immigration to form Mexico or the US or vice versa -- - NAFTA and self assessing test - Free Immigrate to Mexico seminars -
QUESTION:
I came here a month ago with my family. I am from Mexico, and I would like to live here.
I came here a month ago with my family. I am from Mexico, and I would like to live here.
How can I get a working visa and then be a Canadian
resident?
--------------------------------------------david ingram replies:
I was only going to answer one today, but your email triggered my interest and gave me a chance to plug three seminars on Mexico.
It is funny. I am speaking in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto in the next ten days at seminars about how to retire to or vacation in Mexico. There is no charge for the seminars but you have to register at the link below.
--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.canada2mexico.com/seminars-t-34.html
9 AM to 5 PM
9 AM to 5 PM
- Vancouver - Saturday, October 18, 2008 -- Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre
- Calgary -- Sunday, October 19, 2008 -- Delta Bow Valley 209-4th Avenue SE, Calgary
- Toronto -- Saturday, October 25, 2008 -- University of Toronto, 89 Chestnut Street
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to your question. If you qualify as a NAFTA worker meaning you have to qualify under one of the 63 occupations which are listed, you can find a job and go back across the border and come to Canada in a day. However, to qualify, you have to have your ORIGINAL University degree with you and it is likely back in Mexico. If you can find a job, any employer can try and get a visa for you but that will take three or four or more months. AND, If you are under 50 and have a degree, you would likely qualify to come to Canada as a skilled worker but that will take 18 months to two years. Go to this site and fill in the questionnaire to see if you qualify. You will not qualify immediately and will have to leave and wait for the paperwork unless you qualify under NAFTA and have that paperwork with you. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/skilled/assess/index.html This is the self-assessment test for an individual to determine his or her eligibility to immigrate to Canada without being sponsored. The following rules apply to a NAFTA Visa/ They are written for Canada to the USA but the same rules apply to coming to Canada for Mexico. -Try filling out the self assessment questionnaire at:
If either of you is a professional under NAFTA, you
could get a job , qualify in one day and bring your significant other to Canada
with you. It would only have to be a part time job to qualify in this
manner.
The following is written for a Canadian going to the
US under NAFTA but the rules are the same in reverse or for a Mexican coming to
Canada or the US or vice versa. If you are a P. Eng, you can be working in
Mexico city in a couple of days.
We have done an amazing number of these.
On December 8, 1993, President Clinton signed the NAFTA Agreement, which took effect on January 1, 1994 under 101(a)(15).
TD -
Spouse or Child of NAFTA Professional under 214(e)(2) (TN
holder)
TN -
NAFTA Professional - (North America Free Trade Agreement) PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS
PERSON
A professional is
defined as a person with a minimum of a bachelor's degree, who applies for a
position, which requires a degree as its minimum entry-level requirement unless
otherwise specified.
This is the one we heard about in the news. To meet this
classification which is unique to Canadians, you must have a bone fide job offer
and all licenses and degrees in place for your profession.
CHECK LIST for the TN
Visa
* An applicant for admission must
establish Canadian citizenship
* The applicant must be entering the
United States to engage in a profession or occupation at a professional level
under NAFTA
* The applicant must be in possession
of an offer or contract of employment from a United States employer
stating:
1)
The professional activity to be engaged
in
2) Purpose of
entry
3)
Remuneration
4) That the position is temporary
in nature and will not exceed one year (although it can
be renewed)
* The applicant must provide documentation of his or her
educational degree or professional qualifications
* The applicant must meet all licensing
requirements
* Employment need not be
full-time
* Permanent residence abroad is not a
prerequisite
* Maximum period of admission of a TN is one
year
* TN dependents accompanying the principal TN will be
admitted under the "TD" classification for the same
amount of time as the principal
* A $56 U.S. fee is required ($85.00 for renewal by
mail)
* TN
applicants are not permitted to enter as a professional to participate in
any way to circumvent a strike
* SELF EMPLOYMENT IS NOT
PERMISSIBLE
The following is
a partial list of some who qualify under a TN Visa. Please note that extensive
experience can equal a degree in many cases. All need a Bachelor or
Baccalaureate degree unless otherwise noted. In some cases, 3 or 4
years of practical work in a discipline can count for one year of a
University degree. Therefore if the University BA requires 3
years, you need 9 or 12 years of work experience to
qualify.
