US-based applicants, let's connect here

[mike2236]

Hello,
How are you guys planning to move/moved your savings from bank in USA to bank in Canada?
Any suggestions and recommendations would be appreciated.

If you open a TD Account in USA and then one in Canada ... that would be the easiest way to transfer funds. There is also the option of buying bank drafts. I would personally recommend using the TD Bank option if possible as it's much safer.

 

[sam9589]

If you open a TD Account in USA and then one in Canada ... that would be the easiest way to transfer funds. There is also the option of buying bank drafts. I would personally recommend using the TD Bank option if possible as it's much safer.

@mike2236, thanks for the info. I looked into that option. But, the nearest TD bank from my place (Chicago) is about 250 to 300 Miles.
I will see whether I can open online account to save that long trip. Or else the other option would be getting the bank drafts.
BTW if I take bank drafts, I think it will incur currency exchange charges/fees, correct?

 

[dt12]

@mike2236, thanks for the info. I looked into that option. But, the nearest TD bank from my place (Chicago) is about 250 to 300 Miles.
I will see whether I can open online account to save that long trip. Or else the other option would be getting the bank drafts.
BTW if I take bank drafts, I think it will incur currency exchange charges/fees, correct?

Just pay $50 wire fee to save the headaches if you plan to go back to us for a while after softlanding in Canada

 

[clguy]

Hello,
How are you guys planning to move/moved your savings from bank in USA to bank in Canada?
Any suggestions and recommendations would be appreciated.

If you have a chequing account simply write a chq to yourself and use it to open an account in Canada. I would open a US dollar account along with a Canadian account

 

[moose17]

@mike2236, thanks for the info. I looked into that option. But, the nearest TD bank from my place (Chicago) is about 250 to 300 Miles.
I will see whether I can open online account to save that long trip. Or else the other option would be getting the bank drafts.
BTW if I take bank drafts, I think it will incur currency exchange charges/fees, correct?

You can call and they'll open the account over the phone, then they send a signature card and you send them a cheque to get the account started. Then open a TD Canada Trust account the next time you're in Canada (you don't even have to deposit anything at the time if you want) and then cross-border banking by phone can move money from the US account to the Canadian account (online transfers only work the other direction, but the phone option is quick once they have your profile set up). They technically charge for the transfer and immediately credit for the same amount so it ends up being free.

Note that the US account will default to paper statements at $1/month so turn that off right away so you don't accidentally go below your minimum balance in the US account needed to avoid monthly fees. The Canadian account will have its own minimums with fees otherwise but a newcomers account will waive them for 6 months. However, for another 1k added to the monthly minimum requirement, you can upgrade to the unlimited account that gets you free cheques, drafts, safe deposit box, etc. You probably want the newcomer's account for the credit card at the beginning, but I'm happy we switched after since with rent and day care we're going to be burning through our cheques instead of going through one a year like in the US. We also needed a draft for our move-in damage deposit so that was nice to have free too.

 

[mgnlky]

@tjsecondtry
Are you aware of the Graudate certificate programs here in USA? I have checked from Boston University and U Mass. I see 12 and 16 credit courses and this will give me a graduate certificate upon completion (hopefully in summer+ fall or fall + spring semester). I already have a 4 year's bachelor degree.

I'm going to share my experience here with Boston University...I did one year of my Masters there and do not recommend it (at least for the Project Management programs). They bring in a lot of high-profile foreign professors who are not great teachers & will do little to engage with students. I had one professor who midway through a lecture started speaking Chinese. Very few of us knew Chinese...Another professor was from France and when asked what style (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc) a paper should be written in, replied she had no idea what we were talking about. Overall I learned more from my courses at the public university where I finished the masters than the time I was at BU. In fact, frankly I feel the ridiculous amount of money I paid to BU was a waste.

 

[smcan2014]

Hi Folks,
Can you please help me with what to enter for the "First language/mother tongue" section of a US born child? For me and the wife, English is neither our first language nor our mother tongue but for the child English is his first language. Thanks for responding!

 

[smcan2014]

Hi Folks,
Can you please help me with what to enter for the "First language/mother tongue" section of a US born child? For me and the wife, English is neither our first language nor our mother tongue but for the child English is his first language. Thanks for responding!

........continuing from the last post............
................... but for the child English is his first language but not his mother tongue. So what to enter? His mother tongue or first language?

 

[moose17]

........continuing from the last post............
................... but for the child English is his first language but not his mother tongue. So what to enter? His mother tongue or first language?

I think I would use the language you all speak at home. It's probably not very consequential of a question though so I would try not to stress about it.

 

[smcan2014]

I think I would use the language you all speak at home. It's probably not very consequential of a question though so I would try not to stress about it.

Thank you. I will just put English because that is the only language he can speak.

 

[Mrs. Kow]

........continuing from the last post............
................... but for the child English is his first language but not his mother tongue. So what to enter? His mother tongue or first language?

A mother tongue is the first language a child grows up speaking, not his mother's language.

 

[smcan2014]

A mother tongue is the first language a child grows up speaking, not his mother's language.

I had googled this earlier but couldn’t find much info. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[lampbreaker]

It will not make any difference to the application. Enter English or your own primary language.

 

[sam9589]

You can call and they'll open the account over the phone, then they send a signature card and you send them a cheque to get the account started. Then open a TD Canada Trust account the next time you're in Canada (you don't even have to deposit anything at the time if you want) and then cross-border banking by phone can move money from the US account to the Canadian account (online transfers only work the other direction, but the phone option is quick once they have your profile set up). They technically charge for the transfer and immediately credit for the same amount so it ends up being free.

Note that the US account will default to paper statements at $1/month so turn that off right away so you don't accidentally go below your minimum balance in the US account needed to avoid monthly fees. The Canadian account will have its own minimums with fees otherwise but a newcomers account will waive them for 6 months. However, for another 1k added to the monthly minimum requirement, you can upgrade to the unlimited account that gets you free cheques, drafts, safe deposit box, etc. You probably want the newcomer's account for the credit card at the beginning, but I'm happy we switched after since with rent and day care we're going to be burning through our cheques instead of going through one a year like in the US. We also needed a draft for our move-in damage deposit so that was nice to have free too.

Thanks a lot for the detailed info @moose17. So, after transferring all the money to CANADA, I think I can close the US account over phone, correct?

 

[moose17]

Thanks a lot for the detailed info @moose17. So, after transferring all the money to CANADA, I think I can close the US account over phone, correct?

Honestly I have no idea, though I've been assuming in-person was necessary. I could very easily be wrong - I've rarely had to do so and only in cases where it was easier to go to a branch anyway. I would recommend keeping the US TD account open for convenience. The min on my account is only $100 so that's easy enough to spare, and then when we visit the US we can use their debit card.

For more possibly unnecessary detail, right now we need our old main brick-and-mortar bank's accounts (at Regions) open to finalize bills for our house so we haven't been able to consider closing those just yet. I think eventually our US accounts will just be our Ally high-interest savings and a TD account. It's just going to take waiting on the house stuff to finalize and then doing changeovers for a few different billing things (like our Discover credit cards) to close our accounts at Regions and it's just not on our radar much right now since we can afford to keep enough in to avoid their fees and we're so burned out on anything paperwork related right now!

Long-long term, we'd probably ditch the Ally account but for now we're not committed to moving all of our money into CAD just in case anything in our life or politically (read: events affecting conversion rates) changes.