American Green Card or Canadian PR?

[epmarshall]

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are wondering whether we should go for Canadian PR or the American Green Card. He is a Canadian citizen, I am an American citizen. We are currently living in Canada and were planning to go for either spousal or common law Canadian PR. We knew there was an income requirement for the Green Card which I do not meet right now. So we thought we had only one option.

However, I looked into it again recently and saw something that said the Green Card applicant can use their assets for the income requirement. My boyfriend has enough in his savings account to qualify for the income requirement, I believe. So if he can use his savings for that, does that mean we qualify?

Also, on this forum recently I saw a comment stating that the income requirement for the GC is waived if the couple lives abroad, which we do. Given those two potential developments, I thought I'd ask for opinions on here. Anyone in the same situation? Maybe some couples even have both PR and Green Card.

Anyway, I know this isn't really the place to discuss the Green Card, sorry about that. But I trust this forum and thought I'd at least ask and give it a shot.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[sashali78]

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are wondering whether we should go for Canadian PR or the American Green Card. He is a Canadian citizen, I am an American citizen. We are currently living in Canada and were planning to go for either spousal or common law Canadian PR. We knew there was an income requirement for the Green Card which I do not meet right now. So we thought we had only one option.

However, I looked into it again recently and saw something that said the Green Card applicant can use their assets for the income requirement. My boyfriend has enough in his savings account to qualify for the income requirement, I believe. So if he can use his savings for that, does that mean we qualify?

Also, on this forum recently I saw a comment stating that the income requirement for the GC is waived if the couple lives abroad, which we do. Given those two potential developments, I thought I'd ask for opinions on here. Anyone in the same situation? Maybe some couples even have both PR and Green Card.

Anyway, I know this isn't really the place to discuss the Green Card, sorry about that. But I trust this forum and thought I'd at least ask and give it a shot.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

That's an interesting question. For me personally,the question had always came to Warm vs Cold, Heath Insurance vs no health insurance and More work opportunities vs more laid back style of life

 

[Ponga]

Where do you both want to live?

I saw the post that you're referencing, regarding the income requirement being waived for those living abroad, but honestly have no idea if that's still in place today. You'd be better off asking this in a U.S. Immigration forum, I suspect.

Also, if the idea of ultimately having both the GC and PR is appealing, keep in mind that the U.S. Residency Obligations to maintain GC status are substantially more strict than Canada's PR RO. To maintain the GC, he would need to live 180 days (or more) in The U.S., each year, compared to your requirement of living 730 days in Canada for each rolling, 5 year period. It's doable to maintain both, but a bit of a juggling act to say the least.

Good luck!

 

[epmarshall]

That's an interesting question. For me personally,the question had always came to Warm vs Cold, Heath Insurance vs no health insurance and More work opportunities vs more laid back style of life

Those are good things to consider. I guess you always had the option of either one then? Which did you end up choosing? For us, it's only just now even possibly a choice since we always figured Canada was our only option.

Where do you both want to live?

I saw the post that you're referencing, regarding the income requirement being waived for those living abroad, but honestly have no idea if that's still in place today. You'd be better off asking this in a U.S. Immigration forum, I suspect.

Also, if the idea of ultimately having both the GC and PR is appealing, keep in mind that the U.S. Residency Obligations to maintain GC status are substantially more strict than Canada's PR RO. To maintain the GC, he would need to live 180 days (or more) in The U.S., each year, compared to your requirement of living 730 days in Canada for each rolling, 5 year period. It's doable to maintain both, but a bit of a juggling act to say the least.

Good luck!

Yes, I will definitely ask in a U.S. forum as well.

As for where we both want to live, it doesn't really matter as long as we aren't separated. We don't have a huge preference either way. Both places have advantages. I like the snow in Canada and of course there's Tim Hortons and the healthcare. But the US seems more convenient in some ways. For example, I find that Americans living abroad no longer qualify to work online for some things since they aren't US residents. What I'm trying to say is that we would be fine living in either the US or Canada, but if one is easier/shorter then that would be great.

A few other things. We were going to get his family to help us on the Canadian PR app, but they don't seem too pleased about any of it. We could still go through with the Canadian application obviously, but my family in the US would definitely be more than willing to help us with the Green Card letters and application. Another thing to note is that my parents are much older than his, so if it's possible for us to spend more time in the US I'm not opposed to it. Basically, if there's a way to get a US Green Card for him in a short time, it's at least worth considering. That would mean we can both work quicker, too, if the process if faster.

Also, I have a question. Wouldn't having both PR and GC mean we just needed to spend 180 days in the US each year? If I am the one with Canadian PR and am residing abroad with him, doesn't it still count as "time spent living in Canada" since he is a Canadian citizen? I've heard something like that before, but maybe I am mixing something up. Thanks, Ponga!

