Moving South from Canada
Resources for Canadians moving south to live or nomad in the U.S, Mexico, or further south!
Moving South from Canada
Resources for Canadians moving south to live or nomad in the U.S., Mexico, or further south!
Moving South from Canada
Resources for Canadians moving south to live or nomad in the U.S., Mexico, or further south!
Moving back to Canada is Exciting!
Canada offers many wonderful benefits to those returning home after a long absence such as safety, generally good public services, freedom, being close to family, seeing old friends, and of course, beautiful Canadian nature - mountains, lakes, forests, rivers, and more.
However, challenges may arise if you are a citizen returning to live in Canada. You may have to contend with reverse culture shock. Or possibly first-time culture shock if your spouse and/or children have never lived in Canada before. The logistics of moving your home and setting up your new life can also be daunting - what to sell, what to take with you, how to ship your belongings, and many more considerations. Then there are real estate, investment, tax, and timing concerns. In response to these concerns new options often arise that can be hard to choose between. Moving back to Canada from the USA or Mexico may not appear to be much of a challenge but there are surprising similarities to the considerations of those moving back to Canada from further afield, such as from the UK, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, or the UAE.
This resource site started from my experiences returning back to Canada after living with my family for a short while in the U.S. and 6 years in the Middle East. Our youngest son was born in Dubai. To him, we were in effect emigrating to Canada. For the rest of us, it was a big move back to the land of taxes, rules and regulations, rain and snow...and of course fantastic geography, a generally free Canadian society, reliable services, Tim Horton's, and much more.
Since starting this resource site, I have answered thousands of questions from Canadians getting ready to move home and have added the findings from all my work to my original reflections. Every year generous Canadians from all over the world contribute tips, tales, and suggestions from their own experiences of moving back to Canada, keeping this site up-to-date with practical advice. Our combined wish is that you have a confident and exciting move back to Canada!
If you find this site useful please "pay it forward" to those moving back to Canada in the future by sharing what you have learned. Please contact me with any thoughts, insights, and wisdom you can share!
Finally, everyone's situation and context is unique. Should you have questions you would like answered by in a professional and friendly manner I also offer professional support for your move back to Canada.
Welcome back to Canada! May your move be smooth, easy, and exciting!
Sincerely,
Paul Kurucz
We are in the news!
Leaving the U.S. to retire back to Canada? Some thoughts from Paul Kurucz and of a client are in this New York Times article! ...
read more.
And if you are planning to retire in Canada, check out the "Retiring in Canada" resource page on this site!
Latest News
Complicated times for Canadian Expatriates
These continue to be uncertain times for many Canadians living in the U.S. and further abroad. Canada is still perceived by most to be a "safe haven" but we, too, are experiencing very complicated times. Is this the right time to move back to Canada? Your context is unique, so the answer is one only you can determine. Here is an article that might help your considerations: "Should we move back to Canada in 2022?"
Please share your thoughts on your situation abroad and your considerations during these complicated times.
IMPORTANT: As the rules for arriving in Canada keep changing, keep a close eye on the CBSA web site for the most up-to-date arrival requirements information. Coming from the USA? Check the USA resources page of this web site for more news and resources specific to the your context.
Professional Support
Professional support is available for your real estate, tax, move timing, investments, logistics, and lifestyle questions when planning your move back to Canada.
Moving Back to Canada Planner
Now available for immediate download!
A comprehensive companion planner and checklist for moving back to Canada now available for immediate download:
How to use these Resources
Consider moving back to Canada:
Plan your return to Canada:
The planning steps are arranged by the amount of time you have leading up to your move. It starts 18 months before you move back.
Moving sooner than 18 months? No problem! Just work through all the steps to be sure you are ready. Scroll up to see links to all the time-based planning steps...
Learn from others:
Canadians around the world contribute their wisdom to this site. (Thank you!) Throughout the content you will find their insightful stories, ideas for consideration, and useful tips.
Can you share your own wisdom to help other expat Canadians?
