Hey,
For various reasons, my SO and i have decided to attempt to immigrate from the US to Canada. I would love to hear from the MMM community about the pitfalls of such a move and generally whether this is a positive step from a frugality and FIRE perspective or a step back. I'm really interested to hear from people who have done this or seriously considered it and backed out.
We are currently living in Philadelphia and are targeting either Montreal or one of several non-Toronto cities in Ontario. I intend to keep my job with an American company and work remotely. My wife is an author and we have a limited liability partnership in the US to publish her work. We also own a piece of a house (the bank owns the rest via mortgage).
Thanks for any advice, well wishes, facepunches or other thoughts! :D
HI nkt0. We recently spent over 6 years living in Canada (Quebec) and just moved back to the US to pursue some job opportunities here.
First off there's the question about how easily you can gain a visa to live permanently in Canada - which is not the same thing as having permanent resident status or citizenship.
Also be aware that there's no such thing as "Canadian" universal health care; nor will you automatically qualify for "free" health care just by living in Canada. Each province has their own health care system, and there are different rules and standards governing each. Consequentially you'll need to plan buying health care insurance, at least until you qualify for your provinces' health care card.
As for living in Canada as an ex-pat, it can be a wonderful place to live, and in many ways it is very similar to life in the US. BUT - there are some differences, and those differences can range from quaint to irritating. A lot of your happiness will depend on your mindset of how you deal with these differences.
Taxes and cost of things - you will need to file taxes in BOTH the US and Canada, though if you meet the bona-fide resident test or the physical presence test any income earned in Canada will be exempt from US taxes up to about $108k/year. Because you said you will be keeping your US job that income will be considered US income, though under certain circumstances you will have to pay Canadian taxes on it as well. Sales tax is very high compared to the US; 15% in Quebec and 13% in Ontario. Even labor is taxes in Quebec. Broadly speaking many of your everyday items will be 10-30% more expensive than in the US, including groceries, cars, airline tix and fuel, though there are some categories that are cheaper. There's also much lower consumer choice in most stores compared to the US, and Amazon.ca doesn't carry nearly the diversity of products you get stateside.
Politically there's a much greater spread among the political parties here than there is between the Dems and GOP in the US. Overall I'd consider the political center of Canada to be quite a bit to the left of the political center of the US, and the NDP is quite a bit to the left of the progressive wing of the Democratic party in the US. And of course there's the Bloc Québécois always threatening succession. If you live in Montreal you can get by without speaking any French, but government services will be primarily (and often exclusively) available in french, and you miss out on a lot of cultural interaction if you never learn the language. Even if you are fluent in French there's a cultural barrier between those that speak english (termed 'anglophones') and the self-identified 'Quebeçois'.
Compared to the east coast cities can seem super far apart, with lots of wilderness in between. This is something we loved about Canada (access to relatively undeveloped land just a short drive from a major city) but it also means what people consider an 'acceptable driving distance' for a vacation is vastly different.
hope that helps to get you started. Feel free to ask targeted quesitons and/or PM me
~n~