futurecitizen said:
* Since health care is free in Canada and I'm from Alberta would that be affected. If I start working in US then will my health care be suspended in Canada and when I finally come back to Canada lets say after working for 10-15 years in US would it start right away or I need to get my residency in Canada activated.
* What happens about my CPP (Canada Pension Plan) & OAS in Canada. Would me (myself & wife) still be eligible to get those benefits in Canada. please note that I'm working in Canada from last 08 years.
Wrong venue for finding expert advice. In particular, I am no expert.
Health care coverage is provincial:
In any event, each province has its own eligibility requirements for its health care coverage. All impose a residency requirement, which typically includes a minimum physical presence requirement.
Where a person works is not the issue. Many Canadians living in Southern Ontario, for example, commute to employment in the States, maintaining their residency and presence in Ontario.
Where you actually reside is the main requirement, in conjunction with the physical presence requirement (I am not familiar with which provinces have a physical presence requirement, except I know that Ontario's is 153 days in the calendar year). Thus, as soon as a person relocates outside the province (to another province even, not just abroad), typically that will terminate their eligibility for health care in the province. And it would be criminal fraud to use that province's health care system after that unless and until coverage is appropriately reinstated.
Obviously, it will be the province you relocate to upon returning to Canada that determines what eligibility requirements must be met. Ontario requires residency in the province for three months before a new or returning resident is eligible for its coverage. But again, this is individual to the specific provinces.
Moreover, obviously, these things are always subject to change. The requirements a decade from now could be very different than what they are currently.
CPP and OAS:
Most of what you need to know about these can be found by researching the Service Canada and CPP's websites or following links from there.
CPP is largely based on contributions made. Anyone who has contributed to CPP is entitled to some benefit. I am not well acquainted with how the benefit is calculated, but at the least the more an individual has contributed, the more benefit earned.
OAS is a minimum benefit, providing just what its name says, at least to some extent (it is a rather small benefit), Old Age Security. There are two parts. There is a part based on years lived in Canada, and with some exceptions this benefit requires a minimum of ten years in Canada. The maximum benefit is based on, as I recall, forty years in Canada. There is another part which is for low income persons, the threshold for which is indeed quite low so I have not looked at those benefits.
Living and working in the U.S.
Currently there are reciprocal agreements between the U.S. and Canada relative to earning certain retirement benefits and being eligible for others. I am not well acquainted with the details. What I do understand, though, is that one can be credited toward eligibility requirements in the other. For example, working in the U.S. for four years can be credited toward meeting the OAS requirements in Canada. And vice versa.
As I also understand things, basically if you live and work more than ten years in each respective country, that will be enough to qualify for benefits from both countries. And thus upon retirement a person could be eligible to be paid benefits by both countries. The U.S.
currently (again, these things are always subject to change, and the Republican side in the U.S. has been hankering to dismantle the U.S. Social Security system for over a decade) is more generous in paying benefits to qualified persons even if they have relocated outside the U.S. In contrast, some Canadian benefits are paid only to someone actually residing in Canada.
For emphasis: All these are always subject to change. In my parents' generation, the changes continued to be progressively better and better . . . most of that generation has not lived long enough to see current trends (benefits falling way behind the rising cost of living for example). While we are not seeing austerity budgets comparable to what has happened in a number of European countries, it is very difficult to forecast how things might change in the long-term future.
