Table of Contents
The rule people think was struck down
In early 2025, a US rule requiring foreign nationals present in the country for 30 days or more to register with the government drew a legal challenge and a great deal of coverage. A stay was sought. The stay was denied. The rule took effect on April 11, 2025, on schedule.
Somewhere between the challenge and the denial, a story settled in that the requirement had been blocked. It had not. And on June 29, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security made it final, adopting the 30-day threshold without change.
So the rule is not pending, not proposed and not paused. It is permanent. Global Affairs Canada now carries a warning about it on its own travel advice page for the United States, stating that failure to comply could result in penalties, fines and misdemeanor prosecution.
That is an unusual sentence to find on a Canadian government website about a Canadian’s winter in Florida. It is worth taking seriously for that reason alone.
Who this actually applies to
Most Canadians reading this are already registered and do not know it.
Registration happens automatically when you are issued a Form I-94, the US arrival record. Fly into an American airport and one is generally issued. That is the end of the obligation, with nothing further to file.
The gap the rule was written to close is named in the rule’s own text: Canadian visitors for business or pleasure who are not issued a Form I-94. In practice that is overwhelmingly people crossing by land.
So the profile is quite specific. A Canadian who drives across the border, is waved through without an I-94, and then stays 30 days or more. Snowbirds driving south for the season. Someone spending six weeks at a place in Vermont or Michigan. A person driving down for an extended stay with family.
For that person, registration is a self-service step. Form G-325R, filed online through a myUSCIS account, before the 30-day mark passes.
What the final rule changed
Two things, and both of them are helpful.
Fingerprinting is waived for Canadian nonimmigrants. The registration requirement carries a biometric element in the general case. It does not apply here.
The final rule also added CBP trusted traveler records as acceptable evidence of registration. NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST and Global Entry all qualify. A large share of frequent cross-border travellers already hold one of these, which means the evidence question is answered for them before they ask it.
The rule additionally removed the reference to the old Form I-185, which is housekeeping rather than substance.
The biometric change that arrived separately
This one is easily confused with the registration rule. It is a different regime with a different effective date, and conflating the two leads people to the wrong conclusion about both.
A DHS rule published in October 2025 and effective December 26, 2025 removed the prior exemption for most Canadian visitors from biometric collection. Facial recognition now extends to all non-US citizens at airports, land ports and seaports, on entry and on exit.
Note the asymmetry, because it is genuinely odd. Canadians are exempt from fingerprinting for registration purposes and simultaneously subject to facial biometrics under this separate rule. Two rules, two different answers, one traveller.
The practical consequence of exit biometrics deserves naming. US day counts are becoming a matter of record rather than a matter of recollection. For anyone who has been estimating their days from memory and old boarding passes, that estimate is now checkable by someone else.
What did not change, and what gets misreported
Two points, because both circulate as fact and neither one is.
The customary six-month visitor stay is intact. Registration is a filing obligation and nothing more. Neither rule shortens how long a Canadian may remain in the United States.
And the Canadian Snowbird Act, which would allow qualifying Canadians over 50 to stay up to 240 days in a 365-day period, is a bill. It has been introduced in Congress. It is not law. Anyone planning a longer winter on the strength of it is planning around a press release.
The test that actually decides your tax residency
Here is the part that matters most to a financial plan, and it gets the least attention precisely because it is not new and nothing about it was in the news.
None of the above changes where you are tax resident. That is decided by the Substantial Presence Test, and it does not count days the way people assume it does.
The formula: all of your days in the current year, plus one third of your days in the prior year, plus one sixth of your days in the year before that. If the total reaches 183, and you were present at least 31 days in the current year, you meet the test and are treated as a US tax resident.
Work an example. One hundred and twenty days a year, every year, for three years. That is 120 plus 40 plus 20, which comes to 180. Under the threshold, but only by three days. Add a long weekend in two of those years and the answer changes.
This is why staying under six months is not the safeguard people believe it to be. A single longer year can trip the three-year formula even when no individual year looks excessive on its own.