*
Accountants - RIA or SIA or CPA or CGA or CMA or CA
**
Actuaries (this is one of two classifications added since
1989)
*
Agriculturalists
*
Agronomists
*
Animal Breeders
*
Animal Scientists
*
Apiculturist
*
Architects - BA or state / provincial license
*
Astronomers
*
Biochemists
*
Biologists
*
Botanists
*
Chemists
*
Computer Systems Analyst - BA or Post-secondary Diploma or Post-secondary
certificate and three years of practical experience. This does not get you to
the USA, if your job is programming a computer. An Analyst
might spend a day a month working on some modifications (in a testing mode for
instance), but they better not be thought of as a "programmer" within the
company.
**** Computer Software Engineer *** This is NOT here as an
approved occupation. However, Jackie Bednarz (US head of the
NAFTA Section 16 Working group in Washington stated specifically that if a
recognized University was to offer the degree, she would consider computer
software engineers under the ENGINEER classification when a recognized
University granted the degree. My understanding is that SFU
and McGill are now granting such degrees and that the Professional Engineers of
British Columbia have recognized graduates as members of their professional
society. Note that TC and TN's were being granted for this
category on a sporadic basis until the INS realized that no such "official"
degree existed.
Jackie Bednarz also
pointed out (She was part of the original negotiating team when the original FTA
(Free Trade Agreement) was being negotiated in 1985, 86, 87 and 88, there was no
such thing as the INTERNET, "web masters" and "web sites". When negotiating the
job titles, no thought was given to the computer revolution, other than the
computer system analyst designation, which at the time meant a main frame
analyst for a $1,000,000 computer.
(Thanks to Stuart
Lynne and Richard Pitt) (www.fireplug.net), the CEN-TA Group was an
official member of the Internet as far back as 1986 and thanks to Bill Gates
himself (he told me to use Microsoft Xenix as my operating system) and Radio
Shack Model 16 computers, CEN-TA was using "email" between offices in Toronto,
Ottawa and Vancouver as early as 1983.
As another aside,
Stuart Lynne and Richard Pitt went on to found WIMSEY, the FIRST ISP in CANADA.
Bill Gates became quite famous as well.
*
Dairy Scientists
*
Dentists - DDS, DMD, or state / provincial license
*
Dental Technicians
*
Dietitian
* Disaster Relief Insurance Claim Specialists - (claims
adjuster employed by an insurance company located in the territory of a party or
an independent claims adjuster) - BA and successful completion of training in
the appropriate areas of insurance adjustment pertaining to disaster relief
claims; or, three years experience in claims adjustment and successful
completion of training in the appropriate areas of insurance adjustment
pertaining to disaster relief claims
*
Doctors - (see physician further on)
*
Economists
*
Engineers - BA or state / provincial licensing
*
Entomologists
*
Epidemiologists
*
Forester - BA or state / provincial licensing
*
Geneticists
*
Geochemist
*
Geologist
*
Geophysicists (including Oceanographer in the United States)
*
Graphic Designer - BA or post-secondary diploma and three
years experience.
*
Hotel Managers - BA in hotel / restaurant management;
or, post-secondary diploma or post-secondary
certificate in hotel / restaurant management and three years experience in hotel
/ restaurant management
*
Horticulturist
*
Industrial Designer - BA or post-secondary diploma or post-secondary certificate
and three years experience
*
Interior Designer - BA or post-secondary diploma or post-secondary certificate
and three years experience
*
Journalist BA plus three years experience - (This category is no longer valid
and has been left in to explain the circumstances. As I understand it,
journalists in general took it as an insult that they had to have a BA degree,
because, "most, if not all," of the best known journalists do not have a BA
degree.)
*
Land Surveyor - BA or state / provincial licenses
*
Landscape Architect
*
Lawyer (including notary in the Province of Quebec) - LLB, JD, LLL, BCL degree
(five years); or membership in a state or provincial bar
*
Librarians - MLS or BLS (for which another BA was a
prerequisite)
* Management Consultants - BA; or equivalent professional
experience as established by statement or professional credential attesting to
five years experience as a management consultant, or five years experience in a
field of specialty relating to the consulting agreement. I
must make it clear here. A Management Consultant is NOT a
manager. The surest way to lose your management consultant
renewal is to show up at the border with a business card with the title General
Manager, Western Region, or Human Resources Manager, or, or, or.
A management consultant could consult with the actual sales
manager about sales techniques or about selling into Canada.
A management consultant could be advising the actual human resources
manager in hiring techniques or even suggesting that one candidate is a better
fit than another one. A management consultant can do market
research, gather and assemble data and write a report to give to the manager.
