I will be working in Seattle in a few months on H1B. I'm thinking of coming back to Vancouver on the weekend to keep my PR status (need to stay in Canada for 3 years every 5 years in order to get citizenship). Here are my questions: (1) before moving down to US, anything I need to prepare? Anything you wish you've known at the time? (2) for anyone who experienced or is experiencing this "weekend in Canada and weekday in US", how's the experience? Anything I need to be aware of when crossing the border?
I’ve done this for about 3 years previously - I’m a Canadian citizen with family in Canada, so it’s not about keeping PR status though. 1. the weekends are not enough to keep PR. Count the number of days you can stay in Canada, it probably won’t meet the 3-year every 5-year requirement 2. What’s your visa in the US? H1? And what’s your country of birth? These will have an impact on your status in the near future. 3. For me, the experience was good - with a NEXUS card, going back and forth is quick, no question asked at all, just a ‘welcome back’ from the officers. And I enjoyed every visit to Vancouver with family and delicious food in numerous restaurants
I have H1B and I was born in China. What impact would it have?
You’ll need to wait at least 4-5 years before you can potentially get your US green card. So it’s kind of dangerous for you to keep your Canada PR while on the US GC waiting list. Count the days you can stay in Canada. Remember that, in your GC process, you will have several prolonged periods when you cannot leave US - like when you extending your H1, or submitting your I485. With these periods, it’s even harder to meet the Canada PR requirement
I have seen threads in CanadaVisa (it's a website where people share their immigration issues, if you don't know already I recommend you check it out) who had done this and almost all had their citizenship application got delayed because they put a enhanced checks on them (once they put that in your file normal processing time don't apply). If your plan is just to keep your PR, should be ok. Once you apply for citizenship (I assume at one point you will, or else why would you want to keep your PR) I recommend moving here for 8 months or so. And then leave once you get the passport.
Partial day count as full day in Canada. You can drive from Vancouver to Seattle on Monday and then head back on Tuesday evening. Take a rest on Wednesday and do the same thing for Thursday and Friday. This will make all your 7 days in a week count towards PR. You can buy Nexus card to ease border pain
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