What’s the results of the election last night my company just call a meeting a few hours ago. They are seriously considering moving operations to Canada. Possibly Vancouver.
I know nothing about Canada other than The Red Green Show.
If I have a job already there, is it possible to immigrate?
I’m not reacting to the election as I’m not a super political guy, but the election results sorta put our company in a weird position. I own 20% of the company but it is right on the verge of being very profitable.
Besides all the people that whine and moan saying they’re going to move to Canada if their particular political candidate doesn’t get elected, I think I might be in that boat. The move isn’t that scary as I already moved from Texas to Oregon. How does moving to another country for work… work?
I know a limited amount from a past position. Canadians on the Board will likely know more specific to Canada.
If you are going there with a job, or bringing a company, particularly if it’s in an industry that is recognized as skilled, I think it’s much, much easier. (If you’re showing up with no job, they may not be interested. If you’re showing up with 20 employees and a company with revenues of $XX millions in the software industry, it might be relatively straightforward.) IANAC.
If you live in Oregon, I think transitioning to Vancouver would be fairly straightforward. It’s very similar to the Pacific Northwest. It is the Pacific Northwest, to get technical.
Watch out for tax implications. The US is strict about collecting taxes from ex-pats, so you’ll want to talk to a good tax person and get that thoroughly sorted before you go.
Are you all really packing up and moving the company right now because of the election? Wouldn’t it make sense to wait and see what happens?
Wussy-assed? The hyperbole is rampant today in this post Trump world haha.
It’s more to do with our primary investors. They are not giving that much of a damn that it’s DT, it’s who is in the cabinet he has announced he was interested in vetting. I’m not that politically saavy, so those calls are above my paygrade. It apparently a big problem. What my part in the operation entails are engineering and operations based.
I only know a little about Canadian immigration law (it is generally more strict than the U.S. and has a point system - work visas for skilled jobs generally aren’t that hard to get) but I do know that moving an entire company to another country is extremely expensive, time-consuming and risky. I may be wrong but it sounds like you are talking about a very small company. I suppose that could work but there are 10 ways for it to go wrong for every way that it could work. Vancouver is a very nice city but housing is incredibly expensive. That may not be a problem if you currently live in San Francisco but it will be if you live almost anywhere else.
My strategy would be to try to talk some sense into the rest of the people involved. When people say they want to move to Canada after an election, they generally don’t really mean it because it is effectively impossible for most whether they know it or not. It sounds like it may really be possible in your case but it is very risky and expensive proposition.
Could you work remotely? That way, if it all fails, you don’t have to go through the reverse.
I got a little more info. We are essentially a 4 person operation. We are very profitable, but to expand takes capital investment and our ready to go investor and his corporate backed conglomerate’s lawyers are the one taking a shit on the new election because of some particular law. This is apparently not an issue in Canada, and we have the same offer from two other companies to operate there. One is Vancouver and one is a place that I can’t remember and haven’t heard of.
It’s essentially enough equipment to fit into a semi. It’s pretty easy to move. We don’t have a lease or any hard assets.
I just don’t know anything about Canada. I never had the flight fancy thing that seems to be enjoyed vogue right now with the Lefties. I’m a middle of the road guy.
I do have some experience with Canadians because my ex-wive’s family was part of that cult. They are almost like regular people until they slip up to tip you off that they aren’t. I was at a wedding in Ottawa a few years ago and it was the strangest thing. Everything looked almost exactly like a regular place including the hotel but there were small clues that something wasn’t quite right.
When I paid for things in cash, I got back these funny coins like we were in an arcade. Everyone was very nice - a little too nice sometimes. The worst was when I took a walk around Ottawa on a nice afternoon. I needed to buy some basic necessities so I asked the nice ladies at the front desk where I could get them. They replied “Canadian Tire”. That made no sense because I wasn’t asking them about car parts but I went with it and walked on over.
I still have no idea what type of Twilight Zone store I walked into. There were very few tires but lots of other random things in a building the size of an average Wal-Mart. I was so confused I never did find what I was looking for so I walked down the street and everything was quite familiar yet…different. I walked back more confused than ever yet feeling that something profound had just happened.
I am still not convinced that “Canada” is not some type of Truman Show type setup. It is extremely similar to the U.S. but not quite enough because you enter the uncanny valley where the almost familiar becomes creepy.