This is likely the hardest TN visa to get but is also a very important one when
it comes to serving the needs of the US company.
Note that the
management consultant does NOT need a degree, just five years
experience. This is the perfect job description for the
person with 23 years of job experience who has never gone through the formal
process of getting a university degree in the
discipline.
*
Mathematician (including statistician)
*
Medical Laboratory Technologist (Canada) / Medical Technologist (U.S.) - BA; or
post-secondary diploma or post-secondary certificate and three years
experience
*
Meteorologist
*
Nutritionist
*
Occupational Therapist - BA; or state / provincial
license
*
Organic Chemist
*
Pharmacologist (Pharmacist) - BA; or state / provincial
license
*
Physician - (teaching or research only), MD or state /provincial license. To
work as MD, a doctor must pass his MLE (medical licensing exam), which has
three, parts written over a year. After passing, he or she
would enter the U.S. under an H-1A.
*
Physicist (including oceanographer in Canada)
*
Physiotherapist/Physical Therapist - BA; or state
/provincial license
*
Plant Breeder
**
Plant Pathologists (This is one of two professions added since 1989)
*
Poultry Scientist
*
Professional (most recognized professions)
*
Psychologists - state / provincial license
*
Range Conservationist
*
Recreational Therapist
*
Registered Nurse - state / provincial license
*
Research Assistant (working in post-secondary educational
institution)
- * Scientific Technician - Possession of: (a) theoretical
knowledge of any of the disciplines: agricultural sciences, astronomy, biology,
chemistry, engineering, forestry, geology, geophysics, meteorology, or physics;
and (b) the ability to solve practical problems in any of those disciplines, or
the ability to apply principles of any of those disciplines to basic or applied
research.
*
Social Worker
*
Soil Scientist
*
Sylviculturist
* Teacher (College, Seminary, or University) (Post Secondary level
only)
*
Technical Publication Writer - BA, or post-secondary diploma or post-secondary
certificate, and three years experience
*
Urban Planner (including geographer)
*
Veterinarian
*
Vocational Counselor
*
Zoologist
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
This list is subject to
change at any time. When talking to Dennis Olsen about updating the rules, I
mentioned a nurse who had found out that nurses could go south instantly in the
late 1970's. She got a job offer from a Hawaii hospital, came
back to Vancouver, quit her job, sold her house, kicked out her husband, gave
away the dogs and showed up at the airport to move to Hawaii, only to find out
that they had closed the quota for nurses.
And then, as
I was writing this exact section of the book in March, 1995, I received a call
from a Doctor who had a job offer from the U.S., sold his house and Canadian
practice, only to be told that he did not qualify when he showed up at the
border because although a practicing family physician in Canada and fully
qualified to go south with a Green Card (a resident alien immigrant visa), he
did not qualify as a TN (can only teach or do research) and he did not qualify
as an H-1B because he had not written an MLE. This medical licensing exam is
written in three stages over a one year timetable. I guess he
has to sue his immigration attorney in Los Angeles. This
attorney knew he did not have his MLE, but charged him significant monies and
told him he could get in now!
Remember,
NONE of the foregoing confers permanent
status.
SUGGESTED PRICE GUIDELINES - Aug 5,
2008
Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax or phone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.
$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries
Catch - up returns for the US where we use the Canadian return as a guide for seven years at a time will be from $150 to $600.00 per year depending upon numbers of bank accounts, RRSP's, existence of rental houses, self employment, etc. Note that these returns tend to be informational rather than taxable. In fact, if there are children involved, we usually get refunds of $1,000 per child per year for 3 years. We have done several catch-ups where the client has received as much as $6,000 back for an $1,800 bill and one recently with 6 children is resulting in over $12,000 refund.
Email and Faxed information is convenient for the sender but very time consuming and hard to keep track of when they come in multiple files. As of May 1, 2008, we will charge or be charging a surcharge for information that comes in more than two files. It can take us a valuable hour or more to try and put together the file when someone sends 10 emails or 15 attachments, etc. We had one return with over 50 faxes and emails for instance.
david ingram's US / Canada Services
US / Canada / Mexico tax, Immigration and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
My Home office is at:
US / Canada / Mexico tax, Immigration and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
My Home office is at:
4466 Prospect Road
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
(604) 980-0321 Fax (604) 980-0325
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
(604) 980-0321 Fax (604) 980-0325
Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax or phone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.
pert US Canada Canadian American
Mexican Income Tax service and
help.