 

[Ponga]

As for where we both want to live, it doesn't really matter as long as we aren't separated. We don't have a huge preference either way. Both places have advantages. I like the snow in Canada and of course there's Tim Hortons and the healthcare. But the US seems more convenient in some ways. For example, I find that Americans living abroad no longer qualify to work online for some things since they aren't US residents. What I'm trying to say is that we would be fine living in either the US or Canada, but if one is easier/shorter then that would be great.

Where did you hear/read that? There are many Americans working remotely that haven't lived in America for a long time.

[ ... ]

Also, I have a question. Wouldn't having both PR and GC mean we just needed to spend 180 days in the US each year? If I am the one with Canadian PR and am residing abroad with him, doesn't it still count as "time spent living in Canada" since he is a Canadian citizen? I've heard something like that before, but maybe I am mixing something up. Thanks, Ponga!

Yes! As long as you are accompanying him, your days outside of Canada would still count towards your PR RO. AFAIK, there is no similar policy for him, if he wants to spend more time [each year] in Canada, with you.

 

[epmarshall]

I know there are ways for Americans to work remotely. I am just going by what I've noticed about companies lately while searching for extra work online. From my limited experience, it seems that if you try to get hired by companies online, they have a little spot in their Terms of service that says "US citizens living abroad do not qualify." So you can't really legally sign up for a lot of these places. I would guess that it probably complicates taxes for the companies, so they just don't want to deal with it. There are other routes as you mentioned, but going for the job route rather than the business route seems to add complications. But I have very limited experience as I said.

Awesome, so at least maintaining Canadian PR will be easy. Having both would mean at least six months in the US per year then. Thanks for answering my question!

 

[Aquakitty]

I know there are ways for Americans to work remotely. I am just going by what I've noticed about companies lately while searching for extra work online. From my limited experience, it seems that if you try to get hired by companies online, they have a little spot in their Terms of service that says "US citizens living abroad do not qualify." So you can't really legally sign up for a lot of these places. I would guess that it probably complicates taxes for the companies, so they just don't want to deal with it. There are other routes as you mentioned, but going for the job route rather than the business route seems to add complications. But I have very limited experience as I said.

Awesome, so at least maintaining Canadian PR will be easy. Having both would mean at least six months in the US per year then. Thanks for answering my question!

Well you can maintain "residence" in the US as far as the company is concerned quite easily, just use a VPN and a US address and bank account. That's how my husband did his college degree for the last couple years.

 

[mpottier]

If you are an American working in Canada under another visa, the income requirements differ. My wife is American and I am Canadian. I got my Green card while we were both living outside of North America (Korea). We supplied our pay stubs from our jobs in Korea, but they were given back to us as they said since we were both working overseas, we didn't need to show income requirements. This is the link we used for Seoul: http://seoul.usembassy.gov/visas_spouse_of_american.html

But it appears to differ for Canada, so I would contact the American consulate in Ottawa/Montreal, and see if you can do the same thing as we did in Korea. It also cost a fraction of what a green card application would cost in the USA, or PR would cost for Canada (about 500$). It also only took me a month to get. Obviously you have to be married to get an American Green card, no common law unfortunately.

To be honest, there are way more job opportunities in the USA, especially if you are willing to move around the country. Health care is nice in Canada, but many US states have health care systems (New England), and many employers give you some kind of health plan. I am from Nova Scotia, but my wife is from Maine, we live in New England, and honestly there is virtually zero difference in lifestyle from Nova Scotia and New England.

 

[Caribou]

My spouse is American citizen, and I'm Canadian PR (non-US citizen). I've lived in USA for half of my life before moving to Canada.

There are fundamental differences in how US and Canada looks and spousal immigration.
Canada looks for "genuine relationship" as top priority, whereas US looks for "can you support your spouse and not take out welfare" (no common-law. just spouse)
tax returns and proof of funds are Very important in US spousal application unless you're applying from 3rd county, and your citizen spouse has job offer or plan to relocate etc.
applications are more complicated than Canadian one, but it takes way less time than Canadian one. Most people get within 3~6 months at most. Some get within 1-2 months depending on Consulate's workload in that country. In US documents, if you don't have enough funds to prove, you can have your parentsor in-law to "cosign" financial documents.

In the end, it comes down to "where do you want to live"


If you really want to live in US, you need to make sure your boyfriend is OK with this.
I had couple of previous topic regarding keeping up both, but I think it's too much of a hassle unless you live close to border and cross them often such as seattle-vancouver or something like that. American border officer will ask you if don't stay in US for 6 months or something like that and they can really force you to a point to make you sign to give up green card. (I have in-law-relative who was forced to give up green card at the border when they flew in from other country)

American green card usually takes shorter time, so how about become a dual citizen, then if you really wanna go back down, then pursue your b-friend's green card (hopefully you guys are married by then)?