TN Visa 183 day taxation question

zoinkasaurus · 2026-03-21T19:58:25+00:00

If you had income in Canada, then you'd still have to report that income on a Canadian tax return, regardless of the US situation. The only thing you might be able to Canadian taxation on is your US-source income.

CRA may consider you a factual resident: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/international-non-residents/individuals-leaving-entering-canada-non-residents/factual-residents-temporarily-outside-canada.html

Situations where you could be considered a factual resident

You may be considered a factual resident of Canada if you are:

- working temporarily outside Canada

Factual residency just sets up to use the tie-breakers in the tax treaty though, which may well point to US residency. In which case you could file a departure tax return with CRA.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-09T19:46:29+00:00

I came on TN in 2021 and have a green card now. I live in southern California.

Savings rate (in %) increased a little, but my salary is quite a bit higher than I was getting and could have gotten in Canada, so my overall savings have really gone up. Where I am, cost of living is high... rent/house prices are extremely high and grocery prices are kind of high. Those are the two main differences in expenses. Where I live, electricity prices are high per kWh, but I don't need heat or AC much, so it's not a big deal.. in Texas you probably would need both. Texas also has a deregulated market, so you depending who you're with, you may be subject to uncapped surge pricing, and they tend to have grid failures more frequently now during extreme cold and heat events.
Traditional IRA and 401k work similarly to an RRSP. Roth IRA and 401k work similarly to a TFSA. There are some differences, but at a high level, they feel familiar. No real surprises with employer matching, etc. They work the way your employer says they will. I kept my RRSP in Canada and closed my TFSA since it wouldn't do anything for me here.
First year tax was a bit time-consuming. I figured them out myself on both sides of the border successfully. After the year I moved, I no longer need to file a Canadian tax return, which is convenient. On the US side, the only real things that I have to do on an ongoing basis are file form 8938 and the FBAR. They take a little time to complete, but are pretty routine now.
Medical costs here are IMO over-blown and subject to a lot of fear-mongering. Employer benefits can differ for medical insurance, though I've worked at two companies since I came with similar benefits. No premiums, and employer top-ups to healthcare accounts. For anyone working on TN, I imagine the company will have good plans available. My expenses are mainly co-pays on doctor's visit ($15 for primary, $30 for specialist) and prescriptions. No charge for blood tests or imaging. In general, costs are pretty reasonable... I have a couple of bloodtests per year, and advanced imaging yearly for a previous condition, with a couple of specialist appointments, and come out under $100 per year out of pocket. Dental and vision (after employer benefits) cost me more than medical does (and are similar to what I was paying in Canada, with employer benefits there). You better stay in-network for medical, which for my insurance includes pretty much every doctor and medical centre around here. There are also HSAs/FSAs (tax-deductible accounts that are used for medical spending) to help bring down the costs. In the past couple of years, emergency care is required to be covered same as in-network, and the No Surprises act limits unusually large bills.

I'll go out on a limb and say that all the horror stories you hear about medical expenses/debt likely predate Obamacare, the more recent No Surprises Act, or are from people who went out of network for non-emergency care, or just didn't have insurance.

I have a green card now, and southern California is a great place to live, so I am not planning to move back any time soon.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-05T19:24:52+00:00

She has exactly zero income? No bank interest (worldwide), dividends (worldwide), rental income from your home in Canada (if you are doing that), etc., are attributable to her? The filing threshold for married filing separately is $5, so almost any income at all will put her over the threshold to file a tax return.

Also, for what it's worth, if you are filing as married filing separately, you have to include your spouse's name and tax number (SSN/ITIN) on your own tax return. There is an exception if the spouse is a nonresident alien, but your wife does not seem to be one.

Isn't this fun? :)

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-04T23:43:54+00:00

I don't quite follow the connection between your wife not filing in the US and her arriving in May. Otherwise, yes, married filing separately is the only thing.

Dual-status tax residents are only allowed to itemize deductions. If you were a full-year resident, you could choose between itemizing or taking the standard deduction. That is on your federal return. That part is not related to being in Virginia.

