68 yr old retired Canadian citizen wants to move home from the USA

[AvrilReed]

I want to return to Canada. I am 68 years old on Social Security in the USA. My only asset is my car which I might sell beforehand. I have some savings.
I have had a green card in the States since the '80s. I married an American but divorced him 20 years later.
Do I just go to Canada and start the process there?
I can stay with my sister in Vancouver for the first few months.
Would it be smarter to apply for my American passport first? I have a daughter and grandchild in the US.
And who knows I may need to spend a month or two with them once in a while.

 

[mad_hatter]

I want to return to Canada. I am 68 years old on Social Security in the USA. My only asset is my car which I might sell beforehand. I have some savings.
I have had a green card in the States since the '80s. I married an American but divorced him 20 years later.
Do I just go to Canada and start the process there?
I can stay with my sister in Vancouver for the first few months.
Would it be smarter to apply for my American passport first? I have a daughter and grandchild in the US.
And who knows I may need to spend a month or two with them once in a while.

Since you are a Canadian, you can just come back to Canada to live, there is no formality. You will have to apply to join the provincial health plan. Depends on where you want to reside, there might be a waiting period before health benefit kicks in. You may also qualify for OAS, you should call Service Canada to confirm.

As a US Green Card holder, you do not qualify for a US Passport. However, with your Green Card you can visit US anytime for any duration.

 

[scylla]

I want to return to Canada. I am 68 years old on Social Security in the USA. My only asset is my car which I might sell beforehand. I have some savings.
I have had a green card in the States since the '80s. I married an American but divorced him 20 years later.
Do I just go to Canada and start the process there?
I can stay with my sister in Vancouver for the first few months.
Would it be smarter to apply for my American passport first? I have a daughter and grandchild in the US.
And who knows I may need to spend a month or two with them once in a while.

If you stop living in the US, you will eventually lose your green card status.

If being able to return to the US for long periods of time and potentially live there again is important to you, you should apply for US citizenship and obtain US citizenship before you move to Canada.

 

[Copingwithlife]

I want to return to Canada. I am 68 years old on Social Security in the USA. My only asset is my car which I might sell beforehand. I have some savings.
I have had a green card in the States since the '80s. I married an American but divorced him 20 years later.
Do I just go to Canada and start the process there?
I can stay with my sister in Vancouver for the first few months.
Would it be smarter to apply for my American passport first? I have a daughter and grandchild in the US.
And who knows I may need to spend a month or two with them once in a while.

If you worked in Canada prior to moving to the States, AND contributed to CPP, you might want to see if you have any credits as well with Canada. Might not be a lot, but some is better then nothing
Don't know if you've already applied for CPP
As mentioned above criteria for OAS is set on how long you lived in Canada past the age of 18. You must have lived in Canada at least 10 years after the age of 18 to qualify, and be 65 or over (which you are)

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/publicpensions/cpp/cpp-international/united-states.html[/QUOTE]

As well here is a link the Government of Canada has for benefits. It is pretty simple, you put your age, province, income levels and it will assess your situation and show you want possible benefits are available to you either Federally and Provincially

https://srv138.services.gc.ca/daf/q?id=abe37747-f42e-48f9-b6e3-fff2ed600bd6&GoCTemplateCulture=en-CA

And Scylla is correct, you will eventually loose the GC status, or it will be taken away. Had a friend that used to live in Chicago, she moved back to Toronto, but had her GC still. One day she was travelling back thru the States, going thru Immigration, Immigration pulled her over. There was no we will let you think about keeping it in case you want to move back. She was made to surrender it on the spot. They were nice, but the condition was, You have to live in the States, end of story.

 

[canuck78]

You will have to pay US taxes every year if you apply for citizenship.

 

[lampbreaker]

You will have to pay US taxes every year if you apply for citizenship.

Is there double taxation? Probably not. (You can claim taxes paid to other country on each country's return, right?)

 

[scylla]

Is there double taxation? Probably not. (You can claim taxes paid to other country on each country's return, right?)

You're right. There's no double taxation. Yes - you can claim the taxes you paid in one country in the other return. It's just that US citizens are required to file taxes for life regardless of whether they are living in the US or not. This is a big PITA and one of the reasons why I hate tax time.