I’m kind of in a strange boat right now where I’m really comfortable in Canada yet I can’t shake this feeling I need to get over to the US of A in order to take advantage of that strong USD. I, like many Canadians, work for an American firm and have a TN visa. Recently, my employer offered to sponsor me for a green card, if I ever choose to relocate to the USA. I can live pretty much anywhere I want as I’m a remote employee, but I do travel to the USA for client work.
It’s a tough decision to make. While I consider it, I thought I’d ask the community. So, say you good lemmings?
No, im really not. There is too much darkness, and too much hate.
The gun culture, “freedumb” insanity, and lack of basics such as healthcare make me view it fairly close to the third world. the only they thing have better there is more buying power.
Thought about it very seriously for a long time. I did grad school for planetary science and there’s almost no market for that degree in Canada. But in order to work in the US in the space program, you need permanent residency in order to even have a crack at getting security clearance.
Had $10k US set aside for the immigration lawyer. Started interviewing at new space startups in 2015.
Then I was in Seattle for an interview and it was too expensive to get a hotel near the company. Since I had a car rental, I took a hotel an hour south – a roadaide hotel for $200/night. Can’t be that bad for $200, right? Got there and it was kind of shitty. Being if an adventurous sort, I went outside and sat in front of my room in the evening and chatted with the locals – the hotel was full of people on the dole for various reasons. Every single one of them was a republican. They all thought Obama was coming for their guns. They railed against anything socialist while, ironically, being the absolute dregs of society and we’re wholly supported by said system. I couldn’t understand it. This isn’t the hip Seattle I was expecting…
Then 2016 happened and I said “hmm, maybe I’ll wait.” Then the child detention thing happened and I said “I kind of feel like I am trying to immigrate to Germany in 1936…” and I took a look at myself. I decided to use that money as a downpayment on a house in Winnipeg and start a scientific equipment business. I’m not making instruments for spacecraft, but close enough. At least I’m no von Braun.
Very cool story. Thank you for sharing.
Nah. Don’t feel like being caught up in one of the 15 mass shootings per day where the government will try to brush it off and blame it on trans people.
I may be dirt poor in Canada, but at least my trans neighbour and I are both safe when we leave our places.
Hell no. We even talk leaving Canada for Europe because of the influence US has here. I will gladly have a month PTO and better worker benefits, thank you.
Same. With our first kid almost here we’re starting to realize this isn’t going to be a place that has much of a prosperous future for him. Our politicians want us to be USA Jr. so bad, our polarization is stronger than ever, and most of our main industries are run by a few oligarchs that no parties care to break up. My wife works for an EU company so we’ve seen and talked first hand with many friends over there and despite their own problems (no country is problem free) it’s a region of the world that has a lot more to offer for social benefits and securities for families, and they have much less of a divide that all the far right nut jobs are sewing all over North America in recent years. Considering our options over the next 4 years.
nope. lol. Not unless my salary doubles, at minimum, and that’s just to make sure I don’t go bankrupt from healthcare. Actually fuck that, because if I get an injury that prevents me from working I’m still completely fucked. They’re also notoriously anti union and worker rights are eroding day by day
That place is a shit show. Let’s not even talk about Republicans…
No. Their cost of living is insane, plus I have T1D, which would be a pre-existing condition under their insurance schemes. Not insurmountable, but would be an ongoing issue. Plus their culture is intolerable.
Nope, I’m happy to sit up here in ol’ Canada, living high on the hog, taking advantage of a 1.32 USD/CAD exchange rate.
US health insurance is no longer allowed to consider pre-existing conditions. That was made illegal by the Affordable Care Act about 10 years ago.
Of course, depending on who gets elected, that may change in the future…
I lived in the US for a while. I knew people in the consular office in California who shared the stats on Canadian movement into and back out of the US. 75% of Canadian immigrants will repatriate within seven years. I was an over achiever, it took me 9.