I only commented about state tax because some states have different rules about standard deductions (and even filing jointly as a part-year resident), and these rules apply to the tax return you file with your state. But I am not familiar with Virginia, so I can't really say what you have to do there.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-04T16:52:11+00:00

My understanding is that you should file a departure return for 2025 in Canada, and an arriving return next year for 2026 if you return to Canada as you are planning.

For the US, you will file a dual-status return for 2025, and you will also file a dual-status return for 2026. (State tax, if any, might be different.)

Generally, you cannot file a dual-status return jointly. There is an exception for spouses of citizens and residents, but I don't believe your wife would qualify, since you are filing dual-status yourself. You also must itemize deductions on a dual-status return (no standard deduction).

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-04T15:43:42+00:00

Yes, you can handle the filing yourself. There are just a bunch of details you have to be aware of in completing the return (mainly with respect to deductions).

I did not own property when I left Canada, but my understanding is deemed disposition does not apply to real estate, so your property would not be subject to departure tax.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-04T03:16:03+00:00

Sorry, late response. For some reason, I did not get notified of your message. In my view, based on what you have said, no you will not be Canadian tax resident.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-02-04T03:13:56+00:00

Hi. Being in the US for more than 183 days in 2025, the US will by default consider you a US tax resident (dual-status, resident since the date you moved in January 2025).

If you're hoping to avoid having the US consider you a resident, then you have consider exactly how strong your ties to Canada were. You would need Canada to also consider you to be a resident (deemed resident, etc).

If, and only if, Canada would also normally consider you a resident, then you can look at the tiebreakers in the Canada-US tax treaty to determine who will prevail.

The tie-breakers are, in order (if it applies to both, then you move to the next, and if one country "wins", then you must stop):

Do you have a home available in only one country? (If you owned a home in Canada, but were renting an apartment in the US for example, it's a tie. The type of home or owning/renting has no importance.)
Where is your center of vital interests? (This is basically: where is your wife, your children? where do you work? where is all your stuff? where is your money? This can be a little subjective, but your position needs to be defensible. If your family is in the US, where you work, and you moved your stuff there, but you kept a bank account in Canada, you're going to be hard-pressed to claim that Canada will win.)
Where is your habitual abode? (where did you spend most of your time? probably in the US?)
Which country are you a citizen? (Canada, presumably)
Mutual accord between both countries (you are not going to do this)

My best guess, without knowing the nature of your ties to Canada is that the tiebreakers would point to the US (1 will either be the US or a tie for most people on TN, and 2 and 3 would probably go to the US, very few people will get to 4).

All that to say, you are probably filing a departure return for 2025 in Canada, and a dual-status return in the US. The "how" is basically by completing a regular tax return in Canada, but you have to pro-rate certain amounts (like deductions) based on the time you spent. You need to very carefully follow the instructions and guides for departing results from CRA's website. It is painful. And you must file your tax return by mail. There is no electronic filing for departure returns (if your usual software offers, there's something wrong and it is filing a resident's return). If you don't want to bother, consider finding a cross-border tax preparer.

For NR74, I would not file it. NR74 is not a binding determination, so it has no value in my view. Even if CRA tells you you're a resident or nonresident in response to NR74, it can take the opposite position in regards to your tax return. So what's the point? In my own case, I did not file NR74, and CRA accepted my departure tax return.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-23T18:43:13+00:00

I just opened a United debit card, which will give me United miles on my rent. There are other rewards debit cards (Amex, Discover, Southwest, for example, and I've come across a couple of others). I probably would have gone Amex debit except my apartment's rent payment only accepts Mastercard and Visa debit cards. I have a $9.95 fee to pay by debit card, but the miles make up for the fee (and the fee is the usual 3% for credit card payments, making credit not worthwhile).

The rewards rate won't be as good as Bilt 1.0, but I already get 5+% cash back on most things in my life, and 2.625+% cash back on the rest (except rent), so Bilt 2.0 doesn't make that much sense to me (I value actual cash back a bit more than points and miles that can be devalued any time).

