Americans can rent in Vancouver, but I'm not sure if this applies despite not having any sort of long-term visa or status beyond just being a visitor.

I'd really appreciate any advice on all of this. Thank you!

 

[steaky]

Besides this, I'm also wondering if it would be possible for me to rent an apartment in Vancouver. If she ends up unable to cram her classes into two consecutive days, it would make sense for me to rent an apartment in Vancouver so that I (assuming I can go fully remote) can stay with her there for 3 or 4 days a week working remotely before driving back to the US to work and stay at my Seattle residence. I've been told that Americans can rent in Vancouver, but I'm not sure if this applies despite not having any sort of long-term visa or status beyond just being a visitor.

Your best bet is airbnb. I'm not sure anyone would rent their apartment to you since you are not a BC tax resident.

 

[scylla]

My girlfriend is a Canadian citizen studying for her bachelor's degree in Vancouver. She's got 1.5-2 years left, depending on a couple of factors. She lives with her family in a very large house in Langley. I'm moving to Seattle in July to work for Microsoft as a software developer. I'm allowed to work remotely 2/5 days of the week, and if my team gives me their approval, I could work remotely 100% of the time.

As I prepare for the move, we're trying to figure out what our schedule could be like and what a long-term plan could look like. So far we've been hoping that her classes will fall on two consecutive days during the week. That way I could spend those two days in Vancouver with her and her family and she could stay with me in Seattle during the others. We understand that as visitors in each respective country we can only stay for 6 months total, so we would be trying our best to split our time roughly evenly between the two cities. However, I'm not sure if I would run into any issues working from Vancouver. I don't know if I'd owe taxes to Canada for working remotely within the country, despite this being for a US company and position. I'm not sure what my legal standing would be like here. I'm also not sure how border patrol would feel about us crossing two times a week.

Besides this, I'm also wondering if it would be possible for me to rent an apartment in Vancouver. If she ends up unable to cram her classes into two consecutive days, it would make sense for me to rent an apartment in Vancouver so that I (assuming I can go fully remote) can stay with her there for 3 or 4 days a week working remotely before driving back to the US to work and stay at my Seattle residence. I've been told that Americans can rent in Vancouver, but I'm not sure if this applies despite not having any sort of long-term visa or status beyond just being a visitor.

I'd really appreciate any advice on all of this. Thank you!

Working remotely in Canada is not going to be legally feasible for you if your employer is Microsoft. One of the requirements for working remotely in Canada without a work permit is that your employer must have no Canadian customers / clients. That's obviously not true of Microsoft which means you would need to be holding a work permit in order to be legally allowed to work in Canada for this employer. Because Microsoft has Canadian customers / clients, the work you will be doing in Canada will be regarded as you entering the Canadian workforce which requires a work permit to do legally.

You could, however, spend weekends in Canada without working. That would be OK.

Any chance MS would be willing to move your job to Canada or offer you a job in Canada? That could give you a path to a work permit and living in Canada full time.

I would recommend that both of you get Nexus cards to make border crossings faster.

 

[YVR123]

I know a couple that they only visit each other during the weekend for may be 3 - 4 years (when they were bf/gf). And eventually got married and the wife moved to Seattle.
It's a horry drive every weekend but well, that's what was feasible back then. As pointed out by others, you cannot work in canada (remotely) unless you got a work permit.

 

[sammy4427]

Working remotely in Canada is not going to be legally feasible for you if your employer is Microsoft. One of the requirements for working remotely in Canada without a work permit is that your employer must have no Canadian customers / clients. That's obviously not true of Microsoft which means you would need to be holding a work permit in order to be legally allowed to work in Canada for this employer. Because Microsoft has Canadian customers / clients, the work you will be doing in Canada will be regarded as you entering the Canadian workforce which requires a work permit to do legally.

You could, however, spend weekends in Canada without working. That would be OK.

Any chance MS would be willing to move your job to Canada or offer you a job in Canada? That could give you a path to a work permit and living in Canada full time.

I would recommend that both of you get Nexus cards to make border crossings faster.

Thank you for your response! Is obtaining a work permit something that would be feasible, or would that be impossible for our situation?

 

[scylla]

Thank you for your response! Is obtaining a work permit something that would be feasible, or would that be impossible for our situation?

You can't get it on your own. You would need Microsoft's support.

For starters, they would need to be willing to offer you a full time job that is located in Canada (i.e. not a remote job in the US but a job that is actually located in Canada).

 

[sammy4427]

You can't get it on your own. You would need Microsoft's support.

For starters, they would need to be willing to offer you a full time job that is located in Canada (i.e. not a remote job in the US but a job that is actually located in Canada).

Ah, I see. Thank you for the information!

 

[sammy4427]

I know a couple that they only visit each other during the weekend for may be 3 - 4 years (when they were bf/gf). And eventually got married and the wife moved to Seattle.
It's a horry drive every weekend but well, that's what was feasible back then. As pointed out by others, you cannot work in canada (remotely) unless you got a work permit.

I think this will probably be closer to what we end up doing.

 

[sammy4427]

Working remotely in Canada is not going to be legally feasible for you if your employer is Microsoft. One of the requirements for working remotely in Canada without a work permit is that your employer must have no Canadian customers / clients. That's obviously not true of Microsoft which means you would need to be holding a work permit in order to be legally allowed to work in Canada for this employer. Because Microsoft has Canadian customers / clients, the work you will be doing in Canada will be regarded as you entering the Canadian workforce which requires a work permit to do legally.

You could, however, spend weekends in Canada without working. That would be OK.

Any chance MS would be willing to move your job to Canada or offer you a job in Canada? That could give you a path to a work permit and living in Canada full time.

I would recommend that both of you get Nexus cards to make border crossings faster.

If I was able to ensure that the two days I'm visiting her are non-work days for me, say I shift my schedule so that I don't have work on Thursdays and Fridays, would it otherwise be fine for me to stay with her and visit every week in the way I initially described?

 

[scylla]

If I was able to ensure that the two days I'm visiting her are non-work days for me, say I shift my schedule so that I don't have work on Thursdays and Fridays, would it otherwise be fine for me to stay with her and visit every week in the way I initially described?

As long as you're not working while in Canada, the days don't matter.