There are advantages to being down there, but they are all centered in being childless and in good health. Everyone is one chronic illness away from bankruptcy. I was a post-doc at UCLA and my wife was a lawyer. The health insurance we could afford didn’t allow us to get treated at the hospital I worked at. As a matter of fact we basically had to choose between preventative care and acute care because our policy wouldn’t cover both.
The public school system has been so eroded it is basically useless, so you will have to use a charter school.
I enjoyed my time there, and California is a great place to be rich, but it gets much harder as you settle in and face actual adult life there.
Boy that would be a terrible idea, as an American who had traveled a lot and is enduring a stint here until I get back to first world and safer second-world countries.
It’s not without risk. You’d have to see how much money you’d make, your cost of living including healthcare costs. Weigh them against the benefits including simply a change of scenery or sense of adventure, if it’s worth it then go forth!
Might not be worth if you already have kids, for reason some people there only care about kids when inside a womb.
The whole American political and justice system is so messed up. Look carefully at the city and state you are relocating to, they’re all different.
I sometimes want to go there but many things happening lately make me hug my city of Toronto a little tighter.
Yeah I’m trying to see how much healthcare will cost me. I should find out more by next week. I agree, their political and societal system differs a lot from ours in Canada.
I’m trying to see how much healthcare will cost me.
That’s the thing. You can’t. You never know what health problems you’ll develop in the future, and health care costs are not standardized outside of secret health insurance company formulas. It’s a complete shit show. Don’t come here.
Droughts in the west are going to end up causing mass migrations once all the water is finally gone, and the extreme heat in the east makes me think if anything people are going to be leaving the USA, probably in our lifetimes.
Well what about the East part of the US? The US is a lot more than the desert ridden south west.
Might want to see this: https://lemmy.ca/post/1090349 I can see this becoming a norm over there.
Looks like the upper Midwest might be ok, at least for now.
Good post. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out but while those temperatures mentioned in the post you provided are hot, it is certainly not the worst in the world. Areas near the equator regularly see temperatures higher than this during the summer. Those nations survive in the hot conditions so I guess the USA will have to adjust as well.
Seems extreme imo.
Why go backwards?
No way. I moved here from there (I’m Canadian now!) and every day I’m gladder I got out.
I’d probably make more money there, but there are things I value more than money and my life is significantly better in Toronto than it ever was in any of the three states I lived in.
Exact same boat. US -> Canada. USA scares the shit out of me. Infinitely happier, even with the reduced buying power.
I used to live in Wisconsin, close enough to Chicago to go on day or weekend trips often. I absolutely love Chicago, it’s a great city to visit, but I’ll never forget going to the Field Museum with my parents once and seeing signs warning against bringing guns into the building.
The reminders that you live in a violent society are always there, even in the most innocent of places. I’d rather have to save up longer to buy a new laptop or only have good pineapple for a few months in the summer than live that way.
What do you value more specifically about Canada?
I’m not sure how to describe it beyond saying life feels a lot less confrontational here in Canada, even living in the largest city in the country.
Obviously there are problems here, but it feels much more like an actual society than a collection of people who happen to live near each other.
It’s not even about healthcare or anything specific, those are just symptoms IMO. It’s a larger philosophical difference between the countries
We did it for four years. Washington state in the Seattle are is very nice. We met a lot of great people and we have fond memories.
Having said that it was clear early on this was not going to be permanent. Imagine taking your kids to the local park and seeing a sign that said no guns allowed in this park. Wait, guns are allowed in some parks? WTF. That was just a head scratcher. I found it genuinely hard to be in a place where I was decidedly middle class and so many people were so poor and with no benefits at all.
I remember once chatting with a cashier at the grocery store over the weeks as she was pregnant. One day I stopped seeing her and figured she had her baby. Two weeks later she was back. No maternity leave. She took her full two weeks of vacation and that was it. Shit.
Or the conversation I had with a cab driver who talked about still being in debt because his FIL was sick and avoided getting medical attention because none of the family had medical coverage until he had to be admitted.
