While waiting for PR: Work for a USA based company?

[scrls5]

Hey guys:

So I'm waiting for my PR, and currently living in the USA as a worker (work visa). I have talked to my employer and verified that he could be OK with me working remotely.

I have a TRV that I was thinking on using next month to visit my wife; What would be the implications of me remaining for ~5 months in Canada while working remotely for this USA based company? Is it possible?

(I think I may need to be paying taxes in Canada as well, so I'm OK with this).

 

[keesio]

Hey guys:

So I'm waiting for my PR, and currently living in the USA as a worker (work visa). I have talked to my employer and verified that he could be OK with me working remotely.

I have a TRV that I was thinking on using next month to visit my wife; What would be the implications of me remaining for ~5 months in Canada while working remotely for this USA based company? Is it possible?

(I think I may need to be paying taxes in Canada as well, so I'm OK with this).

If the employer is based in the US and your paycheque is coming from the US (and you are getting US taxes withheld), then I think you are considered basically working in the US, even if you are physically not there. So that is perfectly legal and you would not need to pay taxes in Canada since you are not a resident of Canada and not working for a Canadian employer.

 

[scylla]

As long as none of the work you are doing is for Canadian clients/customers of that company - you'll be find and no work permit is required.

 

[keesio]

As long as none of the work you are doing is for Canadian clients/customers of that company - you'll be find and no work permit is required.

Ah, i didn't think of this detail. So even if you are employed by a US based company and pay comes from the US, if the company happens to have some Canadian customers, this is not legal even if you yourself may not have any specific work related to this?

 

[scylla]

Ah, i didn't think of this detail. So even if you are employed by a US based company and pay comes from the US, if the company happens to have some Canadian customers, this is not legal even if you yourself may not have any specific work related to this?

Correct. If the company is located in the US but has Canadian clients you are doing work for - then a work permit is required. So one of the criteria is no Canadian clients (or if the company has Ca.nadian clients, you can't do any work for them while in Canada). The rationale behind this is if you're doing work for Canadian clients, then you are competing with the Canadian labour force and therefore have to go through the work permit process.

 

[keesio]

clients make sense. I think i got confused with customers. Like if you work for Facebook and Facebook has a lot of Canadian users (I guess they would be customers), would that count?

 

[tabarnouche]

I can confirm that they have no problems with that. I'm working remotely for an American company while living in Canada awaiting my PR and I was asked about my employment the last time I crossed the border. Told them I work remotely from home for an American company and they said that's fine, you don't need a work permit for that.

 

[scrls5]

Thanks for the response, I'm trying to find the specific law/manual where that is defined to read further.

I work for a company that provides a technology platform (like.. Amazon Web Services). This technology is open to be used by anyone. There are Canadian clients/users, however nothing is done custom for them. They get the same service we offer to anyone. Would that be a deal-breaker in this case?

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks for the response, I'm trying to find the specific law/manual where that is defined to read further.

I work for a company that provides a technology platform (like.. Amazon Web Services). This technology is open to be used by anyone. There are Canadian clients/users, however nothing is done custom for them. They get the same service we offer to anyone. Would that be a deal-breaker in this case?

You can check here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/fw/fw01-eng.pdf
5.1. Overview
Examples of activities for which a person would not normally be remunerated or which would not compete directly with Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents in the Canadian labour market and which would normally be part-time or incidental to the reason that the person is in Canada include, but are not limited to:
• long distance (by telephone or internet) work done by a temporary resident whose employer is outside Canada and who is remunerated from outside Canada;

In general as long as the company is based in the US and you get paid only from the US, then you should be ok.

In my job, my company sells to Canadian, US, and all other international customers. We have offices in both US and Canada. All the time my American co-workers travel to our Canadian office, and work here for days, weeks or months. Even though the company has Canadian clients, there is no special work permit required at all for the US-citizen workers while in Canada, since they are considered to be "long distance" working during their time in Canada. Same thing when I travel to our US office to work for a bit, I don't need a work permit even though we have US clients.

I'm not sure if there are other situations though where the "long distance" work would be applied differently.

 

[scrls5]

Thank you very much guys, I'll continue talking to my employer and getting all the internal approvals ready. I had a meeting today and they will consult with some lawyers as well just to be sure , will let you guys know!!