Daily commute (Detroit-Windsor) (H1b and Canada PR)

[TZSR8JN]

USCIS needs the worker to be residing within commutable distance from the work location. This is the legal requirement.
While i was commuting, i always had Canada address while filling H1, Labor, 140, 1040 etc(including payroll address) because short distance doesnt violate any laws. It will be illogical for uscis officer if we say that we are in Texas and working in California. So we can see some RFE on that(of course its only rare as uscis officers are busy in dealing with other requirements and often very less applications come up like this). But it doesnt mean they are worrying about 100 miles distance. 100 miles are commutable and more it goes more it gives issues. Many are even monthly commuting if long distance but short distance surely no issues.

Dont just follow the threads here and act just only based on that. Know the rules and apply on whats being discussed to see if its required.

Giving US address doesnt give you any benefits in this case as you are actually giving fake address to govt agency about your residence which is way more problem than giving your actual border address(like many other commuters). What if cbp pulls your records when you commute and finds that you were staying in canada prior to that but gave residence address US.
When i got my first H1, of course i cannot give US address which uscis knows that company is recruiting foreigner and surely cannot be having US address. if i give US address then uscis will ask how.
First check with your immigration team before deciding anything yourself.

For decades, my TN visa colleagues are having only Canadian address everywhere.

its up to you if you want to rent and spend in US but it doesnt solve anything.

Thanks again. I will be renting a room in a US address where I will go once a month to work. The reason I want to rent it is because it’s a US offer and I cannot use it for Canada. If I give Canada address, 1) they cannot offer a job as role is not open in Canada 2) even if they offer it in Canada, TC will be literally 50% less than what I get in the US.

 

[myat]

Hi All seniors,

I am a Canadian citizen, senior electrical engineer, Master degree holder, TN visa holders. My wife and daughter are TD holders.

My Canada head office transfer me to Houston office under TN visa.
1) I have my US bank account
2) my office is going to move under my pay from canada to US bank
3) I just receive my Social Security Number (SSN)
4) my Canada office will transfer health insurance from canada office to US office.

other than above requirements, what doI still need or do I miss out something?

Questions
Q:1) What is the fastest way to apply green card? Under H1B: there are some quota for this category
OR
My office apply EAD card first then
labour market certificate--->I140 petition under EB2(employment base category 2) ---> I485? Which is better? (When I apply green card, I understand that my TN visa will effect as it is not dual intent visa). For this reason, I am looking for the best route.
Q:2) How can I get senior electrical engineer job in Houston? (I am a PE from Texas and P.Eng from BC, Canada, and I got the good job offer from Tacoma and Dallas but not from Houston). Any recommendations?

TIA

 

[canprofus]

Not sure why you need to take a room in US side which is of unnecessary expense as you are already close to border on the other side.
Nexus is nothing to do with immigration/frequency of commute.(only to get approval of nexus we need to present ourselves as frequent commute but nothing applies after that).
You can travel once a month too as long as you have valid visa without worrying about maintaining I94 to be current all the time. If you dont have valid visa(and if you are already on H1 status with valid I94) then you should try to travel every 3-4 weeks(at least every 30 days as per rule to maintain status without any issue in reentering later).
Taxes are not going to be 20-30% as you are showing the taxes paid in US and might need to pay little more in Canada(if you dont contribute to rrsp).

people who work 100% remote within US on H1b don't have any office location have their home location in their LCA as their work location. so he needs to have a room/house on US side and not sure how it could be avoided. Basically his room is his H1 work location in US side and he would travel to that every month.

 

[harirajmohan]

people who work 100% remote within US on H1b don't have any office location have their home location in their LCA as their work location. so he needs to have a room/house on US side and not sure how it could be avoided. Basically his room is his H1 work location in US side and he would travel to that every month.

H1 is for working in US(not for working outside US). And any company who recruits a person(even for allowing working remote) will/can give work address as the company's address. So i dont see a problem in it since this should be the logical reason even when candidate is a commuter.

