Just as in November of 2016, there were reports that Canada’s immigration site crashed again last week as it became clear that the angry orange one had enough votes to occupy the White House, this time as a twice-impeached convicted felon even. Since it’s clear my countrymen enjoy electing someone more unhinged and less qualified than they are, I’m sure the site will continue to struggle with inquiries from Americans asking about moving to Canada.
But if you’re looking to move abroad, there are a lot better options where you won’t freeze your butt off. You don’t have to say goodbye to the sun the majority of the year. There are a couple dozen countries where your cost of living can go down by half or more.
It’s also a lot easier to get residency in a country where they’re actively recruiting foreigners who can support themselves. As opposed to Canada, where they’d be perfectly happy if no more Yanks came into their polite, calm, and stress-free embassies, thank you very much.
In some places you don’t even need to bother if you don’t want to commit. You can stay in Mexico, Costa Rica, or Peru for 180 days at a time, then turn around and do it again later after you’ve taken a vacation elsewhere. In Argentina you can keep renewing your three-month visa for years with a same-day border hop. You can stay in Albania for a year on a tourist visa or get a five-year digital nomad visa in Thailand now.
Better Weather, Better Prices
Have you ever met anyone who moved to a colder place when they retired? On purpose?
I’m sure it has happened now and then when an aging parent wanted to be closer to kids who have moved, but why would anyone do it otherwise? Most of the time people want to move somewhere warm and sunny, to a place where they don’t have to shovel snow and bundle up their creaky body when they leave the house.
Fortunately for we Americans who are tired of living among 75 million racists who wouldn’t know what good economic news looks like unless it was a piano crashing on their head, we’ve got lots of warm and inexpensive options out there around the world. If you’re of retirement age, it’s easy to get residency in plenty of places on multiple continents, with an income requirement that’s paltry by USA standards.
Even if you’re younger though, you’ve got lots of choices. I got legal residency in Mexico, as did my wife, and it wasn’t all that daunting. You probably know someone else who has done it if you ask around. It’s a whole lot easier than moving to Canada.
Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Ecuador are countries ready to welcome you and your bank account with residency incentives and new ones like El Salvador keep popping up. It’s a little more involved on other continents, especially in Europe, but with patience and some money you can get it done.
In these countries you can easily live on half what you’re spending now. Prices are half or less for key budget items like housing, utilities, health care, transportation, food, and labor. You can often live a life that would require a lot more wealth in the USA on two social security checks. For that amount you can eat out regularly, have a housekeeper, go to cultural performances, and travel locally every month. If you’re a family still earning in dollars or euros, you can have a nanny and a driver on demand.
You can see real examples of prices residents are really paying in the e-book, paperback, or audiobook of A Better Life for Half the Price. Check out the Cheap Living Abroad site for more info.
Go Try a Place Out on a Trial Run
As I repeatedly advise on here and in the book, however, you really need to try a destination out and live like a resident for a while before making a major life commitment. In the cheapest places to live in the world you can usually stay a couple months on a tourist visa if you’re American, sometimes four months or more.
Go rent an apartment in a real neighborhood. Take some language classes. Shop at the local markets. Take local transportation. If you still love it after a couple months, you’ve probably found a good spot. One where you can forget about all the troubles you leave behind when you move out of the USA.
That book is the best easy button if you don’t want to spend countless hours going down dead-end rabbit holes on the internet and I offer group calls and consulting packages if you want to get your questions answered quickly. If you’re looking for free info while you try to decide though, I’ve written about this subject a lot and appeared in media articles and on podcasts to provide advice.
On this blog, start here with this category of articles: International Living and Working
If moving to Canada is high on your list for some specific reason, like relatives or a love of maple syrup, then by all means start the very long and daunting process to accomplish your goal. I would suggest talking to a dozen Canucks to get their take though before going down this road. They’re not thrilled about their politics, their health care, or the cost of living these days either.
Otherwise, if you’d like a path of lower resistance and lower prices to boot, check out A Better Life for Half the Price instead.