The medical system is a confusing shambles of insanity. That’s if you have good coverage. Once our daughter was sick and the childrens hospital directed us to a closer clinic. We went. There was a discussion about possibly admitting her but in the end she went home. A few days later she was worse so we ended up going to the children’s hospital and she was admitted. Turns out the near by clinic was not in our medical coverage group and it cost us nearly $1000 out of pocket. Not fun but doable. The thing is, she was two nights in the hospital where we were covered. If we had admitted her the first day at the wrong hospital it would have cost us at least $10 000.
The whole system is a fucking nightmare of land mines and no one has any clue what any particular thing will cost you.
I just couldn’t be happy under those conditions. Side note I’m not happy with the slide in equality here in Canada either BTW.
My job is in high tech and they pay was no better, just even. We lost money on selling buying houses, but that’s just timing. I kept track of taxes paid. After medical expenses it was only a 5 percent savings and one medical emergency would too that the other way. Yes, I had great medical coverage.
Yeah, I was in Oregon and had really good health insurance, but was always a bit terrified of actually ever using any medical services. It’s so much less worrying to know that the emergency room won’t ever cost you anything in Canada. That said, I’m sure if I did ever need it, it would have been fine.
always a bit terrified of actually ever using any medical services.
That’s kinda the problem: in America, ‘preventative’ care is only talked about in past tense, like “wish he’d’ve gotten looked-at before it cost him his 401k AND house as well”.
No one goes for testing, no early warning.
The real cheat code is to work for a US company (and get paid in USD), yet live in Canada (and have expenses in CAD).
My bro’s VPN stopped working from his Canadian office, and that was his first clue that he was being laid-off from his American company.
I don’t need the added cash and crushing worry. Lagom.
That’s what I do.
Any issues tax wise? I will be doing that starting in August.
If they pay you through a Canadian subsidiary then it’s no trouble, if you’re paid by the American branch itself you might have to file taxes in the USA along with Canada, I would check with an accountant how your specific situation works because there’s loads of different situations and you don’t know if the person you’re asking is in the same as yours.
It really depends on how you’re paid. I’m paid through a Canadian payroll entity so all taxes are sorted properly with the CRA.
The only thing I’ve got to be aware of tax wise is maintaining my Canadian tax residency… which means being physically on Canada at least 6 months of the year.
Current plan is for them to make me a contractor to simplify things on their end. I would prefer not to do that, but if that is what it takes to make the move possible then I will deal with the fallout.
That’s pretty common for companies that don’t have a payroll entity in a particular country. A lot of startups do this and slowly add payroll in countries that have a larger or growing number of employees.
There isn’t much for fallout. You will have to set aside $$ for CRA - either prepay into your CRA account on a quarterly basis or put money aside each month in an account you NEVER touch until tax time. It’s not too hard to guestimate your taxes owed.
You will have to keep all receipts - you can claim quite a lot as a contractor. I’d recommend also hiring an accountant. It won’t cost you that much - maybe around $500 if you are organized and make things easy by tracking things in a spreadsheet or personal accounting program.
You typically won’t get benefits… but most companies will top up a fixed amount per month to allow for what you’d usually get as an employee.
Do you get similar promotions?
Yup. There’s no difference in progression up the corporate ladder.
Lol no. Fuck those capitalists
I went to the US for y2k , and was there for 5 years.
I came home with the exact same amount of money as I had when I left. And I also got a deep understanding for the absolute depths of cruel poverty in the US and for safety nets they don’t have.
Do it. You’ll never be the same, and you’ll really appreciate Canada better.
Nicely phrased.
What did you do there, if you don’t mind me asking?
I continued the work to build and maintain the “one true Unix” ;-) and a Linux side project until we sued IBM so they destroyed us.
So. Nerdy IT stuff that today we’d outsource and work remotely back here, but in 2k required working onsite in beautiful 2-person offices with closable doors, visual privacy, and a view of a happy groundhog most days.
