U.S. Taxes for Canadians, by Visa Type: The Complete Guide Hub

Here's the strange truth at the center of cross-border tax: your visa doesn't decide your U.S. tax status — but it shapes almost everything else about your tax life. Residency itself turns on day-counting rules and treaty tests that apply to everyone. What differs by visa is the situation you bring: whether you have an employer or own the business, whether your days count toward residency at all, whether your stay is a season or forever, and which planning windows are open or already closed.

That's why we wrote a dedicated guide for every major route Canadians take into the United States. Find yours below.

First, the foundations (read these regardless of visa)

Two rules sit underneath every situation on this page:

• The Substantial Presence Test — the weighted day-count formula that decides whether the U.S. considers you a tax resident. Nearly every guide below turns on it.
• FBAR: reporting your Canadian accounts — the disclosure that switches on the moment you become a U.S. person, with penalties wildly out of proportion to its simplicity.

And if you've already moved and want the full arrival sequence: I Moved From Canada to the U.S. — How Do I File My Taxes?

Working for a U.S. employer

• TN — the USMCA professional · The fastest, most common route — and the one where the tax briefing most often never happens. The dual-status first year, Canada's departure tax, and the accounts you left behind.
• H-1B — when the move might be permanent · Dual intent changes the planning: clean exits, PFIC cleanup, and why "sort taxes later" is backwards on a green-card track.
• L-1 — transferred by your company · Taxable relocation packages, stock options sourced across the border, and why HR handling the visa doesn't mean anyone is handling your taxes.
• O-1 — extraordinary ability · Athletes, artists, and founders with income from five directions: multi-state filings, royalties and endorsements, and the loan-out question.
• P-1 — athletes and performers on a season · The jock tax across a dozen states, signing bonuses under the treaty, and the seasonal strategy of staying a Canadian resident.

Running or investing in a business

• E-2 — the investor visa · The one visa where a structural choice made before you land — which entity holds your investment — sets your tax bill for years. The LLC trap, owner payroll, and sequencing the exit.
• E-1 — the treaty trader · Your business straddles the border by design: permanent establishment, transfer pricing, and filings in both countries, every year.
• EB-5 — the investor green card · For substantial wealth, the real work is pre-immigration planning — a window that closes the day the green card arrives.

Studying or training

• F-1 — students · The great exception: your days may not count toward residency for up to five years. Form 8843, the 1040-NR, FICA refunds — and the Canadian residency you probably never left.
• J-1 — researchers, trainees, and exchange visitors · A different exempt clock (roughly two years for non-students) and a residency flip that happens mid-program while nothing visibly changes.

Moving for family

• K-1 — the fiancé(e) visa · Ninety days to marry means your wedding, your move, and your tax-status change share one chaotic year. The joint-filing election and the ITIN scramble.
• Marriage & the green card · Permanent residency makes you a U.S. tax resident on day one, no day-counting — and plants a long-term exit-tax question worth knowing about from year one.
• TD, L-2 & dependent-visa spouses · The guide nobody writes: your residency is counted on your days, your accounts have their own FBAR, and the joint-filing election is a two-person decision.

No visa at all

• Business travelers & cross-border remote workers · You don't have to move to cross a tax line. Frequent trips, winter remote work from U.S. soil, and the exposure your laptop can create for your employer.
• Snowbirds — Form 8840 and the closer connection exception · Spending winters in the U.S. without becoming a U.S. tax resident: who qualifies, and the mistakes that void it.

Whichever door you came through, the pattern is the same