Maintaining Canada PR By Being Owner of Canadian INC? (Active business)

[dream16]

Hello Guys,

So if an Indian Citizen with a Canadian PR is living & working in USA on h1b visa and wants to maintain his Canadian PR w/o living for 2 years out of a rolling 5 year period in Canada, and opens a Canadian INC or LLC and then has active transactions & business going on in Canada through that Canadian INC that he owns and obviously paying Canadian taxes every year, in this situation, since the Canadian Government is getting benefits from the Canadian INC operated by the Indian Citizen with valid canadian PR, does this somehow work to ensure that the PR status can be maintained? If yes, what about being eligible for a Canadian Citizenship?

Note: This Canadian Inc will have a canadian office address.

 

[Msafiri]

Short answer

You 'plan' is a no go.

Long answer

Unless within very narrow grounds the only way to maintain your RO is physical presence in Canada. Exemption in the realm you seem to be thinking of requires you to first be employed in Canada then assigned overseas on a full time basis. To prevent PRs 'gaming' the system the requirements as to the Canadian business and the employment are strict. Mom and Pop set ups such as you propose never have, do not and never will qualify is where CIC is at.

 

[dream16]

Short answer

You 'plan' is a no go.

Long answer

Unless within very narrow grounds the only way to maintain your RO is physical presence in Canada. Exemption in the realm you seem to be thinking of requires you to first be employed in Canada then assigned overseas on a full time basis. To prevent PRs 'gaming' the system the requirements as to the Canadian business and the employment are strict. Mom and Pop set ups such as you propose never have, do not and never will qualify is where CIC is at.

Thanks for your reply, this will not be a mom/pop kinda set-up, this will be a legitimate business where i will be the official owner - CEO - operator of this business & hence i complete the requirement of being employed in Canada since i am running a Canadian registered company as an entrepreneur & we will be paying Canadian taxes for all incoming money into that firm on an yearly/quarterly basis....so how am i not meeting the needs of maintaining a PR and then eventually being eligible for a Canadian citizenship? Please enlighten me.

Even though i am not having a physical presence in Canada ( although i may for say 7-10 days out of the standard 730 day requirement, but eventually i am paying canadian government taxes.

 

[scylla]

Based on everyting we've seen here, the scenario CIC accepts for counting time outside of Canada is where someone is hired for a job in Canada by an existing Canadian company (with real Canadian operations) and is then later transferred to a permanent role outside of Canada by that same company. CIC does not accept the scenario you seem to have described for counting time spent outside of Canada towards PR. Does your company have operations and staff in Canada? If not, then you should assume you have no chance of counting your time outside of Canada towards PR. (CIC will say that you are effectively operating a company outside of Canada and have just registered in in Canada and are paying Canadian taxes to create a loop hole for yourself to keep your PR status). A Canadian address isn't sufficient. In fact, this will just prove to CIC that you have set up this corporation specifically for the purpose of trying to maintain your PR status while not living in Canada. It's not going to work.

Note that for citizenship, time spent outside of Canada doesn't count towards your residency at all. You need physical presence in Canada for citizenship.

 

[ZingyDNA]

so how am i not meeting the needs of maintaining a PR and then eventually being eligible for a Canadian citizenship? Please enlighten me.

Even though i am not having a physical presence in Canada ( although i may for say 7-10 days out of the standard 730 day requirement, but eventually i am paying canadian government taxes.

I'm not sure if you can count those days toward your PR residence obligation, which is kinda complicated when it comes to working for a Canadian business outside of Canada, at least to me. But I'm pretty sure you can't count those days towards your citizenship - they are strict that you are physically IN Canada...

 

[HHH2000]

Thanks for your reply, this will not be a mom/pop kinda set-up, this will be a legitimate business where i will be the official owner - CEO - operator of this business & hence i complete the requirement of being employed in Canada since i am running a Canadian registered company as an entrepreneur & we will be paying Canadian taxes for all incoming money into that firm on an yearly/quarterly basis....so how am i not meeting the needs of maintaining a PR and then eventually being eligible for a Canadian citizenship? Please enlighten me.

Even though i am not having a physical presence in Canada ( although i may for say 7-10 days out of the standard 730 day requirement, but eventually i am paying canadian government taxes.

Unfortunately the things will not work as per your wishes, If what you are saying could have worked than may around 1/2 million immigrant would have done that, here in this forum this debate and question is discussed more than 50 times. Go around the forum on related topic and you will know eventually that to maintain the PR status (do n't even talk about citizenship) what are the requirement.

In short, you should have a company that is well established in Canada, (not only legitimate, at least medium tax paying say at least 70,000-100,000/ anum, beocz a company tax 10K -20k per anum cannot afford to have employees posted abroad- no matter what you say) for which you should have worked for certain period of time, time period should be such that satisfy the agent (who checking your application) that you are not playing any game to maintain a PR status, now that company after say like six month to one year working in Canada transfer to you to US then only the CIC or the agent would/may consider you that your are not playing with immigration and you are really transferred abroad (may be even this not enough-if your company has only 1 or 2 employee).

