Thu.berc

For clarity, I made sure to tell the CRA agent that I am currently in the US solely for the purpose of attending school and the only "work" I'm doing is GTA and GRA as a part of my PhD program. But indeed, I think my residential ties to Canada are much weaker than TakeruK's: I'm on an F-1 and have no obligation nor direct plans to return to Canada after my PhD (I'll go wherever I get the best job/postdoc offer, which may or may not be in Canada). I do still have a Canadian bank account and a few credit cards, but I very rarely use them. I have no membership in any Canadian professional organizations/societies. The only personal belongings I have in the country are a few small personal effects from childhood that are in storage in my parents basement. As for whether or not one can file for tuition credits as a non-resident: I read this somewhere on the internet, but that of course doesn't make it true I'm going to look into it more thoroughly, but yeah it would actually make more sense if I wasn't able to. Will report back if I find anything conclusive.

Has anyone gotten any of the forms that we need to fill out in order to get paid etc. if we are starting our award May 1? All I've gotten back was a one line confirmation e-mail saying that they received my acceptance e-mail. I'm concerned because I'm about to go to South America until May 2, and won't be able to have any forms filled out during that time, and won't be able to be paid in May! edit: upon closer examination, I guess we just submit the forms that we find mentioned in the award holder's guide. that didn't seem initially clear from the notice of decision letter

Hi everyone! I just phoned the CRA to ask some questions, and I actually got a reply that I wasn't expecting: I'm most likely considered a non-resident for tax purposes and therefore shouldn't file a return! This came up because my first question was that I'm unsure if I'm an ordinary/factual resident, or a deemed resident. I told him that I'm living in the US completing a PhD and all of my income sources are US, and he said that 4+ years is not considered a temporary absence, and that I'm almost definitely a non-resident, period. He suggested that if I want an official ruling, I should file an NR73 and see what the response is, but he reiterated that there's no way I'm not a non-resident. He sounded pretty sure. I then went and did some reading about it (see http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/tchncl/ncmtx/fls/s5/f1/s5-f1-c1-eng.html ), and while it's complicated, it generally sounded from the wording there that at the end of the day I would be considered a non-resident, as my ties to Canada are only in the form of my parents who I visit once a year, and there's absolutely no certainty about whether or not I will return to Canada after my PhD. So, this would suggest that for many other people in this thread they would also be non-residents and don't have to bother with this entire exercise? But I read somewhere that even though I'm a non-resident, I can still get the tuition tax credits (and in particular won't have to pay taxes on this "scholarship income")...

Woohoo: after a few carefully worded e-mails to NSERC, I got my PGSD2 changed to a PGSD3!!! It's unlikely that there's anyone else in the situation that I was in which that allowed this to happen, but hey just in case: IF YOU CHANGE PROGRAMS DURING YOUR PHD, IT RE-STARTS THE CLOCK FOR PGSD3 ELIGIBILITY!!!! My example: I went to PhD straight from bachelor's meaning the cutoff for PGSD3 vs PGSD2 was having completed 24 months of the program as of Dec 31, 2016. I started my PhD in Applied Physics in October 2014, which meant that as of Dec 31, 2016, I'd been at my school for 27 months, which made both myself and NSERC believe that I was only eligible for PGSD2. However, after 5 months of being in the Applied Physics PhD program I changed to the Physics PhD program (which at my school is a totally disjoint program from Applied Physics, run by a different administrative division) in March 2015. Two days ago I realized that because of this, I had actually only spent 22 months in the program for which I am requesting funding! Explained this to NSERC and they upgraded my award. The lady that I was in contact with was extremely kind and patient, which is totally the opposite of my experience dealing with NSERC when I had application problems last year. TL;DR: If you've changed programs at some point in your PhD and you were given a PGSD2 this year, do the homework and see if you're actually eligible for the extra year!!

Was relieved and thrilled to get PGSD2 this year, after technical problems made me unable to submit my completed application last year! Question: I just received my letter from NSERC yesterday with my scores and rankings. Ended up 40/122 for Physics and Astronomy. I'm at a US school, but I indicated on my application that I would like to be considered for CGSD anyway since If I get it and decline it, it's good for the CV. Given that my rank probably puts me roughly in the 3rd quartile of recipients, and CGSDs are initially offered to the top third of award recipients (first quartile and a little more), it doesn't seem so likely that enough people will decline CGSD for me to be offered one. But if I want to hold out for it, that means I shouldn't accept my PGSD offer until the last day, right? That is, I'm assuming that accepting my PGSD removes me from consideration for being upgraded to CGSD if enough people decline... does anyone know if this is correct? Also, in the unlikely event that they do offer me CGSD, does the upgraded offer come by e-mail? Has this happened to anyone yet? Thanks!!

I'm applying to stanford physics and there's some ambiguity about their application deadline that I can't sort out. Their web page says that "applications should be complete by the deadline, Tuesday December 17 2013". I have an exam tomorrow morning so I wanted to try and figure out how much time I have tomorrow to finish my application, so I phoned their graduate admissions staff to ask if there was a cut-off time for applications tomorrow. She was extremely unhelpful, and seemed annoyed at my call, asking me what the application says (it doesn't say, which is why I was phoning) and then said that she doesn't know, and that it might even be a midnight deadline. Then she said "wait you know what? if it's a midnight deadline then maybe the deadline is tonight? at midnight on 17 is just after 11:59:59 tonight. i would submit tonight to be sure". This seemed to be a guess that she pulled out of thin air and refused to check with anyone. The wording on the website *could* possibly be interpreted to mean that the application has to go in BEFORE the 17th, but this seems unnecessarily misleading if that's what it means, since all other schools state the day on which you must submit the application and usually even give a time. It would be extremely helpful to know if I have until tomorrow night to finish the application. Given that I can't get a straight answer out of the grad admissions secretary, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about how stanford advertises and treats its deadlines. Thanks!