Honest review of Canada for immigrants in usa. (Immigrant experience comparison).
TLDR: immigrants in usa are wealthier but immigrants to canada have 10x more optionality of wealth (to do whatever) Note: this is not a comparison of the two countries, but rather a commentary on these countries seen from the economic immigrants perspective. Love/Happy about: Good people, low childcare spend, good education system, low kids education spend, Healthcare, zero visa situations and a strong passport, having a decent employment insurance in the event of a lay off, freedom to pursue ANY type of employement- dont have to be stuck in the coding rut if you don't like it, good indian/arab/pakistani/srilankan/bangladeshi/chinese food, easy immigration for parents, no gun violence, walking distance to the usa and europe, lots of hiking/nature oriented things to do (similar to the usa).. Made peace with: lower salaries than usa - especially the usa west coast, higher car insurance, high income and sales taxes, weaker currency, okayish maternity leave vis-a-vis europe (but better than most usa states), California price gas, older roads, tougher job searches due to smaller market size. Hate: insane inflation, housing costs, traffic and people having no respect for traffic rules in certain densely populated cities, politicians who waste public funds TC: irrelevant (not a coder anymore) but 120 to 200 k CAD range Visa issues: None. Naturalized Canadian citizen. Easy to get PR for parents in canada - EDIT - note this a lottery, but atleast you can apply for supervisa and have them live with you for 3 years. Easy to find work in any US state or Canadian province. No more h1b or us visa interviews. Couple of friends moved back on tn1/h1b/l1 - they found it very easy to get a job in usa and move back after Canadian citizenship. Healthcare: good for community care and great primary care. Okay for the rest. Canadian Healthcare has glaring holes, but much different ones than its American counterpart. But you don't stress about it as much in canada. Taxes: insane. 42 to 50% of income goes to taxes. 13.5 sales tax (gst/hst) Rent/housing: HCOL. 3.5k per month for a swanky 3 bed apartment in a condominium. I am planning to get a mortgage of 5k - 7k per month in the suburbs as I will be dual income soon. Standard of living: found it to be a very inflation driven country. Feels like living in California minus the swankiness. Expensive. Childcare: cheap. Like 1k/month in Toronto. This is where our taxes go. Food: Great desi food. Rest is alright. Smaller portions vs usa. Kids education: looks to be simpler than the usa till 12+4. Bachelor's degrees look cheap. Gun violence: only on streets and increasing now in major cities. None in schools. Flights to rest of the world: expensive when compared to usa originating flights for these countries Flights to usa/mexico/americas/europe: cheeeeep Car insurance: 2x expensive as compared to usa in major cities. Painful. Phone plan: more or less similar to usa. Maybe 10% -30% costlier. Currency: weaker than us dollar. Feels 1.5x weaker than us dollar when purchasing. Quality of life: feels like you never left india / china/ emirates / wherever. Great community life. You will hate it if you equate a developed country with white people though. Canada is full of immigrants of all colors and from every social/economic strata. Feels a bit old/worn out when compared to newer / gentrified usa cities. Severe discipline issues when it comes to traffic and cleanliness in many suburbs.
Your average taxes should be ~32% for 200k TC if you're contributing to RRSP. Taxes in Canada are so grossly misunderstood. Last I checked, it's slightly worse than Cali, and not as crazy as everyone on Blind makes it seem.
Not doing rrsp/tfsa. Also rrsp is tax deferral. And you are right. My tax avg tax rate was 35%. My marginal tax was 47% though.
Why aren't you doing RRSP, and TFSA? I seriously can't think of a serious why someone wouldn't do either.
Don't mislead people OP. For anyone on this platform, immigrating to Canada from the US is a definite downgrade. PLEASE don't make this mistake. Canada is great for mediocre, lazy and unambitious people who are contempt with living a mediocre life. You pay high taxes, get shitty wages, free but shit tier healthcare, 700k for a shoebox condo, high cost of living.
Imgrate from India to Canada is a downgrade too, even people in India look down on those who have no choice but to move to Canada
And when do you get your greencard mr opendoor? And what happens if you get laid off during the long wait but championship style race of 20 years for the card wait in the usa ? Never disagreed with the lower comparative wages, house sizes, and hcol, have mentioned them upfront and with better representative numbers. As for Indians looking down on canada, that's a perspective. Many Indians frown on immigration altogether now cause india is a rocketship economy right now. Canada / europe is more for those who prefer slower life.
How tf is Europe walking distance from Canada?
Pre-Pangaea
Not saying literally. But try going to the Schengen area on an Indian passport vs Canadian. Canadian is visa free.
They are giving H1b work permits but not PR directly ( not in 20s anymore). So the path to PR may be 2 years away and citizenship/passport is 6 years away ( to come back to the same position in the USA.) However , the zero to minimal savings ( low salary, high tax and cost of living) for the next 6 years, put the opportunity cost to 600-700k( including 401k, other savings etc if in the USA on h1b) is something holding here. Contemplating if it is good to move on open work permit or wait for GC ead !! Have you moved to Canada from the US?
Get in the eb2 / eb3 line and then come? What's 2 more years for a person waiting forever?
In my case I came on pr and many years ago though.
Let's go straight to the point, when you have no other options then Canada is only choice. Canada is the easiest country in the world to get citizenship in shortest time and because the bar is so low, the qualify is also low accordingly
exactly.
@flagstar Personally felt that h1b to eb2 wait would be more bearable with a Canadian passport. Hence took the jump when offered direct PR vs being on h1b. After waiting for eb2 for such a long time, personally feel no one should be made to jump through hoops for permanent statuses.
The best countries have the toughest immigration policies - prove me wrong.
So... North Korea?
A implies B does not mean B implies A.
Canada is a shit place. Too much red tape. Even if yoy have a citizenship, it ls only useful to get way from Canada rather than staying in it. I came to Canada from USA in 2019. Salary in US was 75000USD when I left the job. Today I make 110kCAD (80000USD) base at Amazon(RSU are taxed at 48%). My peers in Seattle make 210K USD TC for the same job role. Do not come to Canada unless you want to keep paying this shitty government taxes.
you'll have the Canadian passport which grants you visa free access to 194 countries. The only problem is that you won't have the money to travel to those countries 🤣🤣
You can come back to the US on TN visa. Are you a Canadian PR or citizen?
No mention of weather?
IT companies and software jobs are all in good weather areas. Montreal and Toronto has similar weather to most usa Northeast cities. I don't even need to comment on Vancouver weather. Calgary Saskatoon winnipeg Edmonton got shitshows of weather. But I don't think anyone moves there for an IT job. Hence skipped the weather piece.
I find Montreal weather much more extreme than anywhere in US
Canada is a fucking joke. Loser country
Overall, a citizenship mill. Gateway to USA.