Working on B2 Visa for a Canadian company

TnRaju

Member
If a Canadian citizen is visiting the US and working for a Canadian company and being paid in Canada is there an issue ?
My wife has found work in Canada and is planning to return. She wants to visit every month until my contract is over and spend time working from home in the US (about 15 days a month) and get paid in Canada. Is this illegal?

Thank you for your help.
 
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If a Canadian citizen is visiting the US and working for a Canadian company and being paid in Canada is there an issue ?
My wife has found work in Canada and is planning to return. She wants to visit every month until my contract is over and spend time working from home in the US (about 15 days a month) and get paid in Canada. Is this illegal?

Thank you for your help.

Yes
Also if she’s visiting for two weeks at a time every month at some stage CBP is going to start asking questions
Basically you want her to live there half the month, that’s not tourism and not what a B visa is for.
Why does she even have a B visa if she’s Canadian?
 
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Thank you very much. What is the best way to work from the USA for a Canadian company without doing something illegal?
 
Susie raised a good question.. why does a Canadian citizen need a B visa?

Generically speaking, it is illegal to work or to live in the US on a B2, and working from home in the US would be covered under that illegality.
 
I apologize, I did not mean getting a VISA, but entering the US on a visitor status equivalent to a B visa. Thank you for your help.
 
I apologize, I did not mean getting a VISA, but entering the US on a visitor status equivalent to a B visa. Thank you for your help.

Answer is the same, not having a visa obviously means they can’t revoke it, but i am sure there will equally be issues if your wife tries to misuse the visa-free travel Canadians have. I think similar offenses in the past have meant the person has in fact had to get a visa to visit the us again in the future, difficult to get a visa with a history of violation though. Plenty of Canadians have ended up with years not being able to visit US.
 
Unlike citizens of visa waiver countries, Canadians (and Bermudians I believe) never need visas for most (but not all) non-immigrant criteria.

Even with prior criminal convictions (or overstay or removal) that would render one inadmissible, they can directly apply for (I-192/I-212) non-immigrant waivers at the border, and would have never needed to deal with the US Consulate for visa stamping. This is true for most non-immigrant status such as B, H, F, J, M, L, O, TN, etc. They need visas for E, K, A, G and immigrating, but otherwise, would never need one.

As for working from home in the US while on B2 status, I know spouses of TN workers in the US who are working remotely for Canadian companies, and they never even bothered to apply for TD status (and even with TD status, employment is still NOT permitted).

They never got into trouble with the border or anything, but really, this is not the most kosher thing, and at any point time of time, not only can they easily get into trouble for the fact they're working (remotely notwithstanding), but also the fact that they've been using their B2 status to reside in the United States.
 
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