Bipartisan bill would allow Canadian snowbirds to extend stay in US by 2 months

Oh, Canada, we want to see more of you. Two more months per year, to be exact.

Or at least that's the intent behind a bill announced Thursday by a bipartisan group of congressional legislators representing — unsurprisingly — northern tier states with close ties to the Great White North and southern states where Canadians migrate for the winter.

The bill introduced by U.S. Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., is known as the Canadian Snowbird Visa Act and would extend the amount of time Canadians who own or lease a home in the U.S. can visit each year by two months. U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, a Republican representing Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula, is one of its cosponsors.

“Providing Canadians who own homes and property in the United States with extra time to visit and boost our economy will help revive Canadian tourism to the United States after an unprecedented closure of the northern border," Stefanik said.

She's referring to the restrictions on border crossings that lasted more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected not only tourism between the two countries but people in states, including Michigan, with close friends and family in Canada. Some people criticized the closure for all but "essential" reasons (like work) as having gone on for far too long.

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Under current law, Canadian visitors must limit travel to the U.S. to 182 days a year. The proposed law would let Canadian citizens who are over the age of 50 and own or rent a residence in the U.S. to stay in the country for up to 240 days annually. Visitors would be prohibited from working for U.S. employers or seeking public assistance and clarifies that they retain their nonresident tax status.

Stefanik said Canadian visitors spent more than $20 billion in the United States in 2019.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Canadian Snowbird Visa Act lets Canadians visit US for 2 months longer