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IEC from UK with remote working

anon1101

Newbie
Apr 14, 2018
5
1
I got my IEC work permit (2 years) secured in January and am planning to go over in August/September. My current UK employer has hinted they may be interested in keeping me on as remote for a few months when I get to Canada. A couple of questions on this:

1) I've seen it's possible to stay in Canada as a visitor for up to six months, and during this time you can work remote for a foreign employer. Could I do this for the first few months and then activate my IEC work permit later on? If so is there some immigration center I have to visit?

2) Does anyone have experience with handling tax in my situation of working remote for a UK company? I think I'll probably consult an accountant on this, but if you have any advice I'd appreciate it.

I plan to apply for PR at some point, so during my IEC I'll be applying to work under a Canadian employer so I can get more points.
 

Bs65

VIP Member
Mar 22, 2016
13,187
2,421
1)this is not an uncommon approach where people enter first as visitors where they may or may not get a 6 month stay then they flagpole at US border to get their IEC work permit.

The only challenge with this is you still need to show 2 years travel insurance plus access to 2500 CDN when you flagpole and it can be a challenge getting travel insurance when already out of UK. You will need insurance anyway for the visit stay but the IEC part still needs to be a full 2 years.

As a visitor you can work remotely as long as there are no Canadian clients involved. Once on a IEC you can work for anyone , even UK remotely as well as Canadian employers as that would be an open work permit

2)cannot advise on tax
 
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anon1101

Newbie
Apr 14, 2018
5
1
Thanks for the reply. When you say "may or may not get a 6 month stay" what can cause it to be less than 6 months?

I'm toying with the idea of going over for 6 months then coming back to the UK for a week, grabbing insurance and heading back over to start the IEC permit.