Find answers to your specific questions:
Tax, real estate, health care, country-specific, FAQ's, and much more!
Here are the links to specific topics where you will find answers to many of your questions!
Professional help for your move:
Moving back to Canada is a major life transition for most people. I offer professional guidance for questions specific to your unique context, help you make sense of your options, and help you disolve any uncertainty and overwhelm about moving back so you can feel clear and confident!
Professional Support for your move back to Canada!
Why move back to Canada?
This question is easy for some to answer, but not so easy for others.
Common reasons for moving back to Canada:
- Your job or contract overseas ends.
- Your employer moves you back.
- You are tired of living abroad and want the familiarity of Canada again, especially when you retire (see the Retire in Canada page of this site!)
- You want to live a "Canadian" lifestyle again.
- You have family and friends to return home to.
- You want to raise your children in a Canadian context.
- You have an elderly parent to take care of.
- You need access to the public health care system in Canada.
- You have just gone through a relationship breakup and want to retreat and regroup in Canada.
Very common challenges in the decision making process:
Sometimes, a decision to move back or to stay abroad is not an easy one. Here are a few of the common challenges in the decision making process:
"My husband/wife can't find a job here. I am fine, but they are not happy here."
"My parents are getting old and I want to come back to Canada to take care of them. But my spouse's job is here overseas, my children are settled and doing well, and we have our friends and support group here."
"I have never felt fully at home here. Everything is "fine", but it is not Canada and not the culture I grew up with. I want to go "home" to what I knew when we left Canada."
"I want to move home to Canada but my spouse is from here and doesn't want to leave his home, family, culture, and country to move to Canada."
I hear these same themes many times a year in my work with clients and from stories offered by Canadians living abroad. Challenges such as the ones quoted above can cause couples and families a lot of stress.
There is no easy solution for most people, but one thing you can do is to use the discomfort of the situation to learn as an individual, couple, and family about what is important to you at this point in time. Exploring what you want life to look and feel like is a healthy process, often leading to exciting clarity on where you want to be in the world.
Some questions that might help:
- Why do you really want to move back to Canada right now?
- Are you running away from something or running to something in Canada?
- Where should you be right now for what you need to do in your life at this time?
Answering these questions in complete honesty (to yourself) will really help you understand what you want from life in Canada when you return. It may also help you decide if Canada is even the best place for you to move to right now!
To help you get started with your answers, here are some of the reasons people like being expatriates - why they like living away from their home country.
What will you miss from the expatriate lifestyle?
- Meeting amazing people
- Finally being away from home
- Having this once-in-a-life-time experience
- Realizing that things can be done differently
- Changing ourselves - yes we can
- Being out of our 'comfort zone'
- Realizing that not everything at 'home' is perfect
- Learning a new language properly
- Showing your visitors from home around your new hometown
- Being a font of knowledge on your home country
- Knowing how to cook differently ('Teach me to...')
- Being popular just because you're foreign (exotic) ('I loooove your accent')
- Becoming an absolute magnet to the opposite sex ('you're from LA? Wow!)
- Always having a conversation starter ('And where are you from?')
(Source: Linkedin, Trailing Spouse Network group,)
The ping-pong effect
My family and I experienced a peculiar situation and I have since heard from many people who have gone through it too. I call it the "ping pong effect". Here is how it happens:
You return to Canada and after a few months or a year find that life just isn't working out - you can't get a job you like, you don't fit in, your family doesn't fit in, you don't have a "tribe" here anymore, and/or you miss the international lifestyle.
So, you pack your bags and head off to another international assignment.
As of the writing of this, friends of ours are doing a "ping pong" back out of Canada, after spending a year finding that getting good work in their field in Canada is really a challenge.
We did the "ping pong" back out after 9 months in Canada and the U.S. and I almost cried the day I landed back overseas on my second gig. Going back overseas felt like going home.
Weird. But true.
