How to Start Working in Canada as an American: CUSMA Work Permit
Americans in listed professions can work in Canada under a CUSMA work permit: no LMIA, decided at the border. The tests, documents, and review status.
How to Start Working in the USA as a Canadian Without a Work Visa: B-1 Visitor Limits
Canadian visiting the USA for business without a work visa: what B-1 visitor entry allows, meetings, conferences, contract negotiation, and training, what counts as work, the no-US-salary rule, and the unsettled remote-work question.
Applies in: across Canada
The short answer
B-1 visitor entry lets a Canadian do business in the United States, not work in the United States, and the line between the two is drawn by what you do and who pays you, not by where your employer is registered. Meetings, conferences, contract negotiation, consultation with business associates, litigation, and independent research are B-1 activities. Performing skilled or unskilled labour in the United States, holding a US job, or taking a salary from a US source is not. The trip must be temporary, the purpose must be the one you describe to the officer, and the I-94 record created on admission sets the end date of your stay. Remote work for a Canadian employer while physically in the United States sits in a grey area that no official guidance has settled, and this guide flags it as grey rather than calling it permitted.
This guide is general information about a public immigration process, not immigration advice for your situation. If your trip involves hands-on work, a US payer, or an extended stay, get professional advice before you travel, because the consequence of getting the category wrong is a refusal or a record, not a warning.
Step 1: Fit the trip to a listed B-1 purpose
The State Department fact sheet groups allowable B-1 uses into three sets. The first and broadest covers applicants travelling to engage in commercial transactions that do not involve gainful employment in the United States, negotiate contracts, consult with business associates, litigate, participate in scientific, educational, professional, or business conventions, conferences, or seminars, or undertake independent research. A merchant taking orders for goods manufactured abroad is the fact sheet's own example of a commercial transaction that fits. The second set covers narrow cases where employment is a necessary incident of a professional business activity, such as members of boards of directors of US corporations, participants in voluntary service programs, and investors seeking investment in the United States. The third set covers other defined business activities, including commercial and industrial workers and specialized trainers, each with its own conditions.
Test your trip against those lists before you travel, in plain words. A week of client meetings, a trade show, a contract negotiation, and a training course you attend as a participant all fit the first set. A week of shifts, a project delivered on a US client's site, a construction task, or a role that fills a vacancy in a US team does not, even if the pay is routed through Canada. If the honest description of the trip is a job, the category is a work category, and the companion comparison guide covers H-1B, TN, and L-1. If the honest description is a visit with a business purpose, B-1 is the category, and the rest of this guide is about staying inside it.
Step 2: Keep hands-on work out of the trip
The general rule in the fact sheet is short: engaging in business using a B-1 visa entails business activities other than the performance of skilled or unskilled labour. That single sentence excludes most of what people mean by work. Supervising, observing, discussing, negotiating, and learning are business activities. Installing, building, repairing as ordinary work, operating equipment as part of production, and delivering a service to a US customer as the worker are labour, and labour needs a work-authorized category.
The narrow exceptions prove how narrow the rule is. A commercial or industrial worker may come to install, service, or repair commercial or industrial equipment or machinery purchased from a company outside the United States, or to train US workers to perform such services, but only where the contract of sale specifically requires the seller to provide the services or training, the applicant has unique knowledge essential to the seller's contractual obligation, and the applicant receives no remuneration from a US source. Building and construction work is expressly excluded from that provision, although supervising or training other workers in construction, without performing the work itself, may qualify. A specialized trainer may come for a temporary period to provide training or transfer knowledge to US workers on specialized or proprietary techniques, skills, or know-how for industrial equipment, machinery, or processes sourced from outside the United States, again only with unique knowledge not widely available in the United States and no remuneration from a US source, with the visa annotated accordingly. If your trip does not meet every condition of one of these exceptions, do not treat it as covered by them.
Step 3: Keep the money on the right side of the line
Pay is the second test, and it is independent of the activity test: a trip can be a genuine business visit and still fail on pay. A B-1 visitor may not receive a salary from a US source for services rendered in connection with activities in the United States. A US source may provide an expense allowance or reimbursement for expenses incidental to the temporary stay, and the fact sheet caps that allowance at the actual reasonable expenses of travelling to and from the event plus living expenses reasonably expected for meals, lodging, laundry, and other basic services. Hotel and flight reimbursement is therefore consistent with B-1. A fee for the work, a daily rate, a salary instalment, or a bonus tied to the US activity is not, even if it is labelled as expenses.
