Money Transfer to US

[penjoy777]

I am a Canadian citizen working in US on a H1 for last 4 years. I have declared non residency in Canada and filled out departure return, the second year I left from Canada.
I still have good amount of cash in Canada and would like to transfer it to US (with the rates being so good currently).
I have a 45K draft (CD$) that I wish to deposit in US bank sometime this week. Would I have any problems? Is there a limit to what I can transfer to US?
What is the best way (safe, good exchange rate) to transfer cash from Canada to US

[nelsona]

There is no problem, however expect to wait at least a month for the funds to be available, and be hit with a huge exchange fee

The better way of doing this would have been to do the exchange at your Cdn bank (cheaper), and have the draft in USD (drawn on a US branch of the Cdn bank -- they all have one). Your freeze time would be days.

The absolute best way would have been to make a forex transfer using a firm like customhouse. the fee would be less (no draft fee at all). and the money would be immediately available.

Since the freeze is probably not your biggest concern, it will come down to the exchange rate. Expect at best 95c on the dollar (which is at par today).

[shara]

I do not know if we are allowed to give bank names here but TD Bank has a Borderless account that gives you a competitive exchange rate. I recently withdrew my money from a bank in Canada, and got a Canadian draft, then I realized that the exchange rate would be higher if I deposit the CDN draft here in the States. I deposited the draft to my TD Canada account and did an exchange over the Internet. I saved about 2%.

[nelsona]

Good tip. Did you set that up while living in canada, or while living in US?

[shara]

I opened the Borderless account over the Internet (I already had a checking account), but I had to send the draft back to the TD branch in Canada.

[nelsona]

So you need a pre-existing account.