Question about Tax Assessment

[Arctic Circle]

I tried searching through other threads but couldn't find an answer, so hoping some of you may have experience with this.

As I was going through the document checklist, I saw under the "Employment/Proof of Income" section, about living in Canada or not. If you live in Canada, you provide your tax assessment, if you don't, you provide your intent to move back to Canada and how you plan on supporting you and your spouse. Simple enough.

I currently don't live in Canada, and likely won't until my husband received his PR. However, long story short, due to my ties to Canada, I'm most likely classified as a resident for tax purposes, and will file my Canadian taxes as normal with my German income. So I will have a regular Tax Assessment like every other Canadian, but I don't live in Canada. My question is, what do I do? Do I provide the tax assessments anyway, explaining that I'm a resident for tax purposes only, even though I physically reside outside Canada? Do I just proceed as if I don't file with CRA? Has any other Canadian sponsor had this problem and what did you do?

 

[canadian2002]

Hi! I’m a Canadian sponsor who lived abroad for 4 years, and then moved back to Canada when we applied for Sponsorship for a job (which is why we in fact applied). I’m not sure if I can help too much because our situations are different, but I think you should supply your tax assessments from Canada, write a letter explaining exactly what you just did here (you live and earn abroad but are considered a resident for tax purposes), and also provide any information on your income from Germany such as tax statements or income statements from there if you have them.

I didn’t have any income or tax assessments to show from Canada, so I wrote a letter explaining my situation and provided tax and income statements from the country I lived in abroad, showed proof I moved back to Canada, including e-mail exchanges with future employer and future income, I also included my Canadian bank account showing my savings. As you can see I think my case was a bit more complicated but I was approved as sponsor and they didn’t ask for any additional documents or explanations.

So I don’t think you should have any problems at all as long as you provide enough proof and a letter explaining your situation. Just remember to translate any documents you might send that are not in English or French. Hope that helps! And good luck!

 

[Arctic Circle]

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking of explaining the situation, and showing both tax assessments from both countries, as well as a bank statement showing my savings. They'll see that I'm filing taxes on the exact same income, so that should be self-explanatory. I'm hoping still filing as a resident in Canada will help show my "intent" to move back there, since I kept significant ties back home.

A bit of an off-topic question since you brought it up: do all documents need to be officially translated? My husband and I are bilingual in English and German so we could do it ourselves, but if we need it notarized then we'll need to find a translator. I figured the police certificate and medical exam would need to be officially translated but would all documents as well?

 

[canadian2002]

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking of explaining the situation, and showing both tax assessments from both countries, as well as a bank statement showing my savings. They'll see that I'm filing taxes on the exact same income, so that should be self-explanatory. I'm hoping still filing as a resident in Canada will help show my "intent" to move back there, since I kept significant ties back home.

A bit of an off-topic question since you brought it up: do all documents need to be officially translated? Both my husband and I are bilingual in English and German so we could do it ourselves, but if we need it notarized then we'll need to find a translator. I figured the police certificate and medical exam would need to be officially translated but would all documents as well?

Those documents should do well for the sponsorship part, but remember that you have to make your case really strong that you will return back to Canada, so don’t rely only on your Canadian tax statements. Include job searches, house searches, info from real estate agents, letters from family in Canada, etc. I’m sure there are threads here focusing more on showing intent to return if you haven’t got it all figured out already.

As for translations, what I’ve heard most often and advice I followed myself: all official documents must be a certified translation, but for instance chats and proof of communication can be translated by yourself (for instance in the margin of the page, which is what we did for Skype convos). I’d imagine a tax statement in German might have to be a certified translation but I honestly can’t tell you precisely. And just as a side note, for the medical exam you will be asked to do one (rather the PA will) and will do the exam at a physician’s office recognized by Canada, they will give you all this info and the document to bring to the exam once they request it. This is then usually uploaded by the physician through emedical so no need to worry about translation there. But the police certificate does need a certified translation and will have to be uploaded in a colour copy.