Tanya explains how "wanderlust" took her family back abroad after moving back to Canada:
Before moving to the Middle East, my husband and I lived in Taiwan for 7 years. When we first arrived, we went to observe a teacher who was from Ottawa, our home city. We became fast friends and when we all moved back to Ottawa, we ended up buying townhouses right next to each other. Unfortunately (mostly for him) we have wanderlust and needed to travel and live abroad again! He takes every opportunity in the summer when we go back to visit to remind us of how we abandoned him!
(More insightful stories from returning Canadians are shared later in this section)
If you are not completely at peace with moving home to Canada but are making the move anyway because of the end of a contract that didn't get renewed, for example, consider a staged move back. I often advise my clients who are uncertain to consider a first stage of "wintering over" in Canada - a temporary move until they either find their "place" in Canada or decide to head back out again. Once they are clear on where they need to be next, they take another step in the return process. Don't make expensive decisions and final pronouncements unless you are really certain about moving back to Canada. Many of my clients have thanked me for this guidance! It allowed them to step through their return in a way that honoured who they were and what they needed at that time in their lives.
Not sure if a move back will be right for you?
Check out the "You moved back to Canada...and life is not working out well" resource page on this web site. It goes through a method for determining what went wrong and what you might do about it now that are you back in Canada.
While you are likely reading this before you return the resource may be helpful in determining if a move back is the best path foward at this time for you and your family.
Common profiles of returning Canadians
Here are 5 common profiles of Canadians moving back. I have seen these from long experience working with clients and from my own time living abroad. Please note that you may be an exception - many people are. If, however, you do find one that is close to your reality, it may help you have a more successful move back to Canada by clarifying your target state of mind, lifestyle, and goals.
A. "Ultra-organized". This person or couple knows exactly where they are moving to in Canada, they plan the whole move well, and they get what they want. Life tends to give you what you envision if you are laser-focused and very, very clear in your mind and heart. These returnees are generally happy when the move is over and their life is settled in Canada because they created their desired perfect lifestyle.
B. "Family move". Hope for a better future for their young children motivates this move. I have had many clients returning from the U.S. in 2019, 2020, and in 2021 for this reason. However, this also applies to families returning from all over the world and particularly from places that are in turmoil. Families with young children can generally create a great life in Canada because they "ground" their move in a foundation of family priorities and values, reflecting the life stage they are in. Note: Families with teenagers can find their move a bit more problematic simply due to the typically stronger need teenagers have of stability and peer bonding in those years.
C. "Career move". "Opportunity" and "timing" are the motivating factors for this returnee profile. Life presents an opportunity and it happens to be the right time to move back to Canada. Following an opportunity back to Canada results in a staged experience: First comes excitement, then reverse culture shock, and after a year or so a very positive life balance in Canada. Individuals and families alike experience symptoms of adjustment. What helps this group? A ton of careful consideration, planning, and personal support for themselves and each other after they arrive.
D. "Healthy Nomad". This individual or couple makes life happen through a combination of planning well, listening to their intuition, trusting things will work out, and being open to new experiences in a cheerful manner. This is a more "non-linear" return path but results in a life that delights them. Overall, this group is happiest in Canada the soonest because their cheerful "take-life-as-it-comes" attitude allows them to figure things out, find great people to connect with, adapt and grow personally, and create an meaningful life here. Hmmm...I bet this group would create an amazing life wherever they went in the world!
E. "A shot in the dark". Pushing away from something defines this group. Fear for their safety where they are, a divorce, a lost job, death of a spouse, etc. are reasons this group moves back to Canada, often to the locale they left or to where they have family living in Canada. This group sees Canada as "safe haven" and a place to retreat, rest, heal, and re-build their lives. Happiness for this group takes time as their move is not really about Canada but instead about ending one phase of their life and starting another. I honour the decisions people make to return to Canada when faced with real challenges in life. Canada is a great country to pause, re-group, heal, and prepare for your next steps in life.
Please share your thoughts on these profiles and your reason for moving back to help make this resource better! Thank you!
