This is great to know! It is getting cold here in Canada and I don't know if I'll survive the winter; I might have to go to Mexico for a while to grind:-)

-Carlos

not sure if you're aware or not, but the foreign earned income exclusion only applies if you are out of the country for 330 days of the year.

one of the drawbacks of canada, only being able to live there 6 months at a time. from what i've read, you can't stay longer than 6 months out of a one year period (not calendar year, 365 day block) on the tourist visa.

i'm planning to move there in the next few weeks, and hope that online poker is regulated by the time my 6 months expires. but yeah, sucks for the tax exclusion, unless you're prepared to move to another country after 6 months.

Has anyone tried this for extending there stay

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-servi...tend-visit.asp

I'm looking to drive up to Toronto in a couple weeks to find a place. Was wondering if anyone wanted to split a 6 month lease or something. Is this the right thread for this?

Does anyone know if Stars will accept a bank statement from Canada when I have no money in my account?

I am wondering if I should go ahead and give it a shot while I wait for my wires to hit. The faster I can get approved by Stars, the better. I already have a landline phone and a lease agreement to send in.

Thanks for any help!

I briefly forgot that I can actually just ask Stars these things and get a quick response. But to answer my own question:

Yes, a bank account without any money in it is fine. But it does need to clearly show my name, my new address in Canada, a statement date, and it needs to be signed and stamped by a bank officer (whatever the heck a bank officer is).

Hope that helps someone!

yea just do whatever verification methods they ask (they aren't diffuclt really) and use up whatever limits u have and call back adn they will hook it up. if u need to move more money and do what they ask they will free u up.

Hey guys

I tried finding the answer to this but the thread is massive..

A Canadian citizen returns to Canada, gets all the paperwork (lease/utility) in order, reinstates account, then returns to the USA to play thru VPN from the US.

1) Is anything seriously illegal going on here (if at all)? It seems the only entity being fooled would be the poker site, but the govt's are sort of in the dark as well..

2) Who should the player pay taxes to? US? Canada? Both? None?

1) No you are not doing anything illegal, but you'd be violating the TOS of the poker site. Check out the thread below for info about people VPNing on Stars from the US (cliffs: they take your monies)

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...review-1069911

2) There is a huge thread on Canadian tax law as it pertains to poker, somewhere here on 2+2. I don't remember where it is but you should search for it as you will find more tax help there than on this thread.

-Carlos

In Seattle about to cross the border into Canada. What is best to tell the border control officer? Just staying for a few days and looking for a place in the future and then just end up staying for six months? Or actually just say that I'm planning on staying for 3-6 months. I want to come back for Christmas and divide it into three month trips?

Just got settled into Whistler, crossed the border two days ago, Customs was a breeze, had atm receipts, mortgage bills, etc. Never needed them, they asked why we were here and I said online poker, he gave me an Ok like he's heard that before. Ask why will you leave after 3 months, said our lease will be up and he had no problem with that and we were on our way. We flew in to Vancouver Intl which probably helped.

One heads up though, we shipped some ski cloths, a monitor, and misc items. At the UPS store they needed a detailed itemized list of everything in the boxes. Ski clothes wouldn't cut it, it needed to be men's ski jacket, etc. It was a major headache to unpack everything and itemized it, so I would def recommend you do that while packing it and write down a value of each item.

sick I'm gonna be staying in Vancouver and wanna check out Whistler. Itd def be cool to meet some poker players up there, obv not going to know anyone in Canada.

I opened a TD bank account a couple days ago in both USD and CAD without any issues(They took my passport + US credit card as verification). IIRC it was $15/month for the CAD account for unlimited transfers unless I have a 3k minimum balance and $1 per transfer for the USD account unless I have 1k minimum balance.

I have to link the account to my moneybookers but more than one teller(2 different banks) told me that I need the address for both the bank and the account holder of the bank account I am wiring to. It's also a $30 fee for international bank wires. I'm emailing moneybookers for this info as they only provide the swift/iban + city for transfers.

Be 100% completely honest about how long you want to stay here and what your short trip is about.

My (kinda long) advice on crossing the border and what to say from another relocation thread here - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=854

I have been completely honest both times and had zero problems. My being a poker player was the least of their concerns. They are going to ream you about anything and everything imo, but they are just seeing if you can weather the storm. Weathering the storm is easy when you just tell the truth. Be polite, relaxed, and hold your ground when they put pressure on you imo.

So I have an HSBC account in both Canadian and US dollars ready to go. I am approved to play on Stars. But I have no money in my Stars account, so I will have to wait until next week to play it seems since that is when my bank wire will hit.

I do have a debit card from HSBC connected to my Canadian account, but do not think I can deposit with it in any way.

Anyone have any tips on getting a few K on before my wire hits? None of the deposit options seem to apply to my situation other than the bank wire. I have never done any transactions with any other poker players, and am not very comfortable doing 5 fig transactions with anyone anyway.

if you're in a big city in Canada I would imagine it would be quite easy to give somebody cash in person as they transfer the money to you, especially with your post count/join date

Some advice for Americans trying to convert money to CAD:

- Don't do it at the bank and obviously don't do it at travelex/forex/airport/etc.

Scotiabank had about a 3% spread and TD was similar. The spreads at the airport will be around 10%.

- Withdraw cash from ATM's

You'll want to double check with your bank but my bank (TD Bank American) offers me the market rate and also refunds me ATM fees. It's oddly the most seamless way to convert money without paying any sort of an exchange fee.

i got excited and then i checked for bank of america. they **** you for 5-10%. i'm shocked, they've been so reasonable and helpful in every other regard

What is the "market rate"?, that is really the key. It still could be a big difference from the mid market rate which is the actual value.

TD has a "borderless" account where the conversion fees are less than 1.5% when transferring between accounts. Online currency conversion sites like Canadian Forex are usually cheaper and if you're converting large amounts, like 10K+, it can be less than 1%.

I withdrew $500 CAD and my bank charged me $486.87 USD.

They actually undercharged me if I use the rate around the time I withdrew it but it comes out exactly right if I use the Monday close.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=U...urce=undefined

Is this for ATM withdrawals or for actually converting currency at the bank?

My bank is around 5-10% if I physically go there to convert but via ATM it's 0%. If you want to convert a large sum, I'm not sure what the best option is but for pocket/spending money ATM seems to be the way to go.

Ya, it's for ATM withdrawals. These are the rates:

https://www6.bankofamerica.com/forei...y/index.action

It's disgusting that they can pretend that these are the current market rates and rip off anyone dumb enough to believe them.

If you do it at Scotiabank from your US BofA account/ATM card, they charge you a little under 1% on the currency rate and no fees. Pretty nice for smaller amounts when traveling in the relevant countries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_ATM_Alliance

Also, there's a lot of currency exchange window shops around downtown Vancouver that seem to have pretty decent rates. Used one to get Euros with CAD and they charged me under 2% (despite some pretty hard Euro fluctuation the couple of days before). Think the USD to CAD rate was similar, maybe even a bit less.