The relief is the closer connection exception, claimed on Form 8840. It requires fewer than 183 days in the current year, a tax home in Canada for the entire year, a demonstrably closer connection to Canada measured by things like a permanent home, family, licences, bank accounts and voter registration, and no green card application pending or approved.
For a Canadian with no US-source income, Form 8840 is due by June 15 of the following year. Miss that deadline and the exception is generally forfeited absent clear and convincing evidence of reasonable diligence, which is a high bar described in vague language. It is not a position anyone wants to argue from.
Where this leaves you
Three separate regimes, three separate thresholds, one trip. Registration draws a 30-day line. Tax residency runs on a weighted three-year formula. The visitor stay is roughly six months. They do not line up with each other, and staying onside for one says nothing about the others.
The fix is not complicated, which is the good news. Count your days and keep the record. File the 8840 by June 15. Register if you drive across and stay past thirty days. None of it takes an afternoon, and all of it is considerably easier to do in advance than to reconstruct later.
Frequently asked questions
Do Canadians have to register with US immigration?
Sometimes, and it depends on how you enter. Canadians issued a Form I-94 on arrival, which is standard for air travel, are registered automatically and need do nothing further. Canadians who enter by land without being issued an I-94 and who remain in the United States for 30 days or more must register themselves using Form G-325R.
What is Form G-325R and who files it?
Form G-325R is the alien registration form introduced by DHS in 2025 and made permanent in June 2026. It is filed online through a myUSCIS account. It applies to foreign nationals aged 14 and over who are present in the US for 30 days or more and who have not already been registered through another document such as an I-94. Fingerprinting is waived for Canadian nonimmigrants.
Was the US alien registration rule struck down in court?
No. A stay of the interim final rule was sought and denied, and the rule took effect on April 11, 2025. DHS issued a final rule on June 29, 2026 adopting the 30-day threshold without change and adding NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST and Global Entry records as acceptable evidence of registration. The requirement is in force.
How many days can a Canadian stay in the United States?
The customary visitor admission remains up to six months at the discretion of the border officer, and neither the registration rule nor the biometric rule changed that. The Canadian Snowbird Act, which proposes a 240-day allowance for qualifying Canadians aged 50 and over, has been introduced in Congress but is not law and should not be relied on for planning.
What is the Substantial Presence Test and how is it calculated?
It is the test that determines whether a foreign national is treated as a US tax resident. Add all days present in the current year, one third of the days in the prior year, and one sixth of the days in the year before that. If the total is 183 or more, and there were at least 31 days in the current year, the test is met. Because it weights three years, a pattern of long stays can meet it even when no single year looks unusual.
What is Form 8840 and when is it due?
Form 8840 claims the closer connection exception, which allows someone who meets the Substantial Presence Test to still be treated as a non-resident by demonstrating a closer connection to Canada. It requires fewer than 183 days in the current year and no pending green card application. For a Canadian with no US-source income, it is due by June 15 of the following year, and missing the deadline generally forfeits the exception.
Sources: Federal Register, Alien Registration Form and Evidence of Registration, final rule, June 29, 2026 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/29/2026-13057/alien-registration-form-and-evidence-of-registration | USCIS, Alien Registration Requirement https://www.uscis.gov/alienregistration | Federal Register, Collection of Biometric Data from Aliens Upon Entry to and Departure from the United States, October 27, 2025 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/27/2025-19655/collection-of-biometric-data-from-aliens-upon-entry-to-and-departure-from-the-united-states | Government of Canada, Travel advice and advisories for the United States https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/united-states | IRS, Substantial Presence Test https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/substantial-presence-test | IRS, Closer Connection Exception to the Substantial Presence Test https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/closer-connection-exception-to-the-substantial-presence-test | Congress.gov, H.R. 3070, Canadian Snowbird Act, 119th Congress https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3070
This article is for general informational purposes only and reflects conditions as of September 14, 2026. It is not investment, tax, or legal advice, and it does not account for your personal circumstances. Sartorial Wealth Inc. does not prepare tax returns. Please consult qualified professionals regarding your own situation.
0 Comments