‘Move to Canada’ trending after US election. Here’s what it costs #CanadaFinance

Election Day is over in America. The results are in — and they have a lot of people thinking about their next move.

According to Google Trends, searches for “move to Canada” spike in election years, and were up again Wednesday.

Plenty of celebrities vowed to emigrate north when Donald Trump was first elected in 2016. However, while an uptick in Americans seeking permanent residency in Canada was reported, it was mostly among students and asylum seekers, not the rich and famous. And conservatives have recently been on the rise in Canadian politics.

Whether you might seriously ponder pulling up stakes or simply entertain the fantasy, moving to Canada is obviously not as easy as moving to, say, Maine, or Miami, or Montana. If you were looking to emigrate, how would you go about that? Here’s a look at the process, the cost and other considerations.

The first question you need to answer, says Hugo O’Doherty, the director of partnerships for online immigration resource Moving2Canada, is: Does Canada want me?

Just in the past few months, our neighbors to the north have clamped down on the number of new permanent residents the country will accept. The change was spurred in part by the high cost of living and concerns about immigrants taking up jobs and housing — one of the ways in which a move there may not get you as much distance from America as you might think.

The main route to permanent residency in Canada is the Express Entry program. To be eligible, you have to be in a “high demand” occupation. Family physicians and software developers are highly in demand. O’Doherty said other priorities include architects, engineers, web designers, and healthcare professionals. Canada’s official immigration website maintains a full list of 370 eligible job categories.

After three years of permanent residency over a five-year period, you become eligible for citizenship. If you want to take that step, the process includes paying income taxes in Canada, demonstrating proficiency in English or French language, and passing a citizenship test.

OK, let’s say you have one of those 370 jobs. (Hey, journalist is on the list!) How much does it really cost?

The mandatory legal process — which includes a medical exam, an English or French language test (even if you’re a native speaker), biometrics, validating your educational background, and other fees — costs $1,807 in U.S. dollars for an individual, or $4,349 for a family with two adults and two children, according to figures shared by O’Doherty from Moving2Canada.

You also need a certain amount of money in your bank account to demonstrate you can afford to live there for the first few months, called “settlement funds.” You get to keep (and presumably spend) this money, but you have to have it before you can move. That minimum is $10,577 for individuals and $19,653.84 for that family of four.

Many people who immigrate choose to employ an immigration attorney or consultant to help them with the process, which Move 2 Canada estimates at $2,800 to $3,600.

Then there’s the cost of international movers, estimated at $720 to $1,800.

All in all, the bare minimum cost of a move to Canada, including the settlement funds you need saved up, adds up to roughly $15,264 for individuals and $27,603 for a family of four.

Jay Rosenthal and his wife started the immigration process to be closer to family when their first child was born in 2009, and made the move to Toronto from San Francisco in 2012. He said in addition to the legal costs, they were on the hook for “massive” taxes to import two cars from the U.S. And there are recurring costs as well, like renewing his and his childrens’ American passports, and paying someone to help file his American state and federal income taxes every year.

But he said those things were more of a drain on his time and energy than his finances.

“It’s just a lot of paperwork,” he said.

Rebecca Friedland wrote about moving from the U.S. to Canada on her blog, The Adventure Beckons. She and her husband made the move from the Bay Area in 2022 after he got a job offer in Vancouver. She estimates they paid about $20,000 Canadian on their move, half of which went toward the cost of inspections, repairs and taxes for importing their car.

“Honestly, my advice for any American who wanted to move to Canada would be to sell your car” and then buy another one in Canada, she said, calling the process “the most convoluted part” of the immigration process.

She said the biggest unexpected expense was health insurance. Yes, health care is free at the point of service for Canadians, but under most circumstances you have to reside there for 90 days before you’re eligible. Friedland paid out of pocket to have private insurance for those first three months. (The Canadian immigration website Arrive In estimates insurance costs at $239 U.S. dollars per month ($333 Canadian), though that will vary a lot based on your age, health and other factors.)

Like Rosenthal, she pays someone to file her U.S. taxes, which she said requires specialized knowledge of international tax treaties and costs around $2,000 a year. She pays a small amount to maintain a mailbox in the U.S. and had some small fussy expenses pop up related to starting a life in a new country, like a $100 fee to obtain her driving history to qualify for Canadian auto insurance.

Of course, Canada isn’t the only country out there. It actually ranked last in Expat Insider’s 2024 “best and worst countries for your wallet” index due to the high cost of living. The website’s top recommendations for affordable living are Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia. Most countries allow immigration under certain circumstances, but the costs, process and requirements vary widely.

What if you’re looking not just for residency in another country, but naturalization? This also can vary. Some countries set the bar very high for factors including your length of residency, job situation and language proficiency, and some do not allow dual citizenship.

But some countries make naturalization easy — for a price.

For people with deep pockets seeking a backup citizenship in case conditions in America deteriorate, some countries offer investor immigration programs. In short, in exchange for a considerable amount of money, you get full citizenship and a passport. Nuri Katz is the founder of Apex Capital Partners, which helps wealthy people “achieve financial freedom and global mobility” through investor immigration. Katz, who’s Canadian, says Canada used to have an investor visa program, but it’s no longer active.

He said his clients typically have net worths somewhere in the range of $3 million to $15 million – “rich, but they’re not crazy rich,” he said. Though he used to serve a lot of clients from the Middle East, Russia, and Asia, he said that’s changed since 2020. Now, most of the demand comes from Americans seeking what he calls a “Plan B” in the case of financial or political instability. He said most of his clients have no immediate plans to actually pull up stakes and move to these countries.

The price tag can vary: In some countries in the Caribbean, Katz said, you can become a citizen with an investment of around $200,000 U.S.; in Greece, it’s $250,000; $500,000 for Portugal and around $1,000,000 for Malta.

But sticking closer to home has its benefits too.

“I was four blocks from Trader Joe’s in San Francisco when I lived there and I went, like, never,” Friedland said. “And now I’ll drive an hour to go” – over the border, back into the U.S.

Friedland said she “got weirdly sentimental” about some American traditions and comforts she hadn’t really noticed before. Though it has its own Thanksgiving, people treat it like “just another day” in Canada, she said. And while Vancouver has many excellent restaurants, she said the Mexican food offerings in particular don’t hold up to what she was used to in the Bay Area.

For some, the temptation of a northward migration might include the prospect of never having to think about U.S. elections ever again. But Friedland, speaking last week, said she had plans for election night: To get together with a group of fellow expats and watch the results come in.

Reach Jessica Roy: [email protected]