neill

....And more likely to be a 'status' without a visa, which if used for reentry, is then way more subject to the whim of an immigration officer than having a consular visa.

Example
Canadians are not part of the VWP instead qualify for visa-free "B2 status" which gives them up to 6 months stay as a tourist in the USA. A lot of retired Canadians use this.

crg

I don't concur. A visa is merely permission to seek entry. An immigration officer can order someone with a visa removed or detain them to see an IJ just the same as someone who is visa exempt.

Also, find something in the immigration laws that says a Canadian can only stay up to 6 months. It's not in there.

dbd33

Canadians can't stay out of Canada for more than six months without losing their access to socialised medicine. That drives them to come back regardless of their foreign host country's view on the matter.

bruceba

Some provinces allow 8 months away, some 7 months away and some 6 months.

crg

I'm sure the health care scheme encourages many to come back, but it's not like there is a tractor beam or vortex pulling them back. There are plenty of Canadians who reside, work and attend school in the US without authorization.

FlyingDutchman6666

... and vice versa.

MarylandNed

I read the post but people on the thread seem to be talking about 2 different things. Working in the US under TN status (which your link covers) is different to visiting the US for business purposes (which was also being discussed).

MarylandNed

Really? I'd be interested to know how this works in terms of education. My daughter's boyfriend is a USC studying at university in Canada. The university demanded proof of his status in Canada and so he had to get a student visa. He is interrogated by Canadian immigration every time he enters Canada and his student visa is always checked. I don't know how he would get around all of this in order to study in Canada without authorization. In terms of immigration, I guess he could just pretend he's visiting but that would involve lying to them - not a good idea. I see no way for him to get around the university's need to see a student visa.

neill

I read somewhere a while back about lobbying for snowbirds to get 8 months in the US at a time:

Canadian snowbirds may be allowed to stay in U.S. longer - Canada - CBC News

Haven't re-read it but it looks like the 6 month is an annual limit?

ian-mstm

It is not an annual limit; there is no annual limit. There might be tax implications for a longer stay... but that's nothing to do with how long you're allowed to remain in the US.

Ian

MarylandNed

The 6 months is a per visit limit.

This is one of the better explanations I've seen:

The 180-day rule for Canadian visitors – law or legend? - Lexology

MarylandNed

Actually a little over 120 days per year in the US would be enough to make you resident for tax purposes if you do it for 3 consecutive years.

In fact, a lower number would do it if you had high enough numbers in the preceding 2 years.

The 180-day rule for Canadian visitors – law or legend? - Lexology

"To be classified as a U.S. resident under the substantial presence test for a particular year, an individual must be physically present in the United States on at least 31 days of the current calendar year, and the sum of the following must equal 183 or more days: 1) all days in the United States in the current year, plus 2) one-third of the days in the immediately preceding year, plus 3) one-sixth of the days in the second preceding year."

crg

That article is a train wreck. 10 year bar for a Canadian who stays too long when they didn't get an I-94? Poppycock! They're insulated from that like an F-1 D/S. 6 month limit in the INA? More rubbish.

MarylandNed

The article didn't go into the details of how Canadians can be banned from the US. Granted the automatic 3 and 10 bans technically don't apply to Canadians (although CBP officers have refused entry to Canadians who have overstayed) but they can still be banned under certain circumstances:

CBP finds Canadian Citizen Inadmissible to the U.S. for Unlawful Presence — SRW BORDER LAWYERS

"As a Canadian citizen who was not given a date certain to leave the U.S., you would not begin to accrue unlawful presence until one of the following takes place: (1) United States Citizenship and Immigration Services “USCIS” makes a finding that you have violated your status; or (2) an Immigration Judge makes a determination that there was a status violation."

Steve_

Both of which rarely happen. When Canadians are removed from the US it is overwhelmingly because they committed a criminal offence and ended up in removal proceedings, have a look at the figures for removals of Canadians, I think they're in the DHS yearbook.

However, I find you get a bit of a distorted view reading the case law because Canadians are more likely to take legal action because being barred from the US is obviously a bigger problem for a Canadian than most other nationalities.

Says the person who was recently arguing that Canadian visitors get electronic I-94s.

Anyway Ned was talking about visas, Canadians don't get F-1 visas, just the I-20 and maybe an I-797 depending on the circumstances.

There are loads of people studying in California without legal status. There was that whole fight about resident tuition fees.