U.S. to Canda?

Question

Ok I eventually wanna move to Canada(within a couple of years) and I don't even know where to begin. I've lived in the U.S. my hole life. Legal citizen of the U.S. I don't even have a passport or visa. Where is a good place to start?

Answer 1

Get your passport and go visit several areas.

If you like a big city, I would suggest Toronto.  Beautiful city for the size.

British Columbia is one of the prettiest areas IMHO.

If you do not speak French, I would avoid Montreal.  They are snobbish to anyone who does not speak French.

Check out several areas.  Ask people what they do and do not like about the area.

Stay close to the border, though.  Any serious medical issue, you will likely come back across the border.  Canada's medial system is horrible.

PS...I sat in a waiting room in Canada with a friend's 10 year old son while he ran back and forth to the bathroom running at both ends.   If I would not have kept him hydrated, he might have died as they ignored him.  WE WAITED ALMOST 8 HOURS!  This is not uncommon there.  Also, considering that many wealthy Canadians come to America for medical treatment they could get in Canada for free is very telling.  My college roommate is a Chief of Staff in Detroit.  Literally 1/4 of his patients for major issues come from Canada.

And james is a racist.  "That Indian?"  What is up with that?  I am a Heinz 57.

Answer 2

All I know is there have been many TV news reports about Americans who don't want to serve in Iraq being sent back to the U.S. because their refugee claims have been denied.  This is in contrast to the Vietnam War when Canada took about 125 000 draft dodgers.

Conclusion:  The border is not open.  

The legal and economic barriers to Americans must be formidable because their immigration rate to Canada is surprisingly low.  It was only 10,942 in 2006, up from 5,828 in 2000 (Canada let in 259 000 in 2007 and is 20 % foreign born).

I'd probably stay in Alberta, even if I was free to go to the U.S. due to the oil boom economy with a 3 % jobless rate, which means you would do well here if you could get here.  Any migrant should make sure their qualifications get recognized.  We have foreign doctors in Canada driving cabs!  My boiler operator qualifications were lowered from 3rd Class to 4th Class when I went to Quebec.

I met an American student at the University of Alberta.  At 1st he was only allowed to work on campus, so he worked for Bee-Clean, but I know they changed it so foreign students can work off campus.

I notice a lot of our restaurant workers are foreigners now with visas that force them to only work in restaurants.  They told me themselves in a Harveys restaurant.  No  American is going to agree to that just like no Canadian is going to go to the U.S. just to pick tomatoes with the Mexicans.  How ironic that the system encourages poor people from the 3rd World over Americans who could adapt much more quickly to Canada.

I witnessed 1st hand, oil company representatives at an job fair presentation at the University of Alberta telling foreign engineering students (most of them were very smart Masters, PhD, and post graduate University of Alberta engineering students good in English) that they need permanent residence in Canada to apply for a job; however, the foreign students said the Canadian government requires a job offer (one lacking Canadian applicants) sponsoring them for permanent residence 1st.    

The oil company representative explained it like: "We can't sponsor foreign applicants for job offers because they might get turned down for permanent residence, and then that would not be fair to the Canadian applicants who would be kept waiting."  It's the old chicken and egg story, and I doubt a public relations conscious Canadian government website would tell you about such occurrences.

The more you study immigration, the more you realize our immigration officials (with the help of professional qualifications organizations) are there mostly to just put up whatever barriers are necessary to stop the majority of people, such as yourself, who would otherwise do very well in Canada or the U.S.

My moronic brother is in prison for a $350 000 arson, and he doesn't have to fear deportation, yet we turn away brilliant engineering students in Canada.  This is why I think the immigration laws of Canada and the U.S. are a load of xenophobic c**p, doing nothing to help our economies.

Answer 3

Proud Canadian, here.

I guess it all depends on where you live now, and what you want to do when you come to Canada. Alberta is booming right now, so Calgary and Edmonton might be good places to start... but they are a bit pricey.

Saskatchewan is supposedly going to be the next Alberta, so you might want to look there. Cost of living will be cheaper.

Taxes are less in western Canada (Alberta is great for that), and really expensive east of Quebec.

If you don't speak french, stay out of Quebec.

If you want to live in a big city try Toronto... high costs, but lots of oppertunity in and around the area.

I am from Windsor so I am right across the Detroit River from the US. While the unions here have basically F*ed up our auto sector, there are still jobs available here. Plus Caesar's Casino just opened, and our proximity to Detroit enables lots of shopping, entertainment, and even employment if you don't mind the cross border travel. Lots of people do it.

Avoid British Columbia because it's waaay too expensive- but bloody beautiful!

Hope that helped!

PS: That Indian is a moron. Our health system is just fine.

PSS: Hey Indian boy, first of all, calling you an indian, whether you are an indian or not, is a racial remark, but not racist. Your picture looked sorta like an indian so that's what I called you. And secondly, just because you had a bad experience at a Canadian hospital doesn't mean you can therefore conclude the Canadian health system is bad; as there are many MANY more horror stories in Canadian hospital waiting rooms, so too are there in the States (did you see two days ago on CNN where someone died in the waiting room and doctors actually came in, looked at the person dead on the floor, and walked away)? We DO have long waits in the waiting rooms. I will give you that. And I hate them just as much as anyone. And I'll also admit the US has more advanced medical tech. But the Canadians that come over to the US for health are paying out the pooper for it. So if you have lots of dough, you don't care about paying into a high priced insurrance system. But for the rest of us regular folk, the universal health care is ideal.

No Canadian has ever had to sell their house or go into debt to pay for hospital bills or to pay for a necessary surgery- something that cannot be said about the US. In Canada you don't have to pay into (or get raped by) a private health insurrance company, and with your average job in Canada you get benefits from your employer that take care of the rest of the costs like perscriptions, dental, etc.

I'll take an hour or two wait time over the archaic US health system in a heartbeat.

Sorry for offending you with my remark.