Freelancing In Canada (sales, school, salary)

[AsymptoticFaery]

I am still looking for ways to eventually move up to Canada. I am thinking strongly now about working as a freelancer while in Canada...to make a living. Freelancing allows anyone to generally work anywhere.

Obviously this means I won't get the advantage of sponsorship from a company. How might working as a freelance affect the process of me moving to and living in Canada?

Also another option I am looking at is starting a service-based business in Canada (if I can). Does this increase my eligibility in moving to Canada?

[nuala]

Wanting to be a freelancer probably would not impress Canadian immigration, - unless, exactly, you have a job lined up.

A service-based company would probably fare better - you can check with this tool where your field of service and skill level would fit:

Immigrating as a worker: am I eligible? (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/tool/index.asp - broken link)

[jtur88]

If you accept money for work you do in Canada, that is a violation of the terms of entry as a visitor, and would require exactly the same documentation as if you were paid a salary in Canada. However, it is highly ikely that you would get away with it, if your clients who paid you were not in Canada. For example, if you are a poet and you write poems in Canada and have them published in an American magazine, I doubt that anybody would make a fuss. But if you set yourself up as a shade-tree mechanic, and Canadians pay you to fix their car, that would get sticky. There is a huge gray area, for example, if you bought things at Canadian yard sales and sold them on eBay, it's hard to say how that would be regarded.

[Robynator]

I'm sure you'd be able to freelance while in Canada if employed by an American company. But you wouldn't be able to apply for residency or immigration, for example. You'd basically be a tourist - legally allowed to stay in Canada for up to 6 months as long as you could support yourself. You would not be able to work for a Canadian employer legally, you would not be able to go to school in Canada legally, etc. If you were sick, you'd have to pay out of your pocket, etc. You'd still be a tourist.

In order to legally freelance in Canada and live/work in Canada, you'd have to find a company willing to hire you and do the paperwork for you to allow you to work for them here. You might be able to secure a temporary work visa for the duration of the position. But the Canadian employer would have to make an argument that they attempted to advertise to the Canadian public for x amount of months first and that no Canadian that was qualified applied.