Giving some room address at border will be a problem if cbp scrutinizes since work locations are expected to be actual work location or client location where one normally spends more time working. Few cbp officers google and check the names of companies/clients which often happens during the years of commute. Giving office address as work location is more logical than giving some fake room address.

Well, there are lot of rules bending H1 filings that are not scrutinized by uscis. No one knows which cbp will grill and when during 3 years of commute. One would even face entry denial if things are too much fake. If its one time or two time entry then we can pass through but for years of commute, its difficult every time. So I cant vouch on it as safe/painless commute.

Many whoever having office far from border, they just choose to commute once a month. This is very much safe and legal and painless for years of commute.

 

[canprofus]

H1 is for working in US(not for working outside US). And any company who recruits a person(even for allowing working remote) will/can give work address as the company's address. So i dont see a problem in it since this should be the logical reason even when candidate is a commuter.

Giving some room address at border will be a problem if cbp scrutinizes since work locations are expected to be actual work location or client location where one normally spends more time working. Few cbp officers google and check the names of companies/clients which often happens during the years of commute. Giving office address as work location is more logical than giving some fake room address.

Well, there are lot of rules bending H1 filings that are not scrutinized by uscis. No one knows which cbp will grill and when during 3 years of commute. One would even face entry denial if things are too much fake. If its one time or two time entry then we can pass through but for years of commute, its difficult every time. So I cant vouch on it as safe/painless commute.

Many whoever having office far from border, they just choose to commute once a month. This is very much safe and legal and painless for years of commute.

yes H1 is for working within US, and if a US position is 100% remote, company will not give any of their office address and add employee's home location in US to LCA and H1 petition. It is not simply giving 'some fake room address'. An employer needs to file LCA for that address and include the home address as work site in the H1 petition and people will have to work from that location while within US. USCIS can visit that location to make sure that the person is working from there. there are no bending of rules here and thousands of people have been working 100% from their homes in H1 since long time even before pandemic.

Facebook has announced that people can work anywhere from US. What do you think happens in that case? they don't have offices in all 50 states and add home address to H1 petition from where an employee wants to work. If an employee wants to work from his home in Detroit, they would simply add his Detroit address to the H1 petition and the employee can start working from Detroit home address based on that. It becomes their home office and Facebook has approved them to work from there.

So if CBP wants to verify with Facebook when an employee is commuting on their work address, they could very well do that. HR will mention that the same home address as work address during their verification. How will CBP turn back someone after validating their employment? The person is traveling to their approved work location and not some x , y, z place.

You probably have no idea on how remote positions within US works and I sometimes feel that you just rush reading through the posts without clearly understanding what people are trying to say. And you should stop calling this as fake room address because you are clearly not understanding what people are trying to say. I suggest reading people's posts clearly at least twice and then respond instead of repeatedly calling fake address, fake address.

 

[kris72]

Hi All seniors,

I am a Canadian citizen, senior electrical engineer, Master degree holder, TN visa holders. My wife and daughter are TD holders.

My Canada head office transfer me to Houston office under TN visa.
1) I have my US bank account
2) my office is going to move under my pay from canada to US bank
3) I just receive my Social Security Number (SSN)
4) my Canada office will transfer health insurance from canada office to US office.

other than above requirements, what doI still need or do I miss out something?

Questions
Q:1) What is the fastest way to apply green card? Under H1B: there are some quota for this category
OR
My office apply EAD card first then
labour market certificate--->I140 petition under EB2(employment base category 2) ---> I485? Which is better? (When I apply green card, I understand that my TN visa will effect as it is not dual intent visa). For this reason, I am looking for the best route.
Q:2) How can I get senior electrical engineer job in Houston? (I am a PE from Texas and P.Eng from BC, Canada, and I got the good job offer from Tacoma and Dallas but not from Houston). Any recommendations?