For a Canadian employed in Canada, the usual arrangement is that the Canadian employer continues to pay the salary in Canada while the worker travels. That arrangement satisfies the US-source test, but it does not by itself satisfy the activity test: salary from Canada does not convert hands-on US labour into a business visit. Both tests must pass. Keep the paper trail clean: a trip itinerary, a conference registration or meeting invitation, and expense receipts that match the trip, with no US-source payment for the work itself.
Step 4: The remote-work grey area, stated plainly
Remote work is the question this guide is most often read for, and it is the question with the least settled answer. The United States has no digital nomad category, and the B-1 fact sheet was written before remote work became ordinary. What the fact sheet does say is the general rule: B-1 activity excludes skilled or unskilled labour, and no salary may come from a US source. It does not state an exception for work done remotely for a foreign employer, and it does not state a rule that foreign pay alone makes work performed in the United States permitted. Enforcement practice and commentary differ, and some travellers report short trips with incidental email and calls passing without issue, while others report officers treating a stated plan to work remotely as a stated plan to work.
The honest way to handle the grey area is to separate three situations. Checking email and joining an occasional call during a genuine visit, where the visit's purpose is a meeting or a conference, is incidental to the visit and is the lowest-risk pattern, although even that is not guaranteed by any published rule. Working a normal working day, on a normal schedule, from a US location for weeks, where the United States is simply the place the work happens, is the highest-risk pattern, because the work is being performed in the United States even though the pay originates abroad. Planning a stay in the United States for the purpose of working remotely, including a stay of months, is not a visitor trip in any honest description, and it should be planned under a work-authorized category instead. If the trip's real purpose is the second or third situation, get advice before travelling, and do not describe the trip to an officer as a holiday or a meeting when it is neither.
Step 5: Admission, the I-94, and leaving on time
Canadian citizens seek admission at a port of entry or preclearance station. Bring the evidence that matches the trip you describe: the meeting invitation, conference registration, or contract negotiation papers; the return ticket or onward travel plan; evidence of employment and residence in Canada; and a clear end date. The officer admits you for the trip described, and the admission is recorded in an electronic I-94 record stating the class of admission and the date the authorized stay ends. Check that record after every entry, while the officer who admitted you can still be reached if the class or the date is wrong. The end date on the I-94 is the deadline, not the date on your ticket or the date you told the officer in conversation.
If the business purpose genuinely needs more time, the route is an extension application to USCIS before the authorized stay expires, with evidence of the continuing temporary purpose and arrangements to depart. An extension is a fresh decision, not an entitlement, and working during an extended visitor stay is subject to the same limits as the original stay. If the purpose has changed into employment, an extension of visitor status does not authorize the work: the work-authorized status must come first. Leaving on time, with a clean record, is what keeps the next business trip simple.
What not to do
- Do not describe a job as a meeting. Officers ask what you will do, and a description that does not match the documents, the luggage, or the length of stay is the fastest route to a refusal.
- Do not perform hands-on work, fill a US role, or take a US salary on a visitor admission, and do not accept a fee from a US source for work done during the visit without checking the category first.
- Do not plan a working stay in the United States on the assumption that being paid in Canada settles the question. The fact sheet contains no such rule, and the grey area runs against the traveller who tests it with a long stay.
- Do not overstay the I-94 date while sorting out a work filing. Overstay and unauthorized work are separate violations with separate consequences, and either can complicate the filing that follows.
- Do not rely on a prior easy entry as permission for a different trip. Each admission is decided on the trip described at that entry, and a longer stay, a different purpose, or a laptop full of work product can change the decision.
Related guides:
Staying inside B-1 visitor limits, in five steps
- Name the business purpose before you travelB-1 covers a defined business purpose such as a meeting, a conference, contract negotiation, or consultation. If the purpose is a job, B-1 is the wrong category.
- Keep the work outside the United StatesB-1 business activity excludes skilled or unskilled labour in the United States. Hands-on work for a US employer, or work that fills a US job, does not fit.
- Keep your pay outside the United StatesA B-1 visitor may not receive a salary from a US source for services in the United States. A US source may reimburse reasonable expenses of the trip itself.
- Keep the trip temporary and tied to CanadaBring evidence of the trip's purpose, its end date, and your ties to Canada. The officer admits you for the trip you describe, not for an open-ended stay.
