Working remotely from Canada in US company as Canadian PR

[frazman007]

Hi,
I am a Canadian PR and currently working in US on h1b.
My employer is ok working from Canada ..
So I am thinking of working remotely for 2 weeks and come to my office for one week..
Question is:
1) is this ok? Can I work remotely on h1b out of US.
2) how do I justify to the US immigration about me living in Canada and working in US on h1b (my office is in California).
3) when time comes for h1b renewal... Does this create any issue ?
Thanks

 

[greencard14]

Hi,
I am a Canadian PR and currently working in US on h1b.
My employer is ok working from Canada ..
So I am thinking of working remotely for 2 weeks and come to my office for one week..
Question is:
1) is this ok? Can I work remotely on h1b out of US.
2) how do I justify to the US immigration about me living in Canada and working in US on h1b (my office is in California).
3) when time comes for h1b renewal... Does this create any issue ?
Thanks

I was in a similar situation until recently but decided not to go the H1B route and just visit U.S. on B1/2 visa for meetings or seminars which is perfectly legal as that visa is also for business visits.
1) It depends and looking at the current scrutiny with every USCIS application I would do more research on this. Ideally you can work on H1B while out of U.S. for a short period like visiting home country, etc.
2) I crossed the border so many times on H1B and I don't work in Detroit area but never had any bad experience with the immigration. So, if you don't have an office closer to the border or within driving range, where would you work in the U.S.?
3) Not sure about this.

My only question to you is why would you like to maintain H1B if you can WFH from Canada?

 

[frazman007]

I was in a similar situation until recently but decided not to go the H1B route and just visit U.S. on B1/2 visa for meetings or seminars which is perfectly legal as that visa is also for business visits.
1) It depends and looking at the current scrutiny with every USCIS application I would do more research on this. Ideally you can work on H1B while out of U.S. for a short period like visiting home country, etc.
2) I crossed the border so many times on H1B and I don't work in Detroit area but never had any bad experience with the immigration. So, if you don't have an office closer to the border or within driving range, where would you work in the U.S.?
3) Not sure about this.

My only question to you is why would you like to maintain H1B if you can WFH from Canada?

Hi..
Thanks for responding.. so right now I work in California.. I have been traveling every week from Toronto to San Francisco every week but commute is too much .
So, I chatted with my employer to set up this arrangement.. two week remote and one week on site..
So far, during my weekly visits... I didn't faced any issue .. but now I would be working remotely for some time and on site some time ..
Hence the question

 

[sgk99]

Hi..
Thanks for responding.. so right now I work in California.. I have been traveling every week from Toronto to San Francisco every week but commute is too much .
So, I chatted with my employer to set up this arrangement.. two week remote and one week on site..
So far, during my weekly visits... I didn't faced any issue .. but now I would be working remotely for some time and on site some time ..
Hence the question

Hi, I am planning to have a similar arrangement with my employer as well. I have a couple of questions about your weekly travel between Toronto and SFO,

1) Did you have to maintain a residence in SFO as well for payroll purposes?
2) I am assuming your travel was a typical monday to thursday one. How many days in the week counted for the PR residency obligation for you?
3) Did you get yourself the Nexus card? If not, was immigration check time consuming?

Looking forward to hearing back from you. Would really appreciate your response.

 

[frazman007]

Hi, I am planning to have a similar arrangement with my employer as well. I have a couple of questions about your weekly travel between Toronto and SFO,

1) Did you have to maintain a residence in SFO as well for payroll purposes?
2) I am assuming your travel was a typical monday to thursday one. How many days in the week counted for the PR residency obligation for you?
3) Did you get yourself the Nexus card? If not, was immigration check time consuming?

Looking forward to hearing back from you. Would really appreciate your response.

1) Yeah.. I have to.. I just gave my friend address for the same (which is true for all my bills and statements as well)
2) So, I loose Tuesday and Wednesday.
3) Not yet.. So far, things have been smooth for me.. I take an early morning flight and usually, it takes like 10 minutes for immigration.. 30 seconds in front of officer.

 

[harirajmohan]

Hi, I am planning to have a similar arrangement with my employer as well. I have a couple of questions about your weekly travel between Toronto and SFO,

1) Did you have to maintain a residence in SFO as well for payroll purposes?
2) I am assuming your travel was a typical monday to thursday one. How many days in the week counted for the PR residency obligation for you?
3) Did you get yourself the Nexus card? If not, was immigration check time consuming?

Looking forward to hearing back from you. Would really appreciate your response.

1. You do not need to maintain any residence in US for payroll purposes. I come daily and i do not maintain residence. I file my tax return based on Canadian address. Maintaining residence is waste of money and time. If you are travelling far distance and staying for 2-3 days a week then anyway you would rent a (shared/separate)place which is different but there is no necessity for working here or getting salary in USD. Many executives get paid in USD and work abroad and in our case we work here which is more than enough to have payroll.

 

[DEEPCUR]

1. You do not need to maintain any residence in US for payroll purposes. I come daily and i do not maintain residence. I file my tax return based on Canadian address. Maintaining residence is waste of money and time. If you are travelling far distance and staying for 2-3 days a week then anyway you would rent a (shared/separate)place which is different but there is no necessity for working here or getting salary in USD. Many executives get paid in USD and work abroad and in our case we work here which is more than enough to have payroll.

If you don't maintain US residence, what would you fill in your employer's system for residential address? It doesn't take anything other than US address as the systems have been designed to deal with taxes of US residence and workplace only. I don't think you could give a Canadian address there.

 

[Palz23]

Hi,
I am a Canadian PR and currently working in US on h1b.
My employer is ok working from Canada ..
So I am thinking of working remotely for 2 weeks and come to my office for one week..
Question is:
1) is this ok? Can I work remotely on h1b out of US.
2) how do I justify to the US immigration about me living in Canada and working in US on h1b (my office is in California).
3) when time comes for h1b renewal... Does this create any issue ?
Thanks

HI,

I am in a similar situation and wanted to know what did you end up doing? Any help would be appreciated.

Pallavi

 

[frazman007]

HI,

I am in a similar situation and wanted to know what did you end up doing? Any help would be appreciated.

Pallavi

I live in Canada and travel to US once a month.

 

[DEEPCUR]

I live in Canada and travel to US once a month.

How has been your experience at port of entry in US? Do they question about your pattern of visit?

 

[canuck78]

Just a reminder hat giving a friends address while actually being a resident of Canada is fraud.

 

[frazman007]

How has been your experience at port of entry in US? Do they question about your pattern of visit?

No issues.I just answer honestly.I live in Canada.. work in US. and that is legal.
On my H1B itself is marked "Canadian Permanent Resident" as I updated my H1B in toronto..There is nothing illegal in this.

 

[frazman007]

Just a reminder hat giving a friends address while actually being a resident of Canada is fraud.

Sure. I have an apartment in the bay area.

 

[canuck78]

Sure. I have an apartment in the bay area.

You said that you gave you friend's address.

 

[frazman007]

You said that you gave you friend's address.

Yeah, that was like 10 months ago. I ended up not selling my place as now, I might just move back to US in 3-4 years. Who knows.