Apparently whatever written in rules is only acceptable if at the end you are not doing your business to maintain a PR status, any game playing is itself major reason for rejection.

 

[dream16]

Unfortunately the things will not work as per your wishes, If what you are saying could have worked than may around 1/2 million immigrant would have done that, here in this forum this debate and question is discussed more than 50 times. Go around the forum on related topic and you will know eventually that to maintain the PR status (do n't even talk about citizenship) what are the requirement.

In short, you should have a company that is well established in Canada, (not only legitimate, at least medium tax paying say at least 70,000-100,000/ anum, beocz a company tax 10K -20k per anum cannot afford to have employees posted abroad- no matter what you say) for which you should have worked for certain period of time, time period should be such that satisfy the agent (who checking your application) that you are not playing any game to maintain a PR status, now that company after say like six month to one year working in Canada transfer to you to US then only the CIC or the agent would/may consider you that your are not playing with immigration and you are really transferred abroad (may be even this not enough-if your company has only 1 or 2 employee).

Apparently whatever written in rules is only acceptable if at the end you are not doing your business to maintain a PR status, any game playing is itself major reason for rejection.

Actually there are no games involved here as many have already suspected based on my post, the company will be a full-fledged operational firm with an estimated profits of 100-200k per year, and since i am the owner and technically can reside anywhere in the world to manage my canadian firm, so in such a scenario was hoping that PR can be kept alive and renewed easily.

 

[scylla]

I still don't see this working out for you. In order for the time spent outside of Canada to be counted, you must be posted to a role outside of Canada. Based on what you've said, it doesn't sound like you're being posted to a role outside of Canada - you just want to live outside of Canada which isn't the same thing. If the revenue you're talking about ($200K) is actually going to be generated from outside of Canada (and that's why you need to live outside of Canada) - then you're back in the situation where CIC will say there's really no reason for you to set up a Canadian corporation (since the revenue is coming from non-Canadian sources) and the only reason you've done this is to maintain your PR status.

 

[Msafiri]

Actually there are no games involved here as many have already suspected based on my post, the company will be a full-fledged operational firm with an estimated profits of 100-200k per year, and since i am the owner and technically can reside anywhere in the world to manage my canadian firm, so in such a scenario was hoping that PR can be kept alive and renewed easily.

Sorry but the word 'estimated' already presents an issue as to the viability of the operation (if it were based on actual tax returns then different scenario) and the figures '100-200K' while seemingly substantial to you are small fry to CIC (a welder in Fort Mac earns this a year) still make this a mom and pop operation in respect to the RO exemption rules. Reading between the lines of the IRPA, IRPA regs and caselaw this exemption was set up for TSX and other exchange listed size business to transfer their employees overseas. Why don't you read a topic I posted on the RO risk of a Canadian Business abroad with a recent FC judgement and see why IMHO this is a no go.

 

[keesio]

Thanks for your reply, this will not be a mom/pop kinda set-up, this will be a legitimate business where i will be the official owner - CEO - operator of this business & hence i complete the requirement of being employed in Canada since i am running a Canadian registered company as an entrepreneur & we will be paying Canadian taxes for all incoming money into that firm on an yearly/quarterly basis....so how am i not meeting the needs of maintaining a PR and then eventually being eligible for a Canadian citizenship? Please enlighten me.

Even though i am not having a physical presence in Canada ( although i may for say 7-10 days out of the standard 730 day requirement, but eventually i am paying canadian government taxes.

The part in bold is why this will not work. You cannot be self-employed / owner for this to have a chance at succeeding.

And even if somehow you find a way to have it count for PR days, note that citizenship days are much more strict than PR days - you basically have to be working for just the Canadian government or be in the Canadian military to be able to work abroad and count for citizenship.

 

[RQ2012]

Sorry but the word 'estimated' already presents an issue as to the viability of the operation (if it were based on actual tax returns then different scenario) and the figures '100-200K' while seemingly substantial to you are small fry to CIC (a welder in Fort Mac earns this a year) still make this a mom and pop operation in respect to the RO exemption rules. Reading between the lines of the IRPA, IRPA regs and caselaw this exemption was set up for TSX and other exchange listed size business to transfer their employees overseas. Why don't you read a topic I posted on the RO risk of a Canadian Business abroad with a recent FC judgement and see why IMHO this is a no go.

Msafiri, thanks for posting link to the interesting decision. I went through it.
It is clear that it is not possible to outsmart the system and 'buy' PR and citizenship by incorporating a Canadian company as a device. Landed immigrants need to live here in Canada (or be genuinely seconded abroad by a credible Canadian employer with 'continuing operations in Canada') for renewing PR. For citizenship, the exception is even narrower - they need to be physically present in Canada or employed with the Canadian forces or a Canadian government organization outside Canada.
Thanks once again.