Canadian moved down to US and starting to invest, any advice?

Income tax policy, rules, problems, strategy and software. Property and consumption taxes too.
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Snowbird
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Canadian moved down to US and starting to invest, any advice?

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Hi, My wife and I (35 years old) moved down to US from Canada few months ago. We have an apartment up there in Canada rented out with the rental income not covering the mortgage payments. We can contribute few grants to an investment account here in US on a monthly basis. The issue is that we're here on a work visa and not sure how long we're going to live in US, it could be forever or there's a probability that we move back to Canada for retirement or depending on circumstances even way before retirement age.

Here are my questions:

1) Given the uncertainty of our stay in US, would that make sense for me to invest in 401k, IRA/Roth IRA or just open a non-registered account and give up on all the tax free interest compounding of retirement accounts given the tax complications in case we'll move back to Canada? My employer sponsors a 401k but there's no matching on the contributions. On top of that, in case we'll end up staying in US for a long time we're planning to purchase a condo here in few years for which we need to accumulate for the downpayment and have that accessible when needed, we're not planning to sell the property in Canada given the sale tax implications and currency conversions.

2) I'm thinking of maximising our contributions to IRA/Roth IRA which has a little room and contribute the rest (which will be the bigger portion) either to 401k or a non-registered investment brokerage account based on the answer to question 1, does that make sense?

3) Just wondering what's the impact of tax free interest compounding effect on investment over time versus the comparable brokerage account?

I'll appreciate any advice in advance.
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