If you are moving from the united states to canada, is there any important things that should be done?

Question

my cousin is moving to edmonton and wants to make sure that everything is taken care of before hand.

Answer 1

First off, s/he can't just pick up and move to Canada without first applying for and being granted a visa to do so. Without a visa, be it work, perm resident, etc s/he cannot work, go to school, rent, get utilities, health care, etc.

The immigration website is here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/
Everything s/he needs to know is there, and easy to understand. Timeline for being granted a visa is generally 10 months to 2 or more years, depending on the kind applied for, and the cost involved is around $1,200 total.

Answer 2

Yes. Seriously, get your Passport. New regulations will make you life hell if you don't when you go back to see your family in the US.

You got to get versed into hockey. Hockey is everything.
You might start by learning who was on the US gold medal team, just to have an American spin on it, unless you are one of the few Americans who knows that sport. You have to learn about the Edmonton Oilers. Most important learn about their run to the finals last year.

Second learn how to convert miles to km. Metric is big here.

I believe Edmonton has dry cold in the winter. You might want to consider preparing yourself for that.

Somethings are cheaper in the US, you may want to bring with you. Electronics was one of them last time I looked.

Thats about it. Your cousin should be ready for the great white North.

Answer 3

I came the other way, but what's required is basically the same.

Decide if you're keeping whatever (real estate) property currently owned in the US. There are pros and cons to keeping it, or for selling it and letting go. What happens next is a result of your initial choice.

Familiarize yourself with both the immigration and tax laws - they're VASTLY different for the two countries! Both require you to pay income tax based on ENTIRE WORLDWIDE INCOME ... and you MUST be a resident of one country or the other. Effective for the first 6 months, your cousin will be the equivalent of a non-resident alien - meaning he's taxed at the US rate. If he chooses to pursue residency, he then gets taxed at the Canadian rate. Be prepared for that! A typical state+income tax for the US (depending on income bracket) is between 20 and 30 percent. For the same income in Canada, it's between 40 and 55 percent.

Until he obtains landed immigrant status, he's not legally eligible to own property in his own name. In the meantime, he can rent ... check with his visa classification to see if there's some loopholes to this. Regardless of the visa situation, he's ineligible to vote until he obtains citizenship.

Almost certainly, everything will cost more ... particularly "big ticket" items. To make it worse, he's moving to the northern section of the country, which will drive prices up further. On the good side, there's no equivalent of a "state sales tax" in Alberta, at least at present. Don't let that fool you though; what it really means is that the taxation is built into the list price.

Make sure he has a valid passport - travel in and around the country (as well as crossing theborder to the US or elsewhere) will require him to have it. He can't obtain a Canadian one until he meets the citizenship criteria. And make sure the passport will be valid for the duration of his stay (assuming he's not going to be there permanently!) ... or that there is a plan for returning to the US to get it renewed in plenty of time before it expires.

Hmmm ... oh yes, his actual visa. Understand what the visa actually allows him to do (work, study, both, neither, etc) ... AND what it allows members of his family (wife, kids, etc) to do. Only certain types allow family members to be employed for instance - and those are often hard to get due to limited numbers. That means his etimates of income needc to be based on WHAT HE'S GOING TO MAKE!

Understand the tax laws, as I mentioned earlier. Both countries have different criteria for determining residency where paying taxes is concerned. Usually it has something to do with "substantial presence" ... whichever country he has closer ties to (which includes family, permanent residence, banking, financial interactions other than banking, etc) will be the one whose tax system he gets tied to after that initial period of 6 months or so.

Do a bit of research on temperatures, rain/snow fall, etc. Be prepared from a clothing standpoint ... there's lots of things to do in Edmonton and the surrounding area, but you have to be ready to meet the environment head-on.

Lastly, take a sense of humor. He's going to need it ... he'll be teased pretty mercilessly about his American background for a noticeable time after he first arrives. And every time he opens his mouth down the road, he's likely to get teased as well, due to his (probably) different speech patterns.

Hope that's enough of a help to at least get your cousin thinking ...

Answer 4

File your U.S. and State Individual and Business Income Taxes. If you don't, you will have trouble coming back.