Thinking of living in Canada and commuting to the US for work.

[thatrats]

Greetings, fellow forum members.

Thank you for your invaluable information sharing. I am a Canadian PR, worked and lived in Camada for 16 months. (April2014-September 2015). I have had my PR since 2013.

I also hold a US green card and currently work and live in the US. I do not want to lose my Canadian PR. I eventually want to sponsor my siblings through Canada. I am thinking of moving to Canada and commute to the US for work. I live close by the boarder and can easily do the commute. Any thoughts of how this may play out? I do not want to lose my US green card either. Your thoughts will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[thecoolguysam]

Greetings, fellow forum members.

Thank you for your invaluable information sharing. I am a Canadian PR, worked and lived in Camada for 16 months. (April2014-September 2015). I have had my PR since 2013.

I also hold a US green card and currently work and live in the US. I do not want to lose my Canadian PR. I eventually want to sponsor my siblings through Canada. I am thinking of moving to Canada and commute to the US for work. I live close by the boarder and can easily do the commute. Any thoughts of how this may play out? I do not want to lose my US green card either. Your thoughts will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

I am not an expert in this matter however I have found following links for your reference:
USA
https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/after-green-card-granted/maintaining-permanent-residence

CANADA
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/about-pr.asp

 

[thatrats]

Thank you, Thecoolguysam. I've heard it's possible, but the links you shared my prove otherwise.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I eventually want to sponsor my siblings through Canada.

You can't sponsor siblings.

 

[dpenabill]

Apart from the sponsoring issue, that is in so far as the question is about maintaining Canadian PR status and at the same time U.S. Green Card status, something akin to this has been done by others in the past. It can be tricky. There are pitfalls.

My impression is that the U.S. Green Card part of the equation can be the more problematic element given U.S. residency rules.

While the rule for Canadian PRs is described as a PR Residency Obligation, it is actually a physical presence requirement. So long as the PR spends more than two years in five, in Canada, based on the number of days some part of which was spent in Canada, it is a matter of proving those days were spent in Canada. Maintaining a residence in Canada is an important evidentiary factor, but it is not a requirement.

In contrast, my impression is that the U.S. may require actual residence in the U.S. and/or an intent to reside in the U.S. (Caveat: I do not know much about U.S. Green Card obligations.)

My impression is that many who have done something like this in the past were fudging here and there along the way. Such as in how they responded to questions when crossing the border (especially in response to questions from U.S. border officials). In addition to the fact that generally it is not a good idea to do this, to in any way not be entirely honest with border officials, it is important to recognize that the monitoring and record-capturing of border crossing data is continuously being enhanced, so it is more and more difficult to fudge and get away with it.

Moreover, when what might be described as commuter-cases have come up in the courts, it appears that CIC (since this is in reference to past cases) tended to elevate its scrutiny and be more skeptical, and inclined to lean toward negative inferences. I would anticipate IRCC to similarly be at least somewhat probing and skeptical.

But, again, at least in the past, quite a few have managed this sort of border-straddling life for at least a number of years.

After all, the Canadian side of the equation can be fulfilled by being in Canada three days a week (Friday night to Sunday night for example), especially with a few weeks of holidays spent entirely in Canada, and is easily met if there is a daily commute to a job in the U.S. In which case, making this work is more about meeting the U.S. GC requirements.

 

[thatrats]

Thank you, dpenabill for your insights. I've always thought I could sponsor relatives through family if they met certain criteria. I guess I need to do more research.

I also realize that I must spend time to understand both countries requirements to fulfill residencies. I read somewhere that people were susscessful at doing this. Thank you again.

 

[harirajmohan]

Greetings, fellow forum members.

Thank you for your invaluable information sharing. I am a Canadian PR, worked and lived in Camada for 16 months. (April2014-September 2015). I have had my PR since 2013.

I also hold a US green card and currently work and live in the US. I do not want to lose my Canadian PR. I eventually want to sponsor my siblings through Canada. I am thinking of moving to Canada and commute to the US for work. I live close by the boarder and can easily do the commute. Any thoughts of how this may play out? I do not want to lose my US green card either. Your thoughts will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

It seems you can just maintain residency in both countries but cant apply for citizenship with anyone though (which is important for most). But as others said, it might be an issue on proving the intent while entering either countries and proving which one is your main residence. Not all officers scrutinize but it might be an issue one day or the other.

Canada - 2 years out of 5 years.
US -30 months within 5 years
https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/continuous-residence-and-physical-presence-requirements-naturalization

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I've always thought I could sponsor relatives through family if they met certain criteria. I guess I need to do more research.

There is no direct sibling sponsorship stream, so the situations in which a person can sponsor siblings is very limited:

1. You can sponsor them if they are orphaned and under the age of 18.

2. Siblings under the age of 19 can be included as dependents in a parent sponsorship application.

3. If you are unmarried, have no children, your parents/grandparents are dead and you have no Canadian citizen/PR family members, you can sponsor one relative, which can be a sibling.

4. There are a few provinces where a person can help their siblings immigrate, though the sibling must still meet a lot of other requirements.

 

[thatrats]

Thanks a lot, canuck_in_uk, and others. It has become clearer to me that I need to think hard about this. The last thing I want is to "annoy" both countries and end up losing. I appreciate your comments.