can a canadian PR work in usa , does he need a visa

[Fani]

Are there any updates or way out now?

I landed first time in CA in October 2014 for three weeks with family using Pakistani passport having first/One time landing visa and later got PRC of all family members with expiry of Oct/2019. Since then we have been outside CA. Now we are planning to settle in CA from January 2017 for nationality (spend 4 years in 6 years).

I am getting offer to work in USA. Offer is from probably a Canadian company. Is there any way by which i could work in USA and my nationality process is not impacted?

I remember, there was some condition allowing Canadian resident to work for a Canadian employer/company outside CA without impacting the nationality process.

 

[scylla]

Yes - you need a visa in order to work in the US.

No - there is no way to work outside of Canada without impacting your nationality process. You must be physically living in Canada to count days towards the citizenship residency requirement.

You are remembering incorrectly. There is no condition that allows you to live outside of Canada without impacting the nationality process. You are confusing citizenship residency obligation with the PR residency obligation. You can count days spent outside of Canada towards your PR residency obligation if you are first hired into a full time role in Canada and then at a later date transferred to a job in the US. However your time in the US cannot be counted towards Canadian citizenship.

Since you are considering jobs where you would be hired directly into a US role, your time outside of Canada won't count towards citizenship or PR.

 

[Fani]

Thanks for the response. It clarifies difference between citizenship residency and PR residency obligations.

What i have understood is that if Canadian company hires me and then sends me to USA for work for (even) more than 2 years then CA immigration will renew my PR card because my stay in USA will be considered as if I am in Canada (for 2 years within 5 years) BUT IT IS ONLY FOR PR RENEWAL AND NOT FOR CITIZENSHIP.

I believe in that case, if i work for sometime in USA while my PRC residency is not impacted and renewed as per immigration rules then I will be safe @least to land in Canada any time with valid PRC and can decide to stay for citizenship residency (next 4 years within 6 years) whenever suitable for me.

If all above is correctly understood, can you please guide me further that which visa will work for me to move to USA from Canada to work in USA for a Canadian company?

Is this also possible? that Canadian company hires me while I am in UAE and instructs me to go directly to USA. This should also not impact my PRC residency obligation. Please comment.

 

[Leon]

Thanks for the response. It clarifies difference between citizenship residency and PR residency obligations.

What i have understood is that if Canadian company hires me and then sends me to USA for work for (even) more than 2 years then CA immigration will renew my PR card because my stay in USA will be considered as if I am in Canada (for 2 years within 5 years) BUT IT IS ONLY FOR PR RENEWAL AND NOT FOR CITIZENSHIP.

I believe in that case, if i work for sometime in USA while my PRC residency is not impacted and renewed as per immigration rules then I will be safe @least to land in Canada any time with valid PRC and can decide to stay for citizenship residency (next 4 years within 6 years) whenever suitable for me.

If all above is correctly understood, can you please guide me further that which visa will work for me to move to USA from Canada to work in USA for a Canadian company?

Is this also possible? that Canadian company hires me while I am in UAE and instructs me to go directly to USA. This should also not impact my PRC residency obligation. Please comment.

The Canadian company that wants to send you full time to the USA to join their US branch would have to know what kind of work permit they should apply for on your behalf. Most of the people on this forum know a lot about Canadian immigration but little about US immigration so you may need a US immigration site to help you with that.

Canadian immigration does not like it when they think people are trying to go through loopholes in order to avoid meeting the RO. Hence they are fairly strict on what they consider to be a Canadian employer and how and where you should have been hired. They prefer it if you are already working for the employer in Canada and get transferred. If you do not get hired while in Canada or the employer is more multi-national than a Canadian company, you take the risk that when you want to apply for your PR renewal that immigration will not accept your employment and will revoke your PR status.

If you want to go for citizenship, do it now because once you have it, you can stay or leave without worries and as well you can get a NAFTA visa to work in the US, at least for certain high skilled professions.

 

[scylla]

Thanks for the response. It clarifies difference between citizenship residency and PR residency obligations.

What i have understood is that if Canadian company hires me and then sends me to USA for work for (even) more than 2 years then CA immigration will renew my PR card because my stay in USA will be considered as if I am in Canada (for 2 years within 5 years) BUT IT IS ONLY FOR PR RENEWAL AND NOT FOR CITIZENSHIP.

I believe in that case, if i work for sometime in USA while my PRC residency is not impacted and renewed as per immigration rules then I will be safe @least to land in Canada any time with valid PRC and can decide to stay for citizenship residency (next 4 years within 6 years) whenever suitable for me.

If all above is correctly understood, can you please guide me further that which visa will work for me to move to USA from Canada to work in USA for a Canadian company?

Is this also possible? that Canadian company hires me while I am in UAE and instructs me to go directly to USA. This should also not impact my PRC residency obligation. Please comment.

Get hired for a job IN Canada first. Once you've held that job for a while then your company can relocate you outside of Canada.

 

[Fani]

All clarified!

Thanks and very much appreciated.