My wife became a legal permanent resident of the USA in November 2011, and physically moved here and assumed employment in 2013. She has a Registered Retirement Savings Plan in Canada, their equivalent of an IRA. She contributed to that in 2011, 2012, and 2013, but of course did not take a deduction for it.
I believe however there is something she has to do, to make an election to not be taxed on the earnings until they are withdrawn. We did file jointly for 2011-2013, and will probably be legally separated by 12/31/13 so she'll file as single.
What is that form, what are her requirements to not pay USA taxes each year on the accrual? For some reason I think it's a one-time election. Should she have filed that with our 2012 tax return? I don't think we did.