When to move to the States?

[gapwedge]

Hello,

I'm a Canadian Citizen married to a US spouse. We've applied for a US CR1 immigration visa, and I'm expecting an interview date in September.
I'm 56, and have a few options regarding what to do with my pension. One of these, is taking out the cumulative value. A significant portion of the
pension would be transferred directly into a LIF, and sixty days after that I can transfer half of that figure into a LIRA. The remainder of the value would be taxable, but fortunately, I've acquired enough RRSP contribution room to offset any tax burden. This strategy protects my pension value from the CRA, but I'm wondering how the IRS will interrupt it? I will have six months to utilize the visa. Would it benefit me to take out the pension value in this current 2018 Canadian tax year, and then wait until Jan. 2019 to immigrate to the States? Any insight would be helpful, TIA.

[nelsona]

These questions will be answered in the tax forum, please repost there.