Why move back? Insightful stories from fellow Canadians:
Karin Q., generously sharing her experiences and where she finds herself after returning to Canada:
Hello, thank you for the informative site.
I'm a Toronto born woman visiting for two weeks near Toronto.
I admit I cried from relief reading this article...other people go through similar feelings? All mixed up inside and churning pros and cons around???
Now 39, wish I read this article when I was 20. Would have saved myself a lot of torment!
Visiting this week, I'm thinking what is important to me? What can I give, how and who to and where? Very hard questions.
I moved to The Netherlands in 2000, after I finished Uni in Toronto. Actually, six weeks after. This was for a variety of reasons, primarily running away from my Dutch born Mother's extreme mental health issues. (My father is Toronto born and raised). To add, living a life in the suburbs, getting away from people I thought I knew, being out of the potential rat race and not really wanting that 'good' house, car, job or having people close to me watch my progress in life were all reasons for seeking something more.
I never even once worried about finding myself with people who did not know me, and was almost proud to be 'new' or have that clout everywhere I went in Holland. Questions asked of me where not so much of where I was from but fresh questions about who I was. Loved it! And time with my Dutch family was great too. I got a great job at a European head office of a well-known American corporation.
It wasn't all good, and that's important to note. It's not easy when you start abroad, letting others help and support you with things you need to do that you think you should be able to handle. Mind you, the same could be said of returning to Canada...I should know!!! And as you go on, I've realized that the house, job and transportation still 'need' to happen somehow, and quickly, no matter where you are!
In 2007, I moved from my Dutch Uncle's house in Amsterdam, and a good job, now with a US clothing brand head office in Amsterdam, to a small village in North West of England, -------- for a guy. We had been to Canada together and enjoyed the same things. He was from ---------, worked in HR, loved gardening, was an only child, so very independent, everything seemed good. Then he went into his own business. I has okay jobs with marketing agencies and even managed an animal charity retail location working with awesome volunteers.
Despite my successes, I moved back to Canada in November 2015, after my Godmother, (she used to be in my life in my teens when things at home were not good and so now calls herself my Godmother) suggested it a year earlier. The economy in the UK was, honestly in a slump, my job with a charity paid very little, making ends meet was hard. --------, it turned out was not the marrying type, more long term but living separate as he looked after his parents at his childhood home.
I met a woman in her 80's in ---------- in 2014 who had grown up there, but moved with her husband to Ontario in the 1950's after they married. They raised two daughters who still live in Canada. She moved back with no friends and one brother in the -------- area. She told me once that her husband and her decided to retire in the UK, after he finished his career with CN Rail. Poor health kept him in Canada. Now on her own after his death a few years ago, she made the move on her own. A 'push' she said was her neighbour. Her neighbour asked how her husband was, as they had not seen him lately. He had been dead for thee months. She missed and really wanted what she had growing up. The familiarity of small-town Britain in the 40's. But it wasn't to be found. She now volunteers at a charity shop, and lives in a modern apartment complex.
Back to my story, where my decision to move back was helped when my Godmother said she would help support me. And I hadn't been 50+ years out of my birth country, only about 14.
Great I thought. I have lived overseas, I worked at awesome places, been travelling, know interesting people, now a promise of a good life in Canada. Maybe reconnect with my brother and his partner, and their three boys. Very awesome....
Not. With no experience of working in Canada, I was told my first week back at a job agency in Oakville, my job options in my field of business, Marketing, were far and few between. Start at the bottom. I received many thousands of dollars from my Godmother, but that went to near $0 in 8 months after looking for a job, buying a laptop, travelling around the Greater Toronto Area, rent to my brother-in-law for a room in their house for 6 months and deposit plus first month on a small studio apartment in Mississauga.
I found a job as a supervisor in a big box US chain store.
