Is the 30-day rule being enforced?
Posted date : Nov 6, 2017.
Dear Bird Talk,
We arrived in the U.S. on October 22 and will be heading back to Canada mid-December for Christmas, returning in January. At a CSA presentation, we were told that we must be home for at least 30 days before returning to the U.S. Otherwise, those days count as days in U.S. None of our friends pay any attention to this rule when counting their days in the U.S. We are the only ones we know who are concerned enough to stay for a full 30 days in Canada before returning south for the winter months. Is this “30-day rule” being enforced? If we only stayed for two weeks, for example, could those days back in Canada be counted towards our 182? I can find almost nothing on this in all of my searches, so would be grateful for any clarification.
Doug MacLachlan,
Alberta
Response:
Ed.: We have a letter to INS border agents from the Immigration Head Office which says that an absence of fewer than 30 days is not considered an absence. We all know that friends can get you into trouble, too. Perhaps you should tell them about the B.C. snowbird who was charged $350,000 in back taxes by the IRS. He was “deemed” to be a resident of the United States.
