Canadian here who moved to the US for work several years ago and did my homework on the tax side of things . Canada only taxes people who are resident in Canada , so you generally will not have any tax obligations to Canada with respect to income you earn after you ' ve moved to the US . At the end of the calendar year that you leave Canada you ' ll have to file a Canadian return , but only with respect to the part of the year you were still living in Canada . See arc . gc . catxnnrsdntsndvdlslvngeng . html for starters . In subsequent years while you ' re living in the US , you won ' t have any tax obligations to Canada or have to file a Canadian return at all assuming you don ' t have any assets in Canada like Canadian real estate or Canadian stocks that generate Canadian income . On the US side , you will become a resident alien when you move there by spending 183 days of the year there , BUT will be considered a dualstatus alien google it in the year that you move , which is just a fancy way of saying that you were only resident in the US for part of the year , and therefore only subject to US tax with respect to the part of the year you were in the US . You will file a dualstatus return with the IRS at the end of the year you move again , google it and in susbsequent years you ' re living in the US you will be taxed exactly like an American citizen . Don ' t worry about the significant ties to Canada thing if you don ' t have a house or apartment that you keep in Canada , and don ' t have a spouse that lives in Canada , then none of the other stuff will matter . You can keep Canadian bank accounts though if you have TFSAs or RRSPs you should read up on how those are treated from a US perspective in short , TFSAs aren ' t recognised by the US so you may want to close them but ok to leave RRSPs intact . You could keep your Canadian license , but most likely the easier thing is to simply trade it in for a WA one after you move assuming WA allows this the same way NY does . Your Canadian province may have rules against keeping a license after you move away anyway , and you can likely just trade your US license back for a Canadian one if and when you ever move back .