How to prep for quick transfer of funds to another country [Moving out of US]

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bookbin
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2025 10:31 am

How to prep for quick transfer of funds to another country [Moving out of US]

Post by bookbin »

We're currently living in the US as Permanent Residents. We might want to move to Canada or India over the next year. We have family ties in all three countries and we've already sorted out all the immigration requirements for both countries (citizenships/PRs). When we decide to move, we want to be able to move our funds over quickly and safely.
1. Can non-residents open bank/brokerage accounts in either country?
2. Can stocks and mutual funds be moved in-kind to accounts in either country? How long does this transfer typically take?
3. Are there any exit taxes for US PRs who have been PRs for less than 8 years?

Thank you for your help.
Valuethinker
Posts: 51479
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: How to prep for quick transfer of funds to another country [Moving out of US]

Post by Valuethinker »

bookbin wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 12:23 pm We're currently living in the US as Permanent Residents. We might want to move to Canada or India over the next year. We have family ties in all three countries and we've already sorted out all the immigration requirements for both countries (citizenships/PRs). When we decide to move, we want to be able to move our funds over quickly and safely.
1. Can non-residents open bank/brokerage accounts in either country?
2. Can stocks and mutual funds be moved in-kind to accounts in either country? How long does this transfer typically take?
3. Are there any exit taxes for US PRs who have been PRs for less than 8 years?

Thank you for your help.
1.
There really should be no problems with Canada in terms of transferring money. You want to look at at least 2-3 banks and money transmission firms, because the banking route might really nail you on foreign exchange rates.

There is a Financial Wisdom Forum here, which is a Canadian board - linked through as a sub board here. Nice People. Canadians ;-). So you might want to ask there. There will be tricks about realising capital gains etc.

A 401k in America is called an RRSP in Canada. The post tax IRA in the US (whichever that is) is a TFSA in Canada.

You want to get a good handle on what your US Social Security eligibility will be. Canada Pension Plan is nowhere so generous -- but it's possible your years in SS can be credited against Canada.

I am not sure about, in these days of increased scrutiny over Anti Money Laundering, whether it's easy to open an account in Canada without a Canadian address.

2. I am not sure it's worth transferring stocks and mutual funds. One problem is that if you have over $60k invested in the US as a non-resident, you open yourself up to US Estate Taxes. For my father, we at least had to pay a Big 4 accountant to file on his estate's behalf (I don't think we actually wound up owing anything).

The other main question is about capital gains taxes (that you would pay in the USA on selling) and setting a new book cost basis (for Canada, going forward). Again not my area.

Although US Expense Ratios are a *lot* lower than Canada, there's certainly enough ETFs in Canada, with lowish expense ratios, that you can do what you need to do at reasonable cost. You basically only need 3: a global equity fund (or a non-US global equity fund), a US fund, and a Canadian government bond fund.

3. I don't have any answer. Again see Financial Wisdom Forum - if someone can help you. But you probably need to talk to a CPA?

Make sure you can stand the Canadian winter. It's not easy even in relatively mild southern Ontario (which is somewhat like the US Midwest in this regard). Except on the West Coast, and Vancouver gets an unholy amount of rain (plus it is bone crunchingly expensive in housing; indeed Ontario is also bad, although Calgary and Edmonton are better - but those are long and cold winters). After taxes, most jobs in Canada do not pay what equivalent US jobs pay.

Wherever you are thinking of emigrating to, I'd pay a visit for a couple of weeks in mid January. Canadian winter is fun for recreation - but it gets really old if you have to commute & live in it, day to day. Again, think Chicago or Cleveland (or maybe Boston?). And Vancouver is really grey and depressing in winter. Calgary oddly is bright and sunny (albeit cold, and with a very short summer). Winnipeg and Edmonton -- just freeze. Really really freeze. (Winnipeg is also the capital city in Canada with the most mosquitoes). Montreal gets very cold and icy (and the problem of language of education looms - you can't just send your kids to an English-language public school in Quebec).

I'd also have to say there has been a surge of South Asian immigration to Canada, due to quite lax visa policies (people were coming in on student visas to attend fly-by-night colleges, then getting work visas). There's definitely a backlash that I have not observed in Canada since the 1970s (when there was an epidemic of assaults on South Asians aka Pak*-bashing)-- people saying really racist stuff. I don't know how seriously to take that, but it disconcerted me. Part of the problem is the housing supply has just not risen fast enough to meet the rising population (despite all the new condo towers).

(parenthetically, it's my impression that expat Indians who return to India keep accounts in an offshore location. Mauritius (?) or Dubai or ? I don't know how legal this is, but that's the sort of comment I think I heard in London).
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