本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛加拿大离北极那么近,区区几千万人,加上苛捐杂税,相比较很多国家,已经毫无吸引力可言。
人一辈子不长,不要把时间和精力浪费在加拿大了。加入我们的美国流浪之路吧。
http://www.notcanada.com/
TN工作签证
http://www.grasmick.com/tnlist.htm
http://www.grasmick.com/nafta.htm
失业保险
Hopefully never happens, but in case you get pink slip in States
You will launch a better job very soon.
If it's not the case, as a Canadian, you are entitled to receive full amount of unemployment benefit, which is around $2000+ per month for 6-10 months (don't know exact number here, also may vary in States).
绿卡
If your employer is willing to sponsor your green card, 3 steps you need to go through
1) PERM (Less than a year)
2) I-140 (couple of weeks)
3) I-485 (depends, EB2 category: the current priority date is 04/22/2005 for China-born applicants)
Not proven yet, rough estimation: it takes about 2 years to have the process done for Chinese. (Your Canadian citizenship would not help the speed at all)
美加退休金Totalization Agreement
means your social security tax paid in States is going to be taken into account with you Canada CPP.
Thinking that paying States Social Security is adding up to what you paid to CPP. No lose.
URL: http://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/canada.html
工作 (For Seattle Area)
1) 象monster这个大家都知道,不过要想雇主经常注意到你的简历,你得每周更新一下. 简历的出镜率是由你最新update日期决定的.
2) 试试这个网站，听说工作广告比较实在。http://www.dice.com/
3) 这个很有名，http://www.craigslist.org/
craigslist, 点击不同城市,看当地工作广告,
比如西雅图地区:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/sof/
4) 西雅图地区报纸:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html
5) 秘密武器：加入seajug(Seattle Java User Group) ，这里几乎包揽当地的Java工作: seajug_jobs@yahoogroups.com
其它
TN的个数：理论上不限。但是每年或每换一个新工作就得换TN。而且可以同时拥有1个以上的TN。也就是说，你可以兼职，只要那份兼职工作在TN job list上。俺原先一个加拿大人同事，白天上班，晚上用另外一个TN在College教课。俺前后拿了5个TN。
根据你的签证，家属拿 TD或H4。可以上学读书，拿credits或学位。但不能打工，包括校园内的短工，这一点不象F1签证。
孩子上学：大学之前是国民待遇，也就是说不要任何学费(高中其它州交否不知，华盛顿州不交)。我们在交税嘛，理所当然。另外免费校车接送。
大学州和州有些不一样，如果孩子到了上大学年龄，还没有绿卡，华盛顿州是这样的：住满三年，孩子当地高中毕业，大学费用是州民待遇，大约为国际学生的1/4的费用。
详情参看：URL: http://www.quack.net/natda/resident.html (oopp 同学贡献)
家属一定得办TD或H4签证，这样才能申请TIN(Tax Identification Number) ，据此拿免税额度(能把tax income减低很多) 。比如一个孩子减掉$3300(2006)，注意这一项加拿大是0; 一个孩子退税$1000, 加拿大也是0。加拿大如果有温饱的家庭工资收入,牛奶金就几乎拿不到了。
More about TAX
Concepts:
1) Deductions lower your taxable income
2) Credits lower your taxes.
3) An exemption is an amount of money you can subtract from your Adjusted Gross Income, just for being you or having dependents.
Federal tax numbers for 2006 tax year
Standard deduction for married taxpayers filing a joint return - $10,300
Exemption for each dependent: $3300
So for a married couple without kid, you get total deduction = (10300+3300*2) = $16900
For a married couple with 2 kids, you get total deduction = (10300+3300*4) = $23500
Child Tax Credit = $1000.
For example, if you have 2 kids and you calculate you owe $7000 tax to Uncle Sam, the final tax you need to pay is $7000-$2000 = $5000
With itemized, if your mortgage interest + property tax + others > Standard deduction ($10300), you should itemize your tax return.
什么时候换成H1签证？H1签证的特点是可以累计在美工作6年，用完后得离开美国1年，下一个H1签证才能申请。H1签证工作要求没有TN高，但拿它可以申请绿卡。所以，最好的时间是公司准备帮你申请绿卡时再换。另外，真的6年H1用完了，能否换回TN而不用离美1年(安家了离开一年可不好办)？不知道。估计这种情况绿卡也该折腾到了吧。
多一句，南下如否和你个人具体情况关系很大，比如你有一份政府工，俺看你还是美美地享受你的生活吧，俺愿意和你换。(不过俺也知道有人放弃BC省政府工作到华大的，呵呵)
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