H1B work remotely while PR ongoing

[bafonso]

Hi everyone,

I'm applying for family PR (spouse and kid are Canadian) and currently working for a company in US. They've agreed to let me work out of the country for about 3 months on my H1B and then we will move to a "consultancy" arrangement. The plan is to move back w/ wife into our new house in Sept when I start working remotely. I've always been able to enter Canada w/o visa since I'm European but I wonder if I should apply for a visitor visa or something, as opposed to the border stamp entry which I believe can only be up to 6 months.

I will be doing quite a bit of traveling so not having my passport for several weeks would be tricky. Can I simply apply within Canada for a longer visitor in Sept or should I do it before? I'll be in US for most of the time... what's the turnaround when you need to send passport? I'm close to DC, maybe that helps?

 

[canuck78]

Do you have a Canadian work visa?

 

[bafonso]

Do you have a Canadian work visa?

No.

 

[canuck78]

Think you really need to talk to an accountant and maybe a lawyer about this. My understanding is that your company needs to have a Canadian office to not freelance for those first 3 months. In general paying taxes will be complicated I would enlist a Canadian accountant who specializes in this particular situation.

 

[bafonso]

Thanks canuck78. I am only concerned if CIC will have a problem with me working while on a visitor visa. I can deal with the taxes, it's fine if I have to pay taxes, no problem. It seems like it should be ok for immigration as long as I am paid outside Canada and I am not competing with the Canadian labor force. Can anyone confirm this? Seems like many people did this while waiting for their PR. Here's one hit in the search engine:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/inland-processing-for-prs.376630

 

[canuck78]

You need to look into this further but I believe it depends on whether your company has offices in Canada or clients in Canada. If they don't seems to be ok.

 

[bafonso]

You need to look into this further but I believe it depends on whether your company has offices in Canada or clients in Canada. If they don't seems to be ok.

This is a non profit in US doing basic science research. They have no clients, only people they give money to. How could I further look into this, ask CIC?

 

[canuck78]

Are any of the grants associated with Canadian institutions or scientists doing work in Canada? There are some similar cases on the forum.

 

[bafonso]

Are any of the grants associated with Canadian institutions or scientists doing work in Canada? There are some similar cases on the forum.

This non profit does hand out grants to people all over the world but I do not have a grant from them. I am directly employed by them in their single research institute and thus I did not apply for their grants like a Canadian researcher would. I'm basically an employee, just like an IT person there. They have no physical presence anywhere else in the world. Does this make sense?

 

[canuck78]

I understand but I'm saying that working for them would only be ok if the non-profit you worked has not given out any grants to a Canadian scientist working in Canada or any Canadian institution.

 

[canuck78]

Trying to find the previous examples but having a hard time tracking them down. I'd consider PMing @scylla. Great source of informarton.

 

[bafonso]

I understand but I'm saying that working for them would only be ok if the non-profit you worked has not given out any grants to a Canadian scientist working in Canada or any Canadian institution.

Oh, I see. Is there a way I can formally request an assessment about my particular case to CIC? Do I need to suspend my work and apply for a work visa to get an assessment ?

I don't understand how I am competing with a Canadian and seems like I'd be a shoe in for

long distance (by telephone or Internet) work done by a temporary resident whose employer is outside Canada and who is remunerated from outside Canada;

from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/work/about.asp

 

[canuck78]

Your case is different than a Canadian job requiring an LMIA study. Try asking scylla. It is really about your job not having any connection to Canada no matter how indirect. I'll keep looking for the other examples on the forum.

 

[bafonso]

Your case is different than a Canadian job requiring an LMIA study. Try asking scylla. It is really about your job not having any connection to Canada no matter how indirect. I'll keep looking for the other examples on the forum.

Thank you so much for your time and help. I've pm'ed scylla, hopefully he'll get back to me.