I a born American , however after I get married I plan on moving to Toronto Canada. Will things b different?

Question

I plan on getting married begining of next year, however I fear that moving to Canada will be very different. I've visited Toronto many times in my life, but never lived there. I'm worried that it will be a huge change for me. If anyone has done this or knows of anything that I should know before moving please help me out. Thanks

Answer 1

I am originally from Toronto, now living in North Carolina, but I travel back to Toronto several times a year. Toronto is a great city, with everything from sports, to Broadway, to lake activities. There are poor, middle class, and rich areas of Toronto. The poor or less fortunate areas are Regent Park, North York and Scarborough. Another person said these areas are dangerous at night, which is true but crime in Toronto is considerably lower than most other North American cities, but there has been a lot of drug and gun crime in these areas of the city lately.

Middle class areas are Old Toronto (North end, West end, South end, ect), Etobicoke, York, Mississauga, Ajax, and several others.

The rich areas of Toronto are Rosedale, and the town of Oakville, which is basically a big suburb of Toronto. Waterfront homes in Oakville range from a minimum of $500,000 to 60 million. The 60 million dollar house was recently sold by the CEO of John Deer Canada.

Toronto is probably one of the most "Americanized" cities in Canada. Canadian and American culturs are very much the same, and Canada and the United States are probably the two most similar countries in the world. You can just about anything that you could find in any large American city, be it a fast food restaurant, a car dealership, a Wal Mart, or a specific store. Even most of the TV channels are American, CNN, The CW, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, are all available as standard channels in Canada.

You will often see many American flags hanging beside the Canadian flags at many office towers and business complex’s in Toronto, as many of the companies in Toronto have connections to other companies in the United States, or are even American companies themselves in Canada. An example of this is Bank of America, which has a tall sky scraper near Rogers Center (were the Blue Jays play). Here is a picture if you want to see for yourself:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravegedmonkey/188531494/

Moving to Toronto will not be much of a change for you. Trust me. Sort of like moving from Chicago to Philadelphia. Probably the biggest and only biggest difference from the US is that you get free healthcare in Canada, but the result of that is higher taxes. If your coming from a small town, then it may be a shock because it's a big city. It would be a shock moving from Canonsburg Pennsylvania (a small town with a population of less than 200,000) to a place like New York. Same culture, but a different lifestyle. If you feel you must, just take a couple more trips to Toronto.

- Hope this helps, and good luck with yor marriage and move to Toronto

Answer 2

I married a Canadian did the immigration thing I came back. You may too. Unless you hate the US it won't be easy. The adore bashing US ditto with the media.

If you still want to apply for immigration outside not inside of Canada. Many women go do the inside Canada app and have no legal rights and are abuse by the men.

To learn more go to the official imm site at www.cic.gc.ca read the manual and policies very well.

Looks like the Us but is Canada.

PS the medical there is worse than our free medicaid programs in the USA. You do not pick a dr, shortages and all that, they pick and interview you!

Long waiting list for routine medical testing that is done instantly in the US ie MRI, some surgeries, you name. I was horrified to see how the elderly are treated. The would not allow her to have the drugs for a stroke given here to stave off the affects of stroke. The dr mdx a simple infection there. I have a long list.

read more at www.settlement.org as well just for Ontario immigration.

yes get read for the COST taxes at 14 per and junk food cost 22 percent. I am not joking.

gas is more, food is more they charge for parking in apts. no low rise apts, if you are from a burb you will not like it. the us is mostly a burb sorta place!

Answer 3

Do you currently (or have you ever) lived in one of the major US cities? Toronto has it's bad spots and it's good spots (just like any city) but if you have lived in a major city in the US than you should be fine. Our money may take a bit of getting used to if you have always used US money when you visited Canada but it's not all that complex either.

Depending on where you live in the US, the temperatures might be a bit different. However, if you've lived in the northern states, there won't be any difference there either. Also, don't be overly surprised if you don't have snow for your first Christmas in Toronto. I have spent many Christmas' without snow...however it normally arrives within a couple of days of then.

Answer 4

Different how? It's a new city, but you're at least somewhat familiar with it, having visited it many times. It's a new country, too, but english is still the main language, and US and Canadian cultures are similar enough that you should be able to adapt without too much trouble. Of course there are differences, but that's part of what would make a move like this exciting and fun!

You will retain your US citizenship, obviously. I don't know what Canadian law requires you to do as far as working, registering periodically, etc. I'd check with the US consulate or embassy office in Toronto, and ask them for help.

Answer 5

There is adjustment wherever you go......and Toronto, Canada is not ANOTHER planet.....we do things differently but it's all the same.

You'll love the multi-culturalism in Toronto.......that's what we're known for and the cleanliness.....(or somewhat clean sometimes!) And we have a lot of resources available to help newcomers. So you won't be a lost soul.

Here is the Government of Canada Website to find out all the information you need.

Answer 6

all these people are saying Toronto is "all that". It's a clean city with friendly people, but like any other city it's got a slimey dirty part filled with gangs and druggies, AKA: Scarborough, which is Toronto's version of the Bronx . DO NOT go there at night or you will have a good 70% chance of being shot, raped, mugged, ect. Gun crimes are high in Scarborough area.

There are many cultures in Toronto, but you want to avoid certain areas. Some areas are filled with Pakistanis who think they own the place, and I swear that's were all these North American terror groups are located. So stay away from those areas . . . you will know once you've seen it, usually on Dundas Street.

Toronto and basically all of Southern Ontario is America Junior, infact Southern Ontario is surrounded by Michigan, Ohio, and New York State, except for a bit of the nothern part which is the only connection for Southern Ontario to the rest of Canada.

Toronto is just like Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, all those places. Tons of McDonald's and Wendy's, huge shopping malls with Abercrombie, AE, all that crapola. Everything in Toronto is just like in the U.S.A.

Answer 7

Start with the link. It'll be a long process. There are almost 1 million US citizens living in Canada these days.

Answer 8

Every American I know who has made the decision to move here has told me that they love it, and I don't think they regret their decision.

you might have to put up with the odd Yankee joke and learn to spell neighbor, liquor, and color with a "u", but we're really laid back and happy to have newcomers come join us for a beer. You'll pretty much have all the same tv shows, except we have Grey's Anatomy on at a different time than Survivor so you can actually watch both.

Also, you'll be more annoyed when Bush interrupts Grey's for a presidential address because it doesn't have anything (or at least, as much) to do with you.

But I predict you will have fun!

I will warn you, though: Canadians refer to "whole" milk as "homo" milk, which throws people off, I think.

Answer 9

Not much to know?? Toronto is a good place to live.

Answer 10

We Canadians are the friendliest people around...come on up and join us... We love everyone..
.btw
we don't fight...
we are peace keepers.. that should tell you something lol