Do I pay Canadian tax as soon as I get permanent residency?
Not because of the status itself. Canada taxes on residence, and residence is determined by your ties to the country, where your home is, where your family lives and the connections that follow from that, rather than by the document in your passport. It is entirely possible to hold permanent residency and not yet be a Canadian tax resident, and equally possible to become one before the status is granted. What matters is when the ties are established, because that date starts the filing obligation on worldwide income and sets the value at which what you already own enters the Canadian system.
Does holding a green card make me a US tax resident?
Yes. The United States treats holding the card as a test of tax residence in its own right, so the obligation to file on worldwide income follows from the status rather than from your ties or the time you spend there. That is a fundamental difference from the Canadian approach, and it catches people who obtain the card and then spend most of the year elsewhere. It also means the obligation does not lapse quietly when you stop using the card. It continues until the status is formally given up or otherwise ends, which is its own process with tax consequences attached.
I have permanent residency but live abroad — do I still file?
It depends entirely on which country granted it. If it is a green card, the filing obligation follows the card, so returns remain due on worldwide income while you hold it, wherever you live. If it is Canadian permanent residency and you have genuinely severed your ties, your tax position is that of a non-resident, filing only on Canadian-source income, even though your immigration status continues. Two statuses that look equivalent on paper behave in opposite ways here, which is why the first question in this situation is which system is asking, not what your card says.
What happens tax-wise if I give up my green card?
Surrendering the status ends the filing obligation going forward, but it is a formal step with its own tax regime rather than an administrative one. Long-term holders in particular can fall within an exit-tax regime on giving up the card, which means the accrued position in what they own is brought into account at that point. The practical consequence is that the decision to obtain permanent residency and the decision to surrender it belong in the same conversation, because the exposure created on exit depends on how long the status was held and what was accumulated while it ran.
Does permanent residency in two countries mean paying tax twice?
Holding two statuses can put you inside two systems at once, but being inside both does not automatically mean paying twice on the same income. Relief comes from the mechanisms each system provides for income already taxed elsewhere and, where a treaty applies, from its rules for deciding which country has the primary claim. What has to be resolved first is the factual question of residence in each country, status-based in one case and ties-based in the other, because those relief mechanisms only make sense once you know what each country thinks you are.
Which matters more for tax, my immigration status or my ties?
Both, but in different countries. Canada looks at ties: where you live, where your family and home are, and what connections you have kept or created. The United States looks at status for card holders, and at presence for others. So the same question has two correct answers depending on which return is in front of you, and a person can be a tax resident of one country by status while being a non-resident of the other on the facts. Establish the answer separately for each system before deciding what to file, rather than assuming the two travel together.
Does foreign employment income create RRSP room?
Only where it is earned income reported on a Canadian return. RRSP room is built from earned income that Canada sees, so a non-resident year of foreign salary generally builds none, and foreign tax paid does not create room of its own. This is why people returning to Canada after years abroad find their contribution room much smaller than the years elapsed suggest, and why the notice of assessment is the only reliable statement of it. See returning to Canada after years abroad.
What is the US exit tax and who actually pays it?
How much it is depends on your unrealised gains rather than on a rate, because it is the expatriation regime rather than a fee. A citizen who gives up citizenship, or a long-term permanent resident whose status ends, is tested against three conditions; meet any one and you are a covered expatriate, treated as having sold your worldwide assets the day before you left, with an exclusion for a slice of the resulting net gain — $890,000 for 2025. Deferred compensation, retirement accounts and interests in trusts are handled under separate rules rather than the deemed sale. Form 8854 reports it. See Form 8854.