TIA

Fastest way really depends on your country of birth - Assuming you are not born in visa backlogged countries such as India or China Employment based Visa EB2 or Eb3 shouldn't really matter - They both are current for Rest of the world. Technically TN isn't a dual intent so people have tried this in past and if you are again not from Visa backlogged counties I guess you can still apply on TN but lot of them avoid travelling during this process and avoid any additional hassle.

 

[harirajmohan]

yes H1 is for working within US, and if a US position is 100% remote, company will not give any of their office address and add employee's home location in US to LCA and H1 petition. It is not simply giving 'some fake room address'. An employer needs to file LCA for that address and include the home address as work site in the H1 petition and people will have to work from that location while within US. USCIS can visit that location to make sure that the person is working from there. there are no bending of rules here and thousands of people have been working 100% from their homes in H1 since long time even before pandemic.

Facebook has announced that people can work anywhere from US. What do you think happens in that case? they don't have offices in all 50 states and add home address to H1 petition from where an employee wants to work. If an employee wants to work from his home in Detroit, they would simply add his Detroit address to the H1 petition and the employee can start working from Detroit home address based on that. It becomes their home office and Facebook has approved them to work from there.

So if CBP wants to verify with Facebook when an employee is commuting on their work address, they could very well do that. HR will mention that the same home address as work address during their verification. How will CBP turn back someone after validating their employment? The person is traveling to their approved work location and not some x , y, z place.

You probably have no idea on how remote positions within US works and I sometimes feel that you just rush reading through the posts without clearly understanding what people are trying to say. And you should stop calling this as fake room address because you are clearly not understanding what people are trying to say. I suggest reading people's posts clearly at least twice and then respond instead of repeatedly calling fake address, fake address.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/62j-h1b-worksite
"The term “place of employment” means the worksite or physical location where an H-1B nonimmigrant worker actually performs his or her work. "

Remote location / work location is nothing but you spend most of the time there to work. So how would this border address be a work location when one is commuting to go there to work once a month and not spending most of the time to work in this location? if one doesnt spend majority of the time then its not a work location and this address is being used as border location to commute and retain H1 status by using some address which is fake only. Instead one can just give their company address instead of some address which will at least allow to pass through border without much issue.

When we have 100z of people working in a company and do you think that practically HR person will pull up the LCA and read out the work location with the address for this one specific individual? Its almost impossible to do it quickly over the call with cbp since this address is different for each candidate since all have given their border home addresses and surely a better way to mess up easily since HR cant validate. Many HR dont even know H1 filings and just get it done through lawyers and specific individuals in the company.

You can very well assume that cbp cant deny just because uscis has approved it. CBP has same authority as uscis to deny and proceed in revoking work authorization. Dont underestimate without knowing about their authority. You are not the first one to assume. I too was assuming initially.

Facebook announced remote positions and many did and many dont have offices in 50 states. But i never said that people are not using their US home addresses as one of the work locations in LCA. But here this doesnt apply since home is not even in US and we are not talking about issue of filing h1 for a candidate within 50 states. So not sure why you compare it with this thread's situation.

Yes uscis can do visits and can surely visit the location you mention. I didnt anywhere mention that people are not giving their home address as work locations in LCA but here its not the point of giving US home address as a work location. It seems that you should be reading my post twice before commenting if i know about remote positions or not.

I am not an expert on faking remote positions for commute and not an expert in assuming that things will be fine at the border for years but i am only providing basics of H1 rules that i know which is same for remote/actual work locations.
Remote positions are not new but you are assuming that you are the only one know about it. Remote position was there and many positions were remote and many worked from home without giving home address for years. Only pandemic has confused many and started giving home address, not sure why(dont know if uscis visits made them file with home address but either way, this scenario doesnt apply here since candidate home is not in US).

I came on h1 through a tiny consulting company which was registered in a house. So i know how things work on H1 for years but here we are not trying to trick uscis alone and certainly not the cbp for only once/twice. Border commute makes one hit the border on immigration frequently hence things should not be taken lightly for safe commute.