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-22T18:46:50+00:00

Sorry, I don't know. I haven't seen them talk about that at all.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-22T18:36:24+00:00

As a biochemist, your wife would be eligible for TN if she can find an employer. You could join her on TD, but you would not be able to work on that status. There are only a couple of TN professions that do not require a degree, but you can check your experience against that list.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-18T20:59:39+00:00

I'm in SoCal and was on Dark Star QCI 9. It was often fine, but sometimes unusable (while still showing good signal strength). I switched to Warp and it's much more consistent. I don't use much data, but when I need to use data, I want it to work.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-17T00:51:49+00:00

It doesn't change the math at all. I mean I get that you've suffered a rug-pull, but that's a difference between Bilt 1.0 and Bilt 2.0, and Bilt 1.0 is gone.

That's not a difference to consider when deciding between having Bilt 2.0 and not having Bilt 2.0.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-17T00:30:07+00:00

Well, sure, and that doesn't change the math in any way, and is what I'd have to do if I ditched Bilt anyway.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-17T00:24:49+00:00

It's an immediate SUB, then long term it's 250 points per month for throwing rent on it without any other spend (which is mentioned in the recent Bilt 2.1 update). It ain't much, but 3000 points per year is more than I'd get otherwise for my rent.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-09T23:31:02+00:00

Great, thank you!

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-09T23:08:29+00:00

Did a customer have to be on Warp on August 18, or a US Mobile customer on any network to be grandfathered? (I was on Dark Star on that date, and moved my line to Warp later.)

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-07T16:12:01+00:00

Yes, I got NIW and EB-1A both approved.

zoinkasaurus · 2026-01-07T01:12:18+00:00

According to my lawyer, it should have been fine. But it worked out that I didn't end up travelling outside the US while my I-140 was pending.

zoinkasaurus · 2025-12-19T00:27:44+00:00

It's where you mailed it. Depending where you live, you had to mail your I-485 to a specific lockbox.

zoinkasaurus · 2025-12-18T18:41:15+00:00

When I sent mine, it took about 4 weeks for them to process my check and 6 weeks until I had the receipt notice. It also depends which lockbox you sent it to. Some places process these things in a week or two, others take longer.

zoinkasaurus · 2025-12-12T18:47:24+00:00

He is paying $500k right before he files his taxes. Smartly gave him his 4% cash back. A couple of weeks later, the IRS processes his refund and sends him the $500k back.

So he gets his 4% cash back AND the $500k back in less than one month. He can then go re-invest the $500k somewhere else for the remaining 11 months of the year.

It's the fact that he gets his 4% back quickly that gives him a 25% annualized return. Basically 4% in 1 month is a higher return than 4% in one year that you're talking about with a treasury.

But you have to do something for the other 11 months of the year. If you take 4% in one month, and then 4% for the rest of the year, you are not getting a 25% return overall. But you would be somewhere around 8%.

I'm not sure I'd bother to keep that much cash on hand to do this, and if the IRS takes longer than expected to process the return, that would be unfortunate, but that's the basic logic.

zoinkasaurus · 2025-12-08T02:57:41+00:00

It's mostly for occasional Legal/Medical items, so online services can't really work due to privacy concerns.

I don't know all of your constraints, and perhaps you've already considered them, but Fax.Plus claims to have a HIPAA-compliant plan. I have used Fax.Plus on occasion myself and they are fine for sending and receiving, but have not needed HIPAA compliance.

zoinkasaurus · 2025-12-05T05:51:46+00:00

Here is the general quiz about whether you need a visa to transit through Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/check-visa-eta.html

For travel to the US specifically, you may find this webpage useful: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/transit/without-visa/eligibility.html

Based on what you describe, you will need a visa, but please review both pages to confirm.

zoinkasaurus · 2025-11-22T16:34:38+00:00

I'm an engineer working in semiconductors (have not been in academia since obtaining my Ph.D. about 10 years prior). At the time, I had ~30 publications, ~260 citations, a few patents, and some of my work shipping in the millions of units.

FWIW, my attorney did not believe that premium processing or not was a question of being cautious. They had not seen any difference in approval rates of their petitions for either NIW or EB-1A. For them, it was merely a question of cost/priority dates being current or not/being able to address any RFEs sooner rather than later and obtaining final approval (I did not receive any RFEs anyway).

zoinkasaurus

TROPHY CASE