Hello,

I'm a US Citizen, and I need to move up to Canada for awhile for work. My employer is a German company, located in Germany, and I'm doing some specialized software programming for them. The job will last at least 6months, and could be several years.

In looking at some of the Canada immigration websites, I find this description on canadainternational.gc.ca:

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Do I Qualify as a Business Visitor?

You qualify as a business visitor under Canada’s temporary entry requirements if you are a foreign national who wants to temporarily engage in international business activities in Canada for a period of up to six months.

Business visitors must meet the following general criteria:

You must have no intent to enter the Canadian labour market;
The activity you intend to pursue must be international in scope (normally there is an underlying cross-border activity that is a necessary incident to international trade and commerce such as after-sales services);
Your primary source of remuneration must be outside of Canada;
Your principal place of business must be outside of Canada;
The accrual of profits of your business must be outside of Canada.
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So this sounds like exactly my situation. Following further down the website, it says I need to make a choice between Short Term or Long Term, but the link for Long Term is dead...apparently the phrasing of what I need to get is "Temporary Business Resident".

Does it look like I'm on the right track? If so, does anyone have the next steps I need to follow? My employer can, of course, provide all the documentation that is needed.

Thanks,
Sarah

It is not clear what the link to Canada is. If the German company has a division in Canada and you will be conducting your work there, then the business visitor provisions may apply as you may be effectively entering into the Canadian job market. In such a case a work permit would be a more appropriate route.