If I go to Canada can I retire there and draw SS from the US? Also can I go to Canada buy a cabin or house with a plot of land and not work? Unless I just needed some walking around money?
If I go to Canada can I retire there and draw SS from the US? Also can I go to Canada buy a cabin or house with a plot of land and not work? Unless I just needed some walking around money?
You can't just move to Canada. You need to meet specific requirements to get a residence permit or be sponsored by family who already lives there.
It's easier for Canada to enforce these sort of requirements as they have about 12% of the population of the US. Americans are not moving to Canada in mass numbers like Mexico.
We have a housing problem and the government is actively reducing immigration targets (that’s you moving here permanently) and curbing foreign property investment (that’s you buying property here).
It’s not a great time for you to make this move.
According to Google you can live in Canada and collect US social security benefits. You will probably have to pay taxes in both countries though, especially if you're still working. To become a Canadian citizen you have to live there permanently and pay taxes for at least three years before you can even be considered for citizenship and even then it looks like there is a lot of other stuff you have to do
Keep in mind too that social security benefits aren't that much. Unless you've already saved enough to pay off this "cabin or house" up front, then you'll most likely be paying a mortgage, property taxes, you'll need money for utilities and groceries, AND you'll be paying taxes to both the US and Canada. Unless you're already independently wealthy then you'll probably have to get either a full time or part time job.
The only way I can see this working the way you've described is if you're already of retirement age and can also collect a pension from a job you already have that could help supplement your social security benefits maybe
Good luck getting a permanent residence in Canada if you are of retirement age. Even above 30 it's pretty dicey unless you're at the top of a professional field and get sponsored by an employer or a university.
Unless you come in on an investor visa. For which you will need to put in, I think, $150,000 as an interest free 10 year bond.
Yeah. There isn't anything in Canada that