My wife is grounded

[rfomd129]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

Thank you Roselvr.
I do appreciate you looking up those numbers.
I do think that she would currently be taxed about 40% of our wealth if I passed away.
Our holdings for the most part are in a trust.
And no I am very healthy so I don’t see death in my near future but I need to be prepared and protect my wife.

Sorry for the late return to this topic.
I was a bit put off by an early reply so I didn’t think that I wanted to add any more but here is a bit more info.

My wife is a Canadian.
She likes being a Canadian.
I have been dating her since we were teenagers.


We are both anti war and saw no reason to lose any of our children to somebody else’s great idea to kill people.
So she kept her Canadian citizenship.
Well that was in 1982.
1982 was a few years ago.
Times have changed and we have changed as well but are still anti war .

It is odd, and I mean this in the kindest way,
People get all shocked and almost butt hurt when they find out my wife is not an American.
They would ask her when is she getting her citizenship?
She would just say “why ? “
I think she nicely meant why is this your business.

It used to be that she would have to renounce her Canadian citizenship years ago but I never asked for legal advice on this so there is that

So when I was a 22 year old dummy I never thought or even considered that we would have and own what we now have.

As I earlier mentioned we worked our butts off for this.
We constantly grind away working long hours and seek opportunities.
We have invested wisely.
We have smarted people than us that help us with this.

I don’t take this last statement back one bit and found the reply wasn’t worth replying to.

I did give some wrong information and apologize for that.
10 years ago the wife green card cost us I believe $800.
So we laughed and I thought we said the Canadian passport would be twice that.
My bad.

We do like to holiday.
Heck we earned it.
Lots of great places in America to do that but we like to travel to other countries as well.
I/we were a bit shocked when a bunch of her friends wanted to do a Cabo trip and then she realized she was grounded.

She did apply over a year ago for her US citizenship.
She and I would be best served if she optioned a dual citizenship.
We have family and holdings on Vancouver Island as well.

I think she just still likes being a Canadian.

Sorry for the long post.
Thank you all on your advice.
Andy.

Andy, it's nice that you and your wife are anti-war. I'd wager to bet that most military families are also anti-war since they are the ones with skin in the game. If people act "almost butt hurt" when discussing your wife living here for so long (30 years?) and only wanting to become a citizen when it benefits her financially, well, I can see their point.

Today is Veterans Day. Perhaps you might want to speak with a little more gratitude towards those who are willing to sacrifice for our country. To refer to those who serve as taking part in "somebody else's great idea to kill people" is flippant and disrespectful.

[MechAndy]

Almost everybody in my family and I are veterans.
No disrespect intended, I apologize it it sounds need that way
War has cost our family members too much to want to continue to do it anymore.
My jab was at the policy makers.

I do get your statement about her wanting to become an American citizen for financial reasons.
This is currently very true.
When she was young I believe that she would have to denounce her country and that was something that she wasn’t willing to do.

Having a dual citizenship is our best route

[markjames68]

The only negative to getting US Citizenship is that unlike Canada, you file taxes in the US regardless of residency. Canada only makes you file if you're a Canadian Resident.

I've been a dual citizen for over a decade. My children are eligible to become dual citizens. Options are good.

[rfomd129]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

Almost everybody in my family and I are veterans.
No disrespect intended, I apologize it it sounds need that way
War has cost our family members too much to want to continue to do it anymore.
My jab was at the policy makers.

I do get your statement about her wanting to become an American citizen for financial reasons.
This is currently very true.
When she was young I believe that she would have to denounce her country and that was something that she wasn’t willing to do.

Having a dual citizenship is our best route

Thank you for the clarification and for your courage/service. I tend to get a little testy whenever I feel our military isn't given its due respect.

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

Almost everybody in my family and I are veterans.
No disrespect intended, I apologize it it sounds need that way
War has cost our family members too much to want to continue to do it anymore.
My jab was at the policy makers.

I do get your statement about her wanting to become an American citizen for financial reasons.
This is currently very true.
When she was young I believe that she would have to denounce her country and that was something that she wasn’t willing to do.

Having a dual citizenship is our best route

I wish I knew if back then it was one or the other. I was friends with a Canadian couple that were my parents age. They went back to Guelph in the 90's to retire. I met them at my dad's gas/service station when I worked there, we managed to keep in touch over the years.

The husband died in 2011. the wife in 2013. I ended up building their family trees, was surprised to see their deaths listed on the SSDI (social security death index) which leads me to believe that they, or she renounced their Canadian citizenship at some point. I know she was born there, I believe her husband was born in South Africa or England. They were globe trotters. She was an artist.

My parents came here in 1957, as far as I know, they both renounced. My dad refused to go back to Hungary because he was afraid to be locked up for fleeing during the unrest.

Hopefully the last links I gave you will help. It may be easier to consult an immigration attorney to make sure of specifics on dual citizenship so that both of your butts are covered.

[dkf747]

The Citizenship oath says you are renouncing other citizenship, but don’t worry. Canada and other countries, but not all, do not recognize that renunciation. Denmark changed their law in 2014 or 2015 that enabled my wife to go ahead and get US Citizenship and keep Danish citizenship.

[MechAndy]

Thank you all for offering some insight.

Once again I do apologize if my anti war words offended anyone.

As earlier mentioned war has torn up our family.
We fought on several fronts and on several different sides.
My Opa was a builder that had a bad insignia on his collar and had to do 14 years in a Russian work camp for that.
My Oma and family waited for him to return.
This wasn’t easy but we did it.
My stepfathers (the great man who chose to raise me even after the divorce)cuisine lost his leg in Vietnam and cured his heroin addiction at our house in Walnut Creek CA when I was a lad.
He is doing so well right now.
You would never know he was was missing a leg or that he ever used heroin.
In fact he owns a very large business and is just now handing it to his kids.
I could talk for hours of what war cost my family but I won’t.

One thing that has always rang my bell was spending the night at my closest friends house in the 60’s.
At the dinner table his family read a letter that their eldest son sent them.
Their eldest son left for Canada instead of going to Vietnam.
This man wasn’t a coward.
He was just not willing to kill people for a wrong war.
It was so intense we all cried.

So I guess I am just a softy.

BTW I was 93J in the 70’s.
Air Traffic Control Radar Specialist.
No hero here.
No claim to any fame.

Thanks.
Andy

[rfomd129]

Yes Andy, there are terrible costs to war and those costs are tragic and devastating. There are also countless lives that have been saved and freedoms won or kept as a result of war and the ultimate sacrifices that have been made by the courageous. I am indebted to all who have served. My children would never have come to be if not for men and women who served years ago. Those men and women did not choose which wars were right and which were wrong.

I'm not here to argue about war with you. I was ticked off by what I perceived as disrespect to our military. You addressed my concern respectfully and to my satisfaction and I thank you for that.

Be well.

[MechAndy]

Thank you rfomd129,
I appreciate that.

Life is very hard at times and I accept that.

I just don’t want to pay that price anymore.
I just don’t won’t to do it.

We have given more than our fair share.


My “wife citizenship thing” is just another thing we need to “hurdle” over.
No more no less.

As earlier mentioned “we work our butts off” and I am not ashamed to say that.


I used to build racing machines.
There is a lot of detail work when doing this.
Everything actually matters and I mean everything.

It is actually a skillset that you can transfer over to other thing that effect your life.
Like financial planning, fly fishing a creek or raising your kids.

All the best.
Andy.