Relocating for Poker: My Experience

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This blog post is intended only to share my experience with moving across the border. I don’t guarantee this to be legally ironclad, nor do intend to portray this as a typical experience with relocation for online poker.

I have been contacted on Twitter, on the PartTimePoker forums and TournamentPokerEdge forums, and in person by many people requesting information on relocating to Canada for online poker.  Rather than respond in less than 140 characters to each, I decided this would be a better way to more clearly share information and respond to as many people as possible. 

Since most questions ask about the process with PokerStars, I’ll start there.  When I first broached the subject with Stars support via email in middle 2011 they wouldn’t even talk to me until I had already physically moved.  When I emailed them again in September 2012, I had indicated that I had secured a place and would like to reinstate my account with them.  I was asked to send a copy of my lease with the address clearly visible. I was not asked to send a bill or bank statement, which I found mildly surprising (anticipating this step, I had actually already started a Canadian checking account). I sent them the first email with the lease attached, then had to send them one more once I had logged into Stars with a Canadian IP address. When they received both, Stars support sent me an email saying my account was reinstated, and warning me to never try to log into my real money account from an American IP again. The entire process – from emailing the lease until my account was ready for real-money play – took less than 24 hours.

I can’t say too much about the quest to get a lease for a Canadian place as an American, as most of that process was done without me involved, and I’m certain it’s an atypical experience.  A couple friends of mine found the place online, and since our situation was unique, the landlord made us pay for the entire year’s lease up front.  I’m sure this was equally because of two factors: that we are Americans who could pretty much run back home mid-lease and leave the landlord on the hook for the rest of the rent; and that the property is relatively expensive and in high demand, so he could have just as easily given it to someone else who was less of a risk.

I also live back at home in Michigan part-time with my parents. It’s a nice way to balance poker and “real world” projects I have going right now, which include law school and business school applications as well as an independent research project I have undertaken.  This involves crossing the border via the Detroit River multiple times a week.  At first I used to get a lot of hassle from border control agents, primarily because I was carrying $1k-$3k cash for live cash games, because some individuals didn’t know the protocol for visa status in either country, or because some individuals were unfamiliar with the current online poker situation.  I’ve been searched a couple times but obviously no contraband was found and I was admitted without fail.  By now, because the five of us cross back and forth routinely, and because “Online Poker Player” is such a unique job that they don’t hear so often, border control agents usually recognize us and don’t give us too much grief. 

As far as residency restrictions, all I know thus far is that you cannot stay in Canada for longer than six total months of a calendar year.  You don’t need any extra visa or temporary resident status for your time in Canada, provided that you don’t overstay the limit. 

If you guys here at TPE have any questions that I haven’t answered yet in the post, please feel free to comment below and I’ll answer them as best as I can.