Curious about this subject but not ready to make plans yet? Get on my Cheap Living Abroad insiders list and get a monthly newsletter with updates.
carl
Saturday 23rd of November 2024
Specifically, what crime did he commit? I keep hearing he is a felon but never what specific felony he was charged with and why he was found guilty of it. Are there any victims of these felonies that he needs to make restitution to?
Lisa
Sunday 24th of November 2024
@carl, I assume you are just trying to be provocative since his felonies are well documented in 1000s of news sources worldwide. So are the impeachments, the attempt to reverse his election loss in Georgia, the classified documents he stored in his house, etc. Those cases are still ongoing. Apparently 72 million Americans are fine with all that, including the bible thumpers with WWJD bumper stickers who don't see the irony.
Wade Kilpatrick
Tuesday 19th of November 2024
I'm proudly conservative, and I also am interested in living overseas. Have spent serious time in 14 countries. Helping my 85 year old dad out so not going anywhere for awhile. But if I do it won't be to a liberal American enclave. I have no desire to listen to people call us racists. The country was terribly mismanaged the last four years and if you can't see the harm done then you might as well live elsewhere. You'll just have to find out the hard way that there's no perfect place. Certainly not if you're looking for half the costs of the U.S. The writer of this blog is selling you on an idea but unless you have enough income to live where things work well you'll have to make compromises. Wish you well.
Tim Leffel
Friday 22nd of November 2024
@Wade Kilpatrick, You're really on a roll this week with swallowing the misinformation campaigns and political ads. They obviously worked for you and many others. Actual facts here: https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/undocumented-immigrant-offending-rate-lower-us-born-citizen-rate
Current election count: the angry orange one is up by 2.5 million votes and has garnered 5 million votes less than Biden did in 2020. He only got slightly more votes than he did as the loser that year. Low turnout overall was the deciding factor more than anything it looks like.
I was one of the smart ones who got out though the last time chaos reigned and he tried to hold onto power with a coup attempt. The whole point of this article is to help escape too, the right way. Read someone else's blog that won't challenge your false views if your feathers are ruffled.
There's already been enough misinformation left in these comments, so future ones will be deleted. No more muddy shoes in my house.
Joseph
Friday 22nd of November 2024
@Wade Kilpatrick, You clearly need to get your news from more reputable sources. "The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.
And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership."
There was no turning back after that. The remaining soldiers were toast. You can confirm this in any legit news publication, but here's one place you might want to compare to your propaganda sources: https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/
Wade Kilpatrick
Thursday 21st of November 2024
@Tim Leffel, Hey Tim, Trump arranged an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan. Had a timeline. When Biden came in he completely changed what Trump had atranged. For example Trump had us withdrawing when the Taliban were working their fields. Biden it changed it to when they were in their "fighting season." Biden withdrew air support from the Afghan troops allowing the Taliban to overrun the country. Biden had our troops leave in the middle of the night, stranding well over 1000 Americans and tens of thousands of our Afghan allies who we had promised to protect along with their families. The outcry was such that Biden returned to evacuate people. The Taliban offered to let him have control of Kabul while evacuating but he said he only needed the airport. That allowed a suicide bomber to get right up next to our troops. And Biden left $85 billion in military arms and equipment in Afghanistan which the Taliban gladly took. How you have concluded Trump left a mess to clean up is beyond me.
Where's the propaganda? Biden let in more than 10 million illegally and quite a few of them have committed heinous crimes. The rape and murder of Laken Riley in Georgia was a major factor in Trump winning that stat.
And convicted of what? Made up garbage with the intent to derail Trump's candidacy. Just so you know I didn't vote for Trump in the 2016 primary. His personality grates on me. But I liked his policies very much as president and I think he'll do a good job. If we have a secure border, lower costs, less crime, smaller government, and a more peaceful world then that will be much better than what Biden gave us. There's a reason why Trump won the presidency and why there was much less enthusiasm among Democrats so they stayed home. The only thing y'all have to run on is abortion and if anyone disagrees with your point of view they're racists. Trump made big inroads into the minority communities too because many of them are tired of identity politics that never solves their problems. They want jobs and safe communities like everyone else. Democrats haven't delivered.