I am trying to tell how one can easily commute by providing office address as work address but you are trying to tell how one can file H1 with some address and demand entry at cbp checkpost. Surely vast difference in our knowledge in how to deal with cbp for commute.

 

[lostrocked]

Two people with different opinions and 100s of people getting confused. My company has no office location in Washington State, now wondering if I should live 4 days in US(Blaine) and 3 Days in Canada OR Ask my employer if he can update remote Canada address OR Rent in Blaine WA commute daily.

180 degree answers are really not helping...

 

[canprofus]

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/62j-h1b-worksite
"The term “place of employment” means the worksite or physical location where an H-1B nonimmigrant worker actually performs his or her work. "

Remote location / work location is nothing but you spend most of the time there to work. So how would this border address be a work location when one is commuting to go there to work once a month and not spending most of the time to work in this location? if one doesnt spend majority of the time then its not a work location and this address is being used as border location to commute and retain H1 status by using some address which is fake only. Instead one can just give their company address instead of some address which will at least allow to pass through border without much issue.

When we have 100z of people working in a company and do you think that practically HR person will pull up the LCA and read out the work location with the address for this one specific individual? Its almost impossible to do it quickly over the call with cbp since this address is different for each candidate since all have given their border home addresses and surely a better way to mess up easily since HR cant validate. Many HR dont even know H1 filings and just get it done through lawyers and specific individuals in the company.

You can very well assume that cbp cant deny just because uscis has approved it. CBP has same authority as uscis to deny and proceed in revoking work authorization. Dont underestimate without knowing about their authority. You are not the first one to assume. I too was assuming initially.

Facebook announced remote positions and many did and many dont have offices in 50 states. But i never said that people are not using their US home addresses as one of the work locations in LCA. But here this doesnt apply since home is not even in US and we are not talking about issue of filing h1 for a candidate within 50 states. So not sure why you compare it with this thread's situation.

Yes uscis can do visits and can surely visit the location you mention. I didnt anywhere mention that people are not giving their home address as work locations in LCA but here its not the point of giving US home address as a work location. It seems that you should be reading my post twice before commenting if i know about remote positions or not.

I am not an expert on faking remote positions for commute and not an expert in assuming that things will be fine at the border for years but i am only providing basics of H1 rules that i know which is same for remote/actual work locations.
Remote positions are not new but you are assuming that you are the only one know about it. Remote position was there and many positions were remote and many worked from home without giving home address for years. Only pandemic has confused many and started giving home address, not sure why(dont know if uscis visits made them file with home address but either way, this scenario doesnt apply here since candidate home is not in US).

I came on h1 through a tiny consulting company which was registered in a house. So i know how things work on H1 for years but here we are not trying to trick uscis alone and certainly not the cbp for only once/twice. Border commute makes one hit the border on immigration frequently hence things should not be taken lightly for safe commute.

I am trying to tell how one can easily commute by providing office address as work address but you are trying to tell how one can file H1 with some address and demand entry at cbp checkpost. Surely vast difference in our knowledge in how to deal with cbp for commute.

for every visit, if someone has a valid job and valid status, how does it matter whether it is once a month or once a week or once a year?

So why don't you tell this.. if someone has been hired by Facebook to work remotely full time and if they just have a Detroit home location in LCA/work location, what are they supposed to do if they live in Windsor? should they change the work location to SFO and fly every month there for the sake of commute?

If someone works for legitimate company, HR will know if an employee is a visa sponsored or not, what is their work location in the record etc. HRs exist for that and you are simply saying HR don't know anything just to prove your point. if someone is tagged as remote worker, they will have their home address as work location address in the HR system/workday. HR will verify based on that. if CBP asks for an employee's work location, HR cannot say something that is not present in the system. Will they pull some location out of the air and tell CBP?

