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| Subject: Richard & wannabecanadian |
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Congratulations on receiving your PR card, Richard. We´re shown everyone ours. Good luck on selling your house. I think the real estate situation in Chicago is better than that of Ohio. We haven´t made another trip to BC because all of our funds are going into getting our house ready for sale in the Spring, plus we´re also adding improvements to our house in BC. I guess you and wannabecanadian are learning what´s involved in moving from one place to another, such as getting rid of tons of junk. We´re given tons of stuff to a local charity outfit, so that we can utilize deductions on our income tax, which you might consider doing. (you can also deduct your mortgage interest on your Canadian home, Richard, if you have such a mortgage, on the USA tax form).
I´m sorry about your difficulty with the PR card, wannabecanadian. Are they actually rejecting a Canadian address? We gave them the address of our realtor in BC and it worked fine. We also have a bungalow like you, built in 1953, and so far have had to put in a new driveway and waterproof the basement, so can appreciate what you are going through. Did you get your SINs and send off the PR card application over Thanksgiving? Good luck with that. (I think you can always enter Canada with your USA passport, if you don´t yet have the PR card)
It´s nice to know that we´re leaving Ohio (and the country) with some hope that the political climate here is beginning to change for the better. And hopefully, that will be reflected in a rising USA dollar which will benefit all us expatriates in Canada.
Thanks for all your responses and I´ll continue to be in touch.
[27-11-2006,16:27]
[***.123.98.203]
Bob |
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(in reply to: Richard & wannabecanadian)
Hi Bob: Good to hear from you. There are indeed endless things to do on an older house to get ready to sell, but at least it passes the time until selling season begins!
The IO did indeed reject our address that we provided. When asked, we told him it was the address of a friend, and he said he couldn´t take it if we weren´t intending to live there. He then gave us a form to complete when we establish a permanent address, which we have 180 days from landing to do, or pay a $50 processing fee. No big deal.
We´ve decided to hold off on obtaining our SINs and the PR card until we are closer to actually moving, or perhaps until we actually do. It seems that once we establish a residence, we will have to obtain our drivers licences and all other manners of official things, so we´d rather not deal with that while we still live here. Since we own nothing in Canada yet and have no address there, I assume we don´t have to file Canadian tax forms for this year; at this point we only have the RIGHT to live there and are not actually residents of any province.
Agreed, we can both take pride in knowing that we helped turn the tide of Ohio politics while we had our final chance to do so. We can only hope that this is only the beginning, for the state and the country. I like the sound of becoming an "expatriate", though it it´s funny to think of ourselves as "immigrants"! Not sure we fit the standard mold...
Hope to keep in touch with you both while we bide our time away this winter.
[27-11-2006,17:28]
[**.95.51.145]
wannabecanadian |
(in reply to: Richard & wannabecanadian)
Hi, wannabecanadian, it´s really weird how the landing process varies from province to province and IO to IO, so I guess we were lucky that our IO, at first skeptical of our idea of landing and then returning, decided to land us. It would have been a real pain for us to do another landing as we have a menagerie of pets including a disabled dog and it´s a real hassle to hire a reliable pet sitter, but if you´re not going to live in Canada until the Spring you can just as well land then, just so long as you do so before the anniversary of your medicals.
I think that you only file tax forms for the country from which you have the most income, but I´m not certain about that. I know that I can take off mortgage interest on my Canadian property on my USA taxes, which is nice.
Will continue to be in touch, and good luck with selling your house.
[27-11-2006,20:42]
[***.123.98.203]
Bob |
(in reply to: Richard & wannabecanadian)
Hi Bob: Yeah, the landing process is weird and seems very random; I´d never heard of anyone having their provided address rejected on any grounds. But we did officially land, and the IO didn´t blink an eye that we were returning to the states the same day. In fact, customs DID take the address we had, even though we told them it was just the address of a friend; they didn´t care at all. Since landing in Windsor, I´ve read that there are fewer problems through Buffalo, so maybe I shouldn´t have been quite so eager. At least we´re official, card or no card.
I´m not sure about filing taxes, either. I was under the impression that the US requires its citizens to file taxes even if they live elsewhere; from what I read, expatriates nearly never owe the US money, they just want to keep tabs. And I thought that Canada requires PRs to file as well if you own property or goods in Canada, regardless of your primary or current residence. Wish I had answers for you.
[27-11-2006,21:38]
[**.95.51.145]
wannabecanadian |
(in reply to: Richard & wannabecanadian)
I´ll check with my tax guy about the tax thing and let you know.
[27-11-2006,22:45]
[***.123.98.203]
Bob |
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