Daily commute (Detroit-Windsor) (H1b and Canada PR)

[pr131985]

Hello Experts:
I have a Canada PR. I am planning to work in h1b and stay in Troy or Detroit, MI and just commute daily to Canada and just want to stay an hour daily in Canada and return back to USA. I have heard even if you stay for an hour in Canada , it will be counted as one day. I am planning to maintain an address in Canada(most probably a friend's) and an address in Troy for Tax purposes. Does this plan sound good? I just want to get Canadian citizenship by commuting daily for an hour to Canada. Please let me know if my plan works or is there any issues?

I don't think your plan is feasible and practical.
Although CIC counts one hour a day as a full day towards citizenship, it should be fine for a few times.
But if you do it daily for 3x365 days, I am sure they won't be comfortable with that and grant you citizenship.

Another issue you will face is with US immigration.
You said you have an H1B in US and will be working in Troy.
I believe you will be commuting to Canada after work for an hour and then return back to US.
While returning the US immigration at border can ask, why you want to enter US after office hours?
Since, you are a PR of Canada you are expected to live in Canada and commute to work in US on H1B, not vice versa.

The most important point, you want to waste 3 hours daily commuting from US to Canada and back without a purpose.
After spending 8-9 hours in office you want to spend another 3 hours of your day, just to meet citizenship criteria?

 

[walk_to_canada]

I've been on H1b visa for 8 years now. So can confirm no issues while commuting on H1b post 6 year completion with previously approved I140. There is no commuter H1b visa.

HI,
Can you continue to commute when your H1B visa stamp expires but you have a valid I-797 ?
Will very much appreciate your experience.

 

[SAM09072019]

Hello All,
I believe this question might have asked many times on this forum however asking again the same question as I was not able to see any recent answer to my questions.

1) I am a Canada PR holder and working in the US on H1B. I am a traveler consultant within the US and do Mon-Thurs every week. I am planning to move my family to Windsor and planning to Mon-Thurs to US cities through Detroit airport. I would like to know if the US border officer will give any hard time during the US entry on H1B every week or its smooth travel between Windsor to Detroit.
2) I have applied for the Nexus card and waiting for approval. Will the nexus card help in smooth entry to the US without facing any issues at the time of US entry? Any sharing of recent experience would be helpful
3) will there be any issues in future H1B extension and visa approval? I am planning to maintain a US address in Detroit as an employer is not accepting any Canadian address and doesn't allow me to live in Canada. I would say that I am going to Canada over the weekend to meet my family.

Any help with the question

 

[justinline]

Hello Experts:
I have a Canada PR. I am planning to work in h1b and stay in Troy or Detroit, MI and just commute daily to Canada and just want to stay an hour daily in Canada and return back to USA. I have heard even if you stay for an hour in Canada , it will be counted as one day. I am planning to maintain an address in Canada(most probably a friend's) and an address in Troy for Tax purposes. Does this plan sound good? I just want to get Canadian citizenship by commuting daily for an hour to Canada. Please let me know if my plan works or is there any issues?

Ha ha ha.....tip of the hat to you my friend .....I guess you have figured out a way ......to have your cake and eat it too.....bravo....bravo!!!!!
Technically and legally speaking.....there is nothing wrong with your plan. But don't underestimate the power and discretion of IRCC......of the hundreds and thousand of PR renewal application and Citizenship application they process.....I am sure they come across all sorts of cases.....what I am trying to say is IRCC is well equipped to handle all sorts of cases. Whether it's mandated by law or it's interpretation by means of process and procedures..
.....IRCC knows how to handle special cases by their own means.

To give you example......by far most of the commuters have been getting their Citizenship application processed I haven't seen anyone having any major issues. I just know of one case, a couple who applied for Citizenship right around I applied. They are still stuck, they have been asked documentation to prove their presence in Canada for certain time periods, guess what......... its your responsibility to prove your presence in Canada, you may present what ever evidence you have, its upto IRCC to accept those as evidence or not. Mind you I applied in end of 2017 and got citizenship in late 2018, So for them its already over two years of processing time now. Last time they got the notes on their files through Access to Information Act, they found out their file is not even in Windsor anymore, its lying in some office in Toronto for further processing, only response they get is its non routine application.

I would not suggest this kind of arrangement if you are planning to ultimately apply for citizenship......just don't bother to invest any time or money....
not worth it. Stick with US .....make your peace with what ever US has to offer.

 

[justinline]

Any help with the question

Hello All,
I believe this question might have asked many times on this forum however asking again the same question as I was not able to see any recent answer to my questions.

1) I am a Canada PR holder and working in the US on H1B. I am a traveler consultant within the US and do Mon-Thurs every week. I am planning to move my family to Windsor and planning to Mon-Thurs to US cities through Detroit airport. I would like to know if the US border officer will give any hard time during the US entry on H1B every week or its smooth travel between Windsor to Detroit.
2) I have applied for the Nexus card and waiting for approval. Will the nexus card help in smooth entry to the US without facing any issues at the time of US entry? Any sharing of recent experience would be helpful
3) will there be any issues in future H1B extension and visa approval? I am planning to maintain a US address in Detroit as an employer is not accepting any Canadian address and doesn't allow me to live in Canada. I would say that I am going to Canada over the weekend to meet my family.

