Is this possible and at what costs?

[Hope]

Status: Married, both Canadian (Quebec), 51 years old and have never worked in the U.S. I applied in 1996 for U.S. permanent resident status (Green Card) under family 4th preference and have just received a follow up now. Back 10 years ago my situation was somewhat different than today. Still; now this window of opportunity has arrived I feel it is worth a more in-depth study.

Objective: Live in a U.S. border town and commute daily to employment in Canada for a period of time until retirement or work dries up. I work in a specialized but dieing trade that in Canada has a questionable future but in the U.S. is still relatively strong. I would very much like to keep my job in Canada for as long as possible but at the same time keep all my future options open.

Questions:

•Would I be able to maintain our Quebec Medicare, QPP and OAS privileges?

•How much more tax does this translate into?


Any and or all information will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hope

[nelsona]

Your only real problem is making sure that you have sufficient ties in US to prove that you want to maintain your GC once you get it.

You are already guaranteed to collect QPP and OAS wherever you live. You qualified for QPP that the day you started working. You have qualified for 33/40th of the maximum OAS by breathing since age 18. You will collect these when living in US.

You can probably still qualify for RAMQ by keeping an appartment in Quebec, since you are planning to commute. Just stay in US 4 nights of the week.

Your QC job will always be taxed in QC and Canada wherever you live and IRS would credit you. You would only pay extra tax in our state of residence (VT or NY). NH has no income tax.


My quaestion would be why stay at a Cdn job that you say is dying when you could now find the same US job, build up your US pension an Social security (and get US medicare benefits if you work 10 yrs) before reaching retirement age.

[Hope]

Ideally I agree. Finding employment should not be a problem but, finding equivalent employment is an unknown. Cost of medical coverage between move and 10 years of credits and the outside chance of not achieving enough credits is a concern. One possible employment is out of Mass. I have heard they have just recently brought in a new mandatory Medicare program. Do you know how this program works in a case like this one, and what the costs would be?

• Wife does not work, how does this affect her/our situation i.e. Medicare and QPP.
• QPP payout as I understand it is based ones last 10 years of employment earnings; in this case does that translate into the last 10 years of residency?
• Please clarify in terms of costs: IRS would credit and only pay extra tax in NY.
• Commuting would be from NY

Thank you again

Hope

[nelsona]

As long as one of you qulaifies the other doea automatically.

I don't deal in state issues, 49 too many differences.

IRS will creit any Cdn/QC/QPP/EI you pay on your Cdn wages. NY state will not, but you will have to report the income in NY and pay NY income tax.

QPP is based on ALL your contributions. You will get more from SS and fomr QPP if you work in US for the next 10 years than if you just work in QC.

Your the one that said the industry ios dying in Canada... time to get on the stick. Besides, if you want yopur GC you need to do it now anyways.