Hi ana_ana,
I made some research on this subject and what I found is noted here for your information:
The concept of taxation in Canada is based on income. There is no income being generated here at the start when the funds are brought in Canada. Once it is invested here, however, then there will be taxation based on the type of income generated, (e.g. interest, dividends, capital gains, etc.)
There is NO restriction in bringing any money any time - you can keep doing it for the rest of your life. Income Tax Act requires you to declare if you have foreign assets over CAD 100k in each of your returns. If you have more than 100 k worth of foreign assets and declared that asset in your first tax return that you file after landing, you can bring in that money without any tax liability. However, if you have NOT declared the foreign assets, you will be allowed to bring in upto 100k without much problem (but you might have to prove that none of it is INCOME earned after landing.
Examples:
1. You declare in your first tax return that you have 200K in foreign assets. You can bring in that money whenever you want without any tax on it - however, you should be able to prove that you are bringing ONLY the principal amount and NO INCOME has been earned meanwhile on these assets. If you do earn any income on those assets, you are supposed to declare that income each year, and then you can bring in both the income and principal.
2. You have less than 100k worth of foreign assets and therefore legally you are not bound to declare it in your return. You will however be liable to declare any income earned on those assets each year and then whenever you want, you can bring in the whole money or in parts. Say you had 90k to start with - and you earned 5,000 in first year, 4,000 in second year and 6,000 in third year. In the first two years you will have to declare the income of 5 k and 4k. In the third year you will have to declare both the income of 6k and also declare in your return that now you have assets of more than 100k (if they have the market value of 100k). You can bring that money whenever you want.
Hope this will help you. good luck.