Personal Customs Exemptions for Returning Canadians

Personal Customs Exemptions for Returning Canadians If you are a Canadian resident or temporary resident of Canada returning to Canada from a trip outside the country, or a former Canadian resident returning to live in Canada, you may qualify for a personal exemption to bring a certain value of goods into Canada without having to pay the regular duties. You will still have to pay duties, taxes and any provincial/territory assessments on the value of goods above your personal exemption. Children, even babies, are entitled to a personal exemption. A parent or guardian can make a declaration on the childs behalf as long as the goods being declared are for the childs use. The amount you claim for your personal exemption must be reported in Canadian dollars. Use a foreign exchange converter to change foreign currencies into Canadian dollars. The personal exemption for returning Canadian residents depends on the length of time you have been outside of Canada. The personal exemptions for Canadian residents have been increased effective June 1, 2012. The new exemption limits go up to CAN$200 from CAN$50 for absences of 24 hours or longer, and up to CAN$800 if youre out of the country longer than 48 hours. After a 7-day absence, you are allowed to include goods that will follow you by mail or another delivery method. Outside Canada for Less Than 24 Hours No exemption. Outside Canada for 24 Hours or More If you are outside Canada for 24 hours or more, you may claim a personal exemption of up to CAN$200 worth of goodsthe goods must accompany youtobacco or alcohol may  not be claimed in this exemption Note: If you bring in goods worth more than CAN$200 in total, you cannot claim this exemption. Instead, you have to pay full duties on all the goods you bring in. Outside Canada for 48 Hours or More If you are outside Canada for 48 hours or more, you may claim a personal exemption of up to CAN$800 worth of goodsthe goods must accompany youyou can include some tobacco products and alcohol, but only a partial exemption may apply to cigarettes, tobacco products or manufactured tobacco. Outside Canada for 7 Days or More To calculate the number of days you have been outside Canada for the purposes of this personal exemption, do not include the day you left Canada but do include the day you returned. If you are outside Canada for 7 days or more, you may claim a personal exemption of up to CAN$800 worth of goodsyou can include some tobacco products and alcohol, but only a partial exemption may apply to cigarettes, tobacco products or manufactured tobacco.alcohol and tobacco products must accompany youother goods do not need to accompany you when you cross the border.

Examples of Interviewing Techniques

Examples of Interviewing Techniques In composition, an interview is a  conversation in which one person (the interviewer) elicits information from another person (the subject or interviewee). A transcript or account of such a conversation is also called an interview. The interview is both a research method and a popular form of nonfiction. EtymologyFrom the Latin, between see Methods and Observations Interviewing Tips The following interviewing tips have been adapted from Chapter 12, Writing about People: The Interview, of William Zinssers book On Writing Well (HarperCollins, 2006). Choose as your subject someone whose job [or experience] is so important or so interesting or so unusual that the average reader would want to read about that person. In other words, choose someone who touches some corner of the readers life.Before the interview, make a list of questions to ask your subject.Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives.Take notes during the interview. If you have trouble keeping up with your subject, just say, Hold it a minute, please, and write until you catch up.Use a combination of direct quotations and summaries. If the speakers conversation is ragged, ... the writer has no choice but to clean up the English and provide the missing links... Whats wrong... is to fabricate quotes or to surmise what someone might have said. To get the facts right, remember that you can call [or revisit] the person you interviewed. Honor Moore When I first began talking to people, I tended to monopolize the conversation, to steer my subject to my own interpretation of Margaretts life. Listening to my tapes, I learned that I often interrupted people just before they were about to tell me something I never would have suspected, so now I tried to let the subject guide the interview and to encourage the interviewees anecdotes. I came to understand that I was interviewing people not to substantiate my own theories but to learn Margaretts story.–Twelve Years and Counting: Writing Biography. Writing Creative Nonfiction, 2001 Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater and Bonnie Stone-Sunstein When we interview, we are not extracting information like a dentist pulls a tooth, but we make meaning together like two dancers, one leading and one following. Interview questions range between closed and open. Closed questions are like those we fill out in popular magazines or application forms: How many years of schooling have you had? Do you rent your apartment? Do you own a car?... Some closed questions are essential for gathering background data,... [but] these questions often yield single phrase answers and can shut down further talk...Open questions, by contrast, help elicit your informants perspective and allow for more conversational exchange. Because there is no single answer to open-ended questions, you will need to listen, respond, and follow the informants lead...Here are some very general open questions- sometimes called experimental and descriptive- that try to get the informant to share experiences or to describe them from his or her own point of view: Tell me more about the time when...Describe the people who were most important to...Describe the first time you...Tell me about the person who taught you about...What stands out for you when you remember...Tell me the story behind that interesting item you have.Describe a typical day in your life. When thinking of questions to ask an informant, make your informant your teacher.–FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research, 1997 John McPhee In the way that a documentary-film crew can, by its very presence, alter a scene it is filming, a tape recorder can affect the milieu of an interview. Some interviewees will shift their gaze and talk to the recorder rather than to you. Moreover, you may find yourself not listening to the answer to a question you have asked. Use a tape recorder, yes, but maybe not as a first choice- more like a relief pitcher.–Elicitation. The New Yorker, April 7, 2014