It’s not really easy to move to Canada, but having a job or starting a Canadian company are both very helpful. Being young, having degrees and qualifications, speaking French or English help. Canada used to be a weird cross between Europe and the UK but recently there have been many Asian and Latino migrants. Canada is beautiful, a bit boring, practical and open minded – with many exceptions. One appreciates it more the more one visits other places.
You will not need to pay any US income taxes. You will pay Canadian income tax, and receive a US tax credit for whatever you pay in Canada, which will probably be higher than in the US, but is offset by not needing private health insurance. Provincial income tax varies by province, but both federal and provincial are collected on a single form.
Not sure if you have to file US tax return nowadays. When I lived there, it was not necessary. At some point, though, be prepared to prove to the IRS that you paid Canada taxes during those years. You will have a Canada Social Insurance number, which can be used in the future to get a printout of all back income and taxes you will have paid.
You will also not have to have Fica withheld, you will not contribute to Social Security while working in Canada. Instead, you will pay into Canada Pension, and when you retire, you can receive both US SS benefits and Canada pension benefits, according to how many years you contributed in each country. Your total benefits will come out roughly the same.
But you will have to file a lot more tax forms.
FACTA regulations are a huge pain in the butt. Not too complicated, but you have fill out more forms–(about 15 pages of 'em) to list every bank account you a signature on. (including, say, the account where your church’s youth group deposted the money they raised from a car wash.)
But more importantly…there are some foreign banks that refuse to let American citizens open accounts with them, because the bank is also required to report all your accounts to the IRS, and they don’t want the hassles, or the very severe penalties if they make a mistake.
Please, please, please tell us the name of the other Canadian location being considered! I’m very curious.
It shouldn’t be all that diffficult if you’re a four person operation. It will take a lot of paperwork, hoop jumping and patience, but all things immigration do in my experience. Good Luck!
(Being Canadian or living in Canada is a great honour and an enormous blessing, NOT a consolation prize, by the way! Sorry, but it needs to be said!
I’m not an immigration expert but I have some idea of how it works on both sides of the border. An intra-company transfer (as in, say, transfer of a skilled employee from a US branch office to Canadian HQ, or vice versa) is generally very straightforward. I realize this is the entire company being moved, but it may fall under similar rules.
I disagree with Shagnasty on several points. I don’t see any aspect of Canadian immigration law that is “more strict” than US immigration law. It’s true that Canada has a points system to measure skills and employability, but on the other side it’s virtually impossible for an ordinary skilled person to immigrate to the US except under a variety of exemptions – sponsorship by a close family member, an exemption for extraordinary skills and accomplishment, usually in combination with an employment offer, an intra-company transfer, the refugee exemption, and a few other special cases. Certain specific work categories can get an exemption under NAFTA but these are temporary. US immigration also has some visa categories that are subject to a lottery and have enormously long wait times. Canada is generally more open to ordinary skilled workers and much more open to refugee claimants. In part I think this is because in many areas the US is hitting population limits while Canada is still substantially focused on growth, although big populations centers like Toronto and Vancouver are seeing significant stresses on infrastructure and skyrocketing house prices.
I also don’t quite understand the weirdnesses he notes. Most people see little difference between Canada and the US except that there are no guns or Republicans anywhere in sight. The coins thing is common to many countries now, where low-denomination paper currency – in this case, the $1 and $2 bill – have long been replaced by coins because they’re much more durable. Canadian Tire is just a big retail chain that specializes in automotive parts but has diversified to become a sort of home hardware and appliance place like Home Depot. I personally don’t much like it for anything other than auto parts, but there’s nothing weird about it.
That would apply even if you don’t move to Canada, but simply have assets in a Canadian bank. It would apply if you have power of attorney on your grandmother’s inherited assets in Canada. Even if you are not a US citizen or resident, but just someone deemed by the USA to be a “US person”. But there is no tax liability on any of it, as such. The sole purpose of it is to burden the American citizen’s bank with mountainous paperwork to ferret out nickel and dime tax evaders, because they can’t or don’t dare to find the real money launderers, drug dealers and terrorists. The 540 members of the US Congress have probably cheated the US out of more tax money than all the millions of people together whose foreign asset-holders have to bear this burden. Canadian banks say it has cost them over a half a billion dollars to conform with US Fatca regulations.
The USA is increasingly considered a “rogue state”, and is the only country that subjects banks and others to these kinds of international interference as the cost of doing business.