I havent heard any issues with weekly travel or even irregular travel as of now. Some officers can be total prick as well, expect questioning and be prepared with all the documents all the time. Even if you are commuting Windsor and Detroit, you are still crossing international border. I was pulled for secondary every couple of months, where they do full car check and of course all the run down with H1b status. Just few days back, I was coming back to US dead of night........the officer dint even open his window, guess was too cold, he just waved his hand from the cube, keep going dint even scan my passport.

Nexus will help, again you will get pulled for secondary every so often.

I havent seen any issues with H1b extension.

 

[SAM09072019]

I havent heard any issues with weekly travel or even irregular travel as of now. Some officers can be total prick as well, expect questioning and be prepared with all the documents all the time. Even if you are commuting Windsor and Detroit, you are still crossing international border. I was pulled for secondary every couple of months, where they do full car check and of course all the run down with H1b status. Just few days back, I was coming back to US dead of night........the officer dint even open his window, guess was too cold, he just waved his hand from the cube, keep going dint even scan my passport.

Nexus will help, again you will get pulled for secondary every so often.

I havent seen any issues with H1b extension.

Thanks for your response

 

[walk_to_canada]

HI,
Can you continue to commute when your H1B visa stamp expires but you have a valid I-797 ?
Will very much appreciate your experience.

Does any know about this? If we are able to commute with valid I797? Not the valid H1B stamp on the passport.

 

[lampbreaker]

Does any know about this? If we are able to commute with valid I797? Not the valid H1B stamp on the passport.

Technically, you can do that. You would be using AVR in that case. However, each and every entry is discretionary and AVR just complicates things further.

 

[skarme312]

HI,
Can you continue to commute when your H1B visa stamp expires but you have a valid I-797 ?
Will very much appreciate your experience.

So I have used an expired stamp to re-enter once but I was living in the states at that time. The border officials dont know all the rules and it is possible if not likely that you will be sent to secondary and eventually be let thru. Once you get a paper I94 it should be fine. However, I don't recommend doing this. Like I said sometimes there are new officers and some dont know all the rules regarding AVR. Best to get an up to date stamp.

 

[skarme312]

Ha ha ha.....tip of the hat to you my friend .....I guess you have figured out a way ......to have your cake and eat it too.....bravo....bravo!!!!!
Technically and legally speaking.....there is nothing wrong with your plan. But don't underestimate the power and discretion of IRCC......of the hundreds and thousand of PR renewal application and Citizenship application they process.....I am sure they come across all sorts of cases.....what I am trying to say is IRCC is well equipped to handle all sorts of cases. Whether it's mandated by law or it's interpretation by means of process and procedures..
.....IRCC knows how to handle special cases by their own means.

To give you example......by far most of the commuters have been getting their Citizenship application processed I haven't seen anyone having any major issues. I just know of one case, a couple who applied for Citizenship right around I applied. They are still stuck, they have been asked documentation to prove their presence in Canada for certain time periods, guess what......... its your responsibility to prove your presence in Canada, you may present what ever evidence you have, its upto IRCC to accept those as evidence or not. Mind you I applied in end of 2017 and got citizenship in late 2018, So for them its already over two years of processing time now. Last time they got the notes on their files through Access to Information Act, they found out their file is not even in Windsor anymore, its lying in some office in Toronto for further processing, only response they get is its non routine application.

I would not suggest this kind of arrangement if you are planning to ultimately apply for citizenship......just don't bother to invest any time or money....
not worth it. Stick with US .....make your peace with what ever US has to offer.

Well said!

 

[BhargavDadhaniya]

Hi,
Are land borders remain open especially Detroit Windsor Tunnel/Bridge for daily commuters? (Amid COVID-19)

 

[harirajmohan]

Hi,
Are land borders remain open especially Detroit Windsor Tunnel/Bridge for daily commuters? (Amid COVID-19)

I think that its for air travellers similar to US did last week banning travellers from EU.
Also in this forum all would be PRs of Canada hence they should be fine.

 

[canuck78]

Hi,
Are land borders remain open especially Detroit Windsor Tunnel/Bridge for daily commuters? (Amid COVID-19)

Believe you will be subject to the same document agreeing to quarantine for 14 days on arrival. Commuting back and forth creates a higher chance of transmission.

 

[BhargavDadhaniya]

Hi all,
What documentation do we need to keep a track of when it comes to applying for citizenship after 3 years?
Something like spreadsheet of daily work trips (Detroit-Windsor), receipts all expenditure in Windsor, will house mortgage help??
(Considering, I am newly PR holder and would like to keep a record of everything that can help ahead.)

Thanks.

 

[harirajmohan]

Hi all,
What documentation do we need to keep a track of when it comes to applying for citizenship after 3 years?
Something like spreadsheet of daily work trips (Detroit-Windsor), receipts all expenditure in Windsor, will house mortgage help??
(Considering, I am newly PR holder and would like to keep a record of everything that can help ahead.)

Thanks.

Its about your presence you need to prove such as gym membership, school, work, activity classes, volunteering etc...
House mortgage doesnt prove your presence. Non residents have mortgage hence try in the angle of how you can prove that you were inside the country.

Read some of the pages in these threads or ask here to get correct detail:
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/rq-versus-physical-presence-questionnaires-including-cit-0205.534082/
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/question-regarding-rq.681646/