Giving up a green card — what part of this actually needs a professional?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: Long-term residence brings a person within the expatriation regime, and the tax residence continues until the status is formally abandoned or administratively terminated.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
Do I still owe US tax after handing in my green card?
Possibly. The immigration status and the tax status are separate things, and the tax status continues until abandonment is formally completed or the status is administratively terminated. Until that point the filing obligation runs on exactly as before, whatever your address or your passport says. For someone who held the card a long time there is a further layer, because long residence brings a person within the expatriation regime and the exit itself has to be worked through rather than simply stopped. The first thing to settle is the date residence actually ended, because every other question is measured from it.
My green card expired years ago, so did my tax residence end?
An expired card is not an abandoned one. The document and the status are different, and letting the document run out does nothing by itself to end the residence for tax purposes. People in this position are often filing nothing and assuming the matter closed, while the obligation has continued quietly in the background for years. The position is recoverable, but it is recovered by establishing when the status ended in fact and on the record, then bringing the intervening years into line. Pretending the lapse did the work is what turns a tidy exit into a long clean-up.
What makes someone a long-term resident for expatriation purposes?
It turns on how long the permanent residence has been held, and the years are counted from the record rather than from when you moved or when you last set foot in the country. That is where people go wrong. Someone who spent most of the period abroad can still be inside the regime, and someone who feels thoroughly settled can still be outside it. We work the count from the immigration record and the filing history rather than from recollection, because the answer decides whether the exit is a formality or a substantial piece of work.
Which comes first, the immigration filing or the final tax return?
The sequence decides the year of exit, so it is a planning decision rather than an administrative one. Filing the immigration paperwork sets a date, and the final returns are then prepared around that date on a split basis, with the period as a resident treated differently from the period after. Do it in the wrong order, or in the wrong part of the year, and you can pull income into the resident period that need not have been there, or leave the exit year straddling two calendars. We map the order before anything is lodged with either agency.
Do I have to keep filing in the US after giving up the card?
Ending residence does not always end the reporting. Income with a US connection continues to be reported, but on a different basis and often with tax collected at source rather than by assessment. Property held in the United States is the common example, and so is income from an employer or a business there. The practical change is what falls inside the net rather than whether you file at all. We usually set out what remains reportable at the same time as the exit filings, so the first year afterwards is not a surprise.
Does moving to Canada end my US residence if I keep the card?
No. Living in another country does not abandon the status, and the tax residence continues alongside your Canadian residence with both systems treating you as their own. There is a way of claiming residence in the other country for treaty purposes, but that is a step with immigration consequences as well as tax ones, and it is not the same thing as giving up the card. It is also not something to do on a form quietly, because it can undermine the immigration position you may still want. Decide which status you are keeping before either return is filed.
What is the treaty saving clause, and why does it matter to Americans abroad?
It is the provision that lets each country keep taxing its own residents and citizens as though the treaty did not exist. Because the United States taxes on citizenship, the saving clause is what stops an American in Canada or India using the treaty to remove US tax on ordinary income. A short list of articles is carved out of it — certain pensions, social security, government service, students — and those exceptions are where a treaty position for a US citizen usually lives. See our treaty work.
Can I claim the child tax credit if I live abroad?
Partly, and the split matters. The non-refundable part can reduce US tax if the child meets the identification requirement in time. The refundable part is calculated on earned income, so excluding your salary with the foreign earned income exclusion removes the very figure it is built on — which is one of the clearest cases where the exclusion costs more than the credit route. Modelling both is the only way to know. See exclusion against credit.