 

[Arctic Circle]

Those documents should do well for the sponsorship part, but remember that you have to make your case really strong that you will return back to Canada, so don’t rely only on your Canadian tax statements. Include job searches, house searches, info from real estate agents, letters from family in Canada, etc. I’m sure there are threads here focusing more on showing intent to return if you haven’t got it all figured out already.

As for translations, what I’ve heard most often and advice I followed myself: all official documents must be a certified translation, but for instance chats and proof of communication can be translated by yourself (for instance in the margin of the page, which is what we did for Skype convos). I’d imagine a tax statement in German might have to be a certified translation but I honestly can’t tell you precisely. And just as a side note, for the medical exam you will be asked to do one (rather the PA will) and will do the exam at a physician’s office recognized by Canada, they will give you all this info and the document to bring to the exam once they request it. This is then usually uploaded by the physician through emedical so no need to worry about translation there. But the police certificate does need a certified translation and will have to be uploaded in a colour copy.

Thank you again for the helpful tips, getting an application together is time-consuming, so I'm glad I'm asking all the questions ahead of time before we send anything off. I've read a couple threads about intent to move back and seen how some people were requested even more proof of "intention", so I'm keeping that in mind as well. Personally I think it's rather silly a Canadian citizen needs to "prove" wanting to return to their own country; the application for a spousal visa should be intent enough! Why go through all the hassle just to stay put in your adopted country? If you don't mind me asking, is that why you moved back to Canada ahead of your spouse?

And thank you for the info on translations and the medical procedure, I was a bit confused on how that worked. We have a certified translator we used for my German visa, so that won't be too hard to take care of once we start the process. You've been really helpful at clearing some things up! Good luck on your application as well! I see by your signature you're well underway.

 

[canadian2002]

Thank you again for the helpful tips, getting an application together is time-consuming, so I'm glad I'm asking all the questions ahead of time before we send anything off. I've read a couple threads about intent to move back and seen how some people were requested even more proof of "intention", so I'm keeping that in mind as well. Personally I think it's rather silly a Canadian citizen needs to "prove" wanting to return to their own country; the application for a spousal visa should be intent enough! Why go through all the hassle just to stay put in your adopted country? If you don't mind me asking, is that why you moved back to Canada ahead of your spouse?

And thank you for the info on translations and the medical procedure, I was a bit confused on how that worked. We have a certified translator we used for my German visa, so that won't be too hard to take care of once we start the process. You've been really helpful at clearing some things up! Good luck on your application as well! I see by your signature you're well underway.

That’s definitely a good idea! And I agree, I feel like going through the application process is proof enough of intent to return, given how complicated it can be I found we were both going crazy by the end of it there is so much to put together, they ask so many similar questions, and you begin to doubt even the smallest details!

We were initally planning to apply while I was also abroad with my husband, so both outland, but literally a couple of weeks before we got married I got a job offer in Canada that was way too good to pass up and they wanted me back here as soon as possible. So, here we are today

Thanks and I wish you all the best as well, I’m happy to help and I hope the process goes very quickly for you!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you again for the helpful tips, getting an application together is time-consuming, so I'm glad I'm asking all the questions ahead of time before we send anything off. I've read a couple threads about intent to move back and seen how some people were requested even more proof of "intention", so I'm keeping that in mind as well. Personally I think it's rather silly a Canadian citizen needs to "prove" wanting to return to their own country; the application for a spousal visa should be intent enough! Why go through all the hassle just to stay put in your adopted country? If you don't mind me asking, is that why you moved back to Canada ahead of your spouse?

And thank you for the info on translations and the medical procedure, I was a bit confused on how that worked. We have a certified translator we used for my German visa, so that won't be too hard to take care of once we start the process. You've been really helpful at clearing some things up! Good luck on your application as well! I see by your signature you're well underway.

Many people have applied with no intent to actually return to Canada. They use PR status as a glorified visa and many try to take advantage of benefits/services of Canada, i.e. fraudulently obtaining healthcare coverage for the foreign spouse.

Official government documents must be formally translated. Everything else can be translated by yourselves.