I was interviewed by Canada Immigration on two occasions as I stupidly did not realize or think (or want to think) to ask how to re-enter Canada after being away - and just literally asked for a renewal on a very expired Health Card....plus I was missing vital documents required to 'just pick up life' again. I don't know now what I expected, but it wasn't what I experienced. I needed a guarantor for EVERYTHING as I has no credit history in Canada. I was literally feeling like a broke criminal. No one was interested in my life over there, in the UK or Holland. I had even less contacts, no friends, an elderly Godmother making demands, and my brother's common law wife had her own life and friends and three boys, including twins with autism. Where was my head?
I left [Canada] with very little in two suitcases in 2017 back to --------. I cried for what seemed a week afterward back in the UK staying with --------'s parents. At 37, I felt I should be settled, married or something more than what I was. ------------ called a time out on our relationship. I found a job relatively quickly with a European Sports Retailer Head office as a Manager in Customer Care. Starting again is not easy. Brexit looms, as a dual citizen with Holland, what does that mean for me?...and coming into a work environment where almost everyone worked with someone in past roles with other companies in call centre work, not to mention the grey weather...lack of any Dutch or Canadian familiarities that bring contentment...even for a short period, it's stressful.
It's 2019, and I feel like I need to be back in Canada to help my Godmother as she is forgetful, in poor health. She is so very angry I left her in 2017 after her support. My dad's mom, 92, did not recognize me last week on a visit. But two years ago, in early 2017, she had driven me for lunch to a local restaurant! Should I be here to see her while she's with us?
I realized I could have stayed and made it in 2017, if I had just noted down this website’s suggestion of being honest with myself. What am I looking for? What can I accept and what is I can offer and where? How do I make what I want a reality...thinking with the head not heart is just denial. People moving back should never ever assume that experience, new exciting exotic people or travelling is a passport to a life back in Canada. Canada may seem familiar, but it too will have moved on.
And you still have to wake up, pay bills, taxes and get in 8 hours of work a day, thinking about dinner.
Gosh, what a mess. My 'Godmother' only retired to Canada in her late 40s after her life in Germany because her husband thought it would be a great thing to do. Now 81, she wants to go back to Germany as her husband died last year and she does not like Canada but she says finding a life back in Germany after 30 years would be hard. Her family in ------- has promised to help, but she is realistic that that promise may well be gone after a few months.
Do I want to be in a home at 90, if I'm here that long, and think, "Well, I should have been there for family..." or "Why didn't I just run off to a small village in Holland and do what I wanted in life?"
I love being different. I love being the one in the office who can correct people on things North American, or talk to the Dutch colleagues. But family and what I want are pulling me apart. If I could afford it, I'd be a year or two in Canada and a year or two elsewhere.
The novelty of people asking where in the world are you? wears off pretty fast!!
Thank you, Karin for generously sharing your truth with readers here. It will make a real difference to those in similar situations.
Home | Share your story! | Get help - Professional Support for your planning and move south!
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Would you like help with your move?
Would you like help with your move?
I offer professional support to help you prepare for a smooth and easy return to Canada so you can feel confident and organized!
Your questions about when to move back, taxes, investments and finances, bringing back your household belongings, health care, and more will be answered promptly and professionally, with resources to back up what you need. My 18 years of supporting over 1,300 clients gives me a depth of expertise across all aspects of planning and returning to Canada.
Paul Kurucz - Canada
A happy client:
Hi Paul,
Just to update you - we landed and sailed through customs! So thank you so much for all of your advice...It was a thoroughly pleasant experience.
This is to say thank you for everything. Your advisory has been so incredibly helpful and saved us considerable time and removed room for error.
With best wishes,
Caroline
Paul's professional support
Moving Back to Canada Planner!
A ready-made and up-to-date planner of questions, considerations, and actions to take as you prepare for your move back to Canada, organized on a timeline approach. Save hours of work and stress of trying to piece everything together. A companion tool to the full content on this web site.
Now available for immediate download. In easily editable Microsoft Word format so you can customize it to meet your planning needs. Also in PDF format.
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