Moving to Canada

Fantastic views just across the street from my new place in Canada!

Canada is an incredibly beautiful country, with some wonderful, warm and kind-hearted people. After living in the United States for almost a decade, I decided earlier this year to immigrate to Canada. Although parts of the US have much better weather, employment opportunities and diversity of natural landscapes, following reasons made immigrating to Canada a natural choice for me. My first few days as a new Canadian have been fantastic! Everyone, from immigration officers to cab drivers, from housemates to strangers on the street, even the folks at the DMV (registry) - EVERYONE has been nothing but pleasant, friendly and helpful.

View from the window!

Fantastic views - not too far away from home either!

Canoeing in pristine glacial lakes!

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Benefits of Moving to Canada from the US

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• Friendliness: Canada has a relatively friendlier and welcoming immigration system, relative to the US that is. More specifically: 
• Canada has fair and transparent points-based immigration system.
• Application process is straightforward and time-bound. Depending on the program, applications are processed within 6 months.
• There's relatively little hostility against immigrants who follow proper / legal channels of immigration.
• If you are from India / China or any other country with USCIS petitions backlogged by 7-10 years, you won't have to wait decades getting a permanent residency. 

• Healthcare: Canada offers guaranteed universal healthcare i.e. better use of my tax dollars as well as personal peace of mind w.r.t medical costs even if I am temporarily not working. I've been burned too many times by the US healthcare system to take any more chances. If you've lived in the US for an extended period of time, you know what I mean. For instance: 

• Out of Network: Even if you go to an in-network hospital, you may still end up with an out-of-network provider.

• Uninformed consumer: You never know how much it's going to cost up-front.

• Predatory billing: hospital charges are separate from provider charges. The person who conducts ECG / ultrasound etc. will charge you separately from the person who reads the results of those tests. A simple ECG and lower extremity ultrasound, which costs less than $50 in India, and nothing in Canada, ended up costing me ~$5,300 in the US!

• Family Reunification: Canada allows for easier family reunification. Even permanent residents can sponsor their families including parents. US Permanent residents can not.

• Gun Control: Relatively better regulations on guns and general societal agreement on basic sensibilities around gun licensing. Mass shootings and gun crime are a norm in the US and there's no realistic possibility of any sensible gun control anytime soon.

• Less bitter and less hostile political system: I am extremely tired and frustrated with extreme political divisions and hostilities between republicans and democrats and their supporters. While Canadian inter- and intra-provincial politics can get heated as well (Quebec separatism, BC/Alberta pipelines issues and the like), it seems the multi-party politics up north is no where near as bitter and divisive as the US.

• Easier to maintain permanent resident status: In the US, if you leave the country for more than 6months, you run the risk of automatically abandoning your PR. In Canada, you only have to be physically present in Canada for 2 years out of 5 to maintain that status and you are free to travel and live wherever internationally without worrying about your legal status in Canada. 

• Uniform University / College tuition across provinces: In the US, if you reside in one state, let's say California, and decide to go to school / college in Boston, you'll be charged out-of-state tuition fee which is tens of thousands of dollars more than the resident / in-state tuition fee and same as the international student tuition. In Canada, no matter what province or territory you are a resident of and what province you choose to go to school to, almost always you'll be charged the same domestic tuition as any other Canadian student. 

• Less likely to be shot-at by the Police: Because there are more than 350 million guns in the US, cops need to be very careful and are often borderline paranoid resulting in a lot of otherwise simple encounters with the police escalating to shootings. Since people are less likely to carry guns in Canada, cops are relatively relaxed and are less likely to shoot you by mistake or in paranoia.

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Downsides of Moving to Canada from the US

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• Job / Employment opportunities: Canadian economy is relatively smaller and there are nowhere near as many employment opportunities in Canada as in the US.

• Cost of Living: That varies with location obviously but there are quite a few small- to mid- sized towns (~60,000 to 150,000 population) in the US with thriving economy and relatively low cost of living. 

• Taxes: There are a handful of US states like Montana, Oregon and New Hampshire that have no sales tax at all. Then there are some states like Alaska and Texas that have no state income tax! In contrast, all Canadian provinces and territories have combined GST+PST of 5-14%.

• Car Insurance: Car insurance rates are crazy expensive in Canada compared to the US. That's partially due to the fact that the required basic minimal coverage is much higher / better and the insurance marketplace is rather limited, yet an average consumer ends up paying much more than they would in the US.

• Services: Many US products and services are either not available at all in Canada or cost a lot more than the US

Feel free to leave a comment and share your own experience of moving to Canada below.