Good luck and God Bless
Wade Kilpatrick
Tuesday 19th of November 2024
@Jerry, Try letting in over ten million unvetted illegal aliens over four years. How many women and girls must be raped and murdered before Democrats will admit they made a mistake? We have a legal immigration system for a reason. And inflation may have slowed down but prices are still high. No big deal if you make good money but tell that to people with poor paychecks trying to support a family. Tell us about how badly the withdrawal from Afghanistan was bungled? Tell us about forcing people to choose between getting vaccinated or losing their jobs and then the vaccines aren't even effective. How about weaponizing the DOJ against the president's chief rival. I can come up with more but you guys cheerlead when someone calls 75 million Trump supporters racists but how dare we point out the reasons why we support Trump.
Jerry
Tuesday 19th of November 2024
@Wade Kilpatrick, What in the world are you using as a criteria for this?! "The country was terribly mismanaged the last four years and if you can’t see the harm done then you might as well live elsewhere." There's nowhere for the economy to go from here but down after these record breaking four years. Every major stat you can look at broke new records and inflation is back down to where it was in 2019. The stock market hit a new high 30+ times and there has been close to full employment. If this was mismanagement, I would like some more please!
Rav
Tuesday 19th of November 2024
As a mixed race Canadian I received surprised reactions when I said Trump could win back in 2016 and again in 2024. After he won I watched, and continued to watch, a lot of new media and no half the voters are not deplorable or racist or sexist. And no being woke is not a mind virus.
America is still America. Not much changed except what was swept under the rug was brought out into the open.
When I visited the US my experience was no different regardless of the political climate. There was no increase in anything negative towards me. I’ve experienced more racism in Canada but I realize there is a difference between visiting vs. living.
Hang in there Americans. Your country is still great (or a shit hole…. Joke, thats a Trump joke! Look it up.).
The sky has not fallen. Your neighbour, server, colleagues and friends are still the same people. How you relate to them is up to you.
Nancie
Friday 15th of November 2024
In some ways, I'm glad you are casting such a negative light on Canada. I'm a Canadian who came back to Canada after 18 years in Asia. I'm happy here, knowing I can travel half the year and keep my universal health and [now] dental care. It's November 15th and we are just now starting to feel some cold temps, nothing most of us can't live with. Is Canada expensive? It can be, but it doesn't have to be. I live comfortably on two grand a month in the most historic town in the country. This area is also warmer than many parts of Canada. Remember climate change? For us Canadians, the winters are getting shorter and the summers longer. Lots of people are still moving to my province. I wouldn't be overly sad if that eased up. However, I enjoy meeting and getting to know newcomers. Are they going to have a doctor when they arrive? Probably not, but there are options available while waiting. Grocery prices are high at the moment, and [sadly] the influx of people from other Canadian provinces and around the world has made purchasing real estate a challenge for the locals. However, it's very doable to live in Canada on a modest income and be happy, and for the most part, we are welcoming. Stay away from the big cities! :)
Tim Leffel
Monday 18th of November 2024
Thanks for sharing your input Nancie. I appreciate a view from the other side!
Tim
Thursday 14th of November 2024
There are reasons many of these countries are cheaper than Canada: political instability, rampant corruption, Dengue Fever, Malaria, general sanitation...
Ian
Friday 15th of November 2024
@Tim, political instability and rampant corruption? I bet it's less than what they're facing if they stay put. What the author clearly fails to realise is most Americans looking at Canada could not care less about the weather as long as they can speak with the locals without the hassle of learning a new language and still get fast food at the drive-thru.
Jason
Thursday 14th of November 2024
@Tim, As opposed to gray skies, boring food, expensive beer, overpriced housing, and no beaches? Keep living the dream up there bud!