People who are 100% remote will not have any other work location other than their home in the system.. such enquiries are part and parcel of HR job and it is too naive to think that HR won't have a way to pull employee's records, visa status etc. HRs can also redirect queries to attorneys if they want.. I know people who got hired remotely for Amazon, Uber etc during pandemic.. all of their work location in HR system is their home address. So HRs can definitely validate home work location if required and it is a routine thing. By your logic, what will HR say if asked about work location such remote employees? will they randomly say some office location ?

 

[skarme312]

Hi Folks,

I have a tax question. For those of you who have been commuting, I'm assuming you file 1040NR (non resident) federal and state tax. Do you guys claim standard deduction via treaty? If not, do you deduct the state tax from the federal return as an itemized deduction? In the case that you get a refund from the state, is that counted as income for next year's return?

For the canada tax, is the refund deducted from the foreign tax credit?

I'm just going over some of my tax stuff from CPA and looking for some clarification. I would just the office, but they have been a major pain to deal with. In future I will just do this myself.

 

[dublin_gsw]

Moved from US. Started Daily commute from Windsor to Detroit since last year. Company office in Detroit, Had filed new H1 with Detroit work location and detroit home address, home where I frequently visit (uncle stays there). That's the same home address I gave to CBP on first entry.

Filing PERM now , there is a column in perm for alien address , shall I continue mentioning detroit address which is being used for payroll/tax or provide canadian address? Would it make sense to change address during 485 filing if at all, or that also can be filed with same US home address using consular processing.

Appreciate if anyone can share guidance from past experience dealing the similar situation.

 

[DreamCanadian]

Hi All,

Hope everyone doing great, Its good to see lots of doubts getting clear out w.r.t. daily commute.

My situation (same as everyone else)- I am living in USA and wants to maintain canada PR and apply citizenship after 3 years.

Question - If i do daily commute for an hour everyday (just went to Canada around 11:30 AM and return back at 12:30 AM one hour stay), Is it still same as living in Canada and working in Detroit ?

More info about myself - Indian Citizen, H1B holder, Priority date in 2018

 

[harirajmohan]

Hi All,

Hope everyone doing great, Its good to see lots of doubts getting clear out w.r.t. daily commute.

My situation (same as everyone else)- I am living in USA and wants to maintain canada PR and apply citizenship after 3 years.

Question - If i do daily commute for an hour everyday (just went to Canada around 11:30 AM and return back at 12:30 AM one hour stay), Is it still same as living in Canada and working in Detroit ?

More info about myself - Indian Citizen, H1B holder, Priority date in 2018

Unless you have a family member in Canada, this kind of trip wont work. Border guys will think that its 100% abuse of situation/law. Many officers question too much even for legal PR holder if they just travel for Test/oath(even after staying in the country for years and while maintaining PR obligations). So this few mins trip will be problem to deal with at both borders as per my understanding.
If you can make this kind of trip then you are near border. Why cant you simply move to Windsor and commute for work? What do you loose in that?
People are wanting the border job in locations like detroit to make it easier to commute but you are not utilizing on the easy move to Canada.
Whats your location?

 

[DreamCanadian]

Unless you have a family member in Canada, this kind of trip wont work. Border guys will think that its 100% abuse of situation/law. Many officers question too much even for legal PR holder if they just travel for Test/oath(even after staying in the country for years and while maintaining PR obligations). So this few mins trip will be problem to deal with at both borders as per my understanding.
If you can make this kind of trip then you are near border. Why cant you simply move to Windsor and commute for work? What do you loose in that?
People are wanting the border job in locations like detroit to make it easier to commute but you are not utilizing on the easy move to Canada.
Whats your location?

Thanks for your reply

Who will think abuse of law ? (Canada or US?)

I am planning to move Detroit.

 

[harirajmohan]

Thanks for your reply

Who will think abuse of law ? (Canada or US?)

I am planning to move Detroit.

Both sides would think.

Why cant you simply move to Windsor?