Canadian snowbirds allowed much less time in US? (lawyer, tax)

[adventuregurl]

This was in the Canadian media a couple of days ago. I contacted a US Immigration attorney two days ago and she says it's not true:


Canadians regularly going to U.S. for long stays need to be mindful of changes, says MP - British Columbia - CBC News


Something similar was in the Canadian media last year at some point, and then an immigration lawyer (a Canadian) debunked it and called the media outlet irresponsible for printing it.


Now a friend tells me she went to an event last year put on by 2 US immigration attorneys and they say it's true. What gives?


Does anyone know for sure?


If it is true, the US will lose billions of Canadian dollars (even more than they're probably losing now due to terrible exchange rates for Canadians), and most snowbirds will be selling their US properties.


Why would you pay for a property all year that you can now only use for 4 months???


That's crazy!

[Natnasci]

The rules of how long one can stay in the US has NOT changed.

What has changed is that before they only documented entry into to US and not exiting, so it was up to the snowbird to be honest.
Now they track exiting so they will know EXACTLY how many days a Canadian spends in the US.

The stories I read, were just alerting snowbirds to this fact. Even the story you posted states this.

"Hunnisett said Canadians spending more than 120 days in the U.S for three years or more in a row can extend their stay limit to 182 days and avoid being considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes by filling out a Closer Connection Exception Statement form detailing their close ties to Canada annually."