David Ingram gives expert income
tax service & immigration help to non-resident Americans &
Canadians from New York to California to Mexico family,
estate, income trust trusts Cross border, dual citizen - out of
country investments are all handled with competence &
authority.
Phone
consultations are $450 for 15 minutes to 50 minutes (professional hour). Please
note that GST is added if product remains in Canada or is to be returned to
Canada or a phone consultation is in Canada. ($472.50 with GST for in person or
if you are on the telephone in Canada) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income
Tax service and help.
This is not intended to be definitive but in
general I am quoting $900 to $3,000 for a dual country tax
return.
$900 would be one T4 slip one W2 slip one or two
interest slips and you lived in one country only (but were filing both
countries) - no self employment or rentals or capital gains - you did not move
into or out of the country in this year.
$1,200 would be the same with one rental
$1,300 would be the same with one business no
rental
$1,300 would be the minimum with a move in or out
of the country. These are complicated because of the back and forth foreign tax
credits. - The IRS says a foreign tax credit takes 1 hour and 53
minutes.
$1,600 would be the minimum with a rental or two in
the country you do not live in or a rental and a business and foreign tax
credits no move in or out
$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries
$3,000 would be all of the above and you moved in
and out of the country.
This is just a guideline for US / Canadian
returns
We will still prepare
Canadian only (lives in Canada, no US connection period) with two or
three slips and no capital gains, etc. for $200.00 up.
However, if you have a stack of 1099, or T3 or T4A or T5 or K1 reporting forms,
expect to pay an average of $10.00 each with up to $50.00 for a K1 or T5013 or
T5008 or T101 --- Income trusts with amounts in box 42 are an even larger
problem and will be more expensive. - i.e. 20
information slips will be at least $350.00
With a Rental for $400, two or three rentals for
$550 to $700 (i.e. $150 per rental) First year Rental - plus
$250.
A Business for $400 - Rental and business likely
$550 to $700
And an American only (lives in the US with no
Canadian income or filing period) with about the same things in the same range
with a little bit more if there is a state return.
Moving in or out of the country or part year
earnings in the US will ALWAYS be $900 and up.
TDF 90-22.1 forms are $50 for the first and $25.00
each after that when part of a tax return.
8891 forms are generally $50.00 to $100.00
each.
18 RRSPs would be $900.00 - (maybe amalgamate a
couple)
Capital gains *sales) are likely $50.00 for
the first and $20.00 each after that.
Catch - up returns for the US where we use the Canadian return as a guide for seven years at a time will be from $150 to $600.00 per year depending upon numbers of bank accounts, RRSP's, existence of rental houses, self employment, etc. Note that these returns tend to be informational rather than taxable. In fact, if there are children involved, we usually get refunds of $1,000 per child per year for 3 years. We have done several catch-ups where the client has received as much as $6,000 back for an $1,800 bill and one recently with 6 children is resulting in over $12,000 refund.
Email and Faxed information is convenient for the sender but very time consuming and hard to keep track of when they come in multiple files. As of May 1, 2008, we will charge or be charging a surcharge for information that comes in more than two files. It can take us a valuable hour or more to try and put together the file when someone sends 10 emails or 15 attachments, etc. We had one return with over 50 faxes and emails for instance.
This is a guideline not etched
in stone. If you do your own TDF-90 forms, it
is to your advantage. However, if we put them in the first year, the computer
carries them forward beautifully.
--IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, please be advised that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used or relied upon, and cannot be used or relied upon, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.--
-Disclaimer: This question has been answered without detailed information or consultation and is to be regarded only as general comment. Nothing in this message is or should be construed as advice in any particular circumstances. No contract exists between the reader and the author and any and all non-contractual duties are expressly denied. All readers should obtain formal advice from a competent and appropriately qualified legal practitioner or tax specialist for expert help, assistance, preparation, or consultation in connection with personal or business affairs such as at www.centa.com or www.garygauvin.com. If you forward this message, this disclaimer must be included." -
--IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, please be advised that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used or relied upon, and cannot be used or relied upon, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.--
-Disclaimer: This question has been answered without detailed information or consultation and is to be regarded only as general comment. Nothing in this message is or should be construed as advice in any particular circumstances. No contract exists between the reader and the author and any and all non-contractual duties are expressly denied. All readers should obtain formal advice from a competent and appropriately qualified legal practitioner or tax specialist for expert help, assistance, preparation, or consultation in connection with personal or business affairs such as at www.centa.com or www.garygauvin.com. If you forward this message, this disclaimer must be included." -
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