- Check the I-94 before you leaveThe I-94 record states the class of admission and the date your authorized stay ends. That date, not your travel plans, is the deadline that matters.
Questions people ask
Do Canadians need a B-1 visa to visit the USA for business?
In the usual case, no consulate visit is involved. A Canadian citizen presents themselves to a Customs and Border Protection officer at a port of entry or preclearance station and seeks admission as a business visitor, with evidence of the business purpose, the temporary nature of the trip, and ties outside the United States, and the officer decides admission at the counter. Admission creates an I-94 record stating the class and the end date of the authorized stay. A Canadian who is not a citizen, or who has a prior refusal or inadmissibility issue, follows a different path and should get advice before travelling rather than assuming the same counter process applies.
Can I attend meetings and conferences in the USA as a B-1 visitor?
Yes, and this is the core of the category. The State Department fact sheet lists commercial transactions that do not involve gainful employment in the United States, negotiating contracts, consulting with business associates, litigation, participating in scientific, educational, professional, or business conventions, conferences, or seminars, and undertaking independent research, and a trip built around any of those purposes fits. So a client meeting, a trade show, or a contract negotiation is a B-1 trip on its face. Presenting at a conference is also participation in the event rather than employment by a US organizer in the ordinary case, though any payment from a US source for the appearance needs its own check before you accept it, since pay is tested separately from activity.
Can I do hands-on work in the USA on B-1 status?
As a general rule, no. The State Department states that engaging in business using a B-1 visa entails business activities other than the performance of skilled or unskilled labour, and that B-1 is not appropriate for applicants who intend to obtain and engage in employment while in the United States. What saves a narrow set of trips is not a general hands-on exception but two defined provisions in the Foreign Affairs Manual, one for installing, servicing, or repairing commercial or industrial equipment bought from a company outside the United States where the contract of sale requires it, the worker has unique knowledge essential to the obligation, and no pay comes from a US source, and one for specialized trainers with unique knowledge. Building and construction work is expressly excluded from the first provision. Neither provision covers ordinary hands-on work, a US job filled from abroad, or a project delivered on a US client's site as the worker.
Can I work remotely for my Canadian employer while visiting the USA?
No official guidance settles this in a traveller's favour, so treat it as unsettled rather than permitted. The State Department fact sheet contains no carve-out for remote work for a foreign employer. It states the general rule instead: B-1 activity excludes skilled or unskilled labour, and a B-1 visitor may not receive a salary from a US source. Answering the odd email during a short visit built around a meeting is a different pattern from working a full day from a US hotel room for weeks, and both differ from planning a months-long stay whose purpose is to work from the United States. There is no published safe line between those patterns, and an officer who asks what you will do on the trip may treat a stated plan to work remotely as a stated plan to work. Do not plan a working stay in the United States on the assumption that foreign pay makes it permitted, and get immigration advice before a trip whose real purpose is to work from the United States.
Can a US company pay me while I am in B-1 status?
A salary, no. The State Department fact sheet states that a B-1 visitor may not receive a salary from a US source for services rendered in connection with activities in the United States. What the fact sheet does allow is an expense allowance or reimbursement from a US source for expenses incidental to the temporary stay, limited to actual reasonable travel and living expenses such as meals, lodging, laundry, and other basic services. Hotel and flight reimbursement is therefore consistent with B-1, while a fee, honorarium, daily rate, salary instalment, or bonus tied to the US activity is not. Reimbursement of the trip is not pay for the work, and labelling a payment as expenses does not make it so if it exceeds the actual reasonable cost of the trip.
What happens if I overstay or work without authorization?
Either violation creates a record that follows later applications, and the two violations are separate: working without authorization is one, staying past the I-94 end date is another, and a period of unlawful presence can carry bars on future admission whose length depends on the facts. An officer at a later entry can refuse admission, shorten a stay, or cancel a visa on the strength of that record. The protection is unglamorous and it works: keep the trip inside the purpose you described, leave by the I-94 date, and if the trip needs to change into work, stop and get the work-authorized status first rather than letting the visit drift into employment and hoping the drift goes unnoticed.
Sources
- US Department of State, Fact Sheet — US Business Visas (B-1) and Allowable Uses: allowable B-1 activities, exclusion of skilled or unskilled labour, narrow commercial worker and specialized trainer provisions, no salary from a US source and expense reimbursement limit,
- US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Temporary Visitors for Business — B-1 as a temporary business visitor for commercial or professional activities such as consulting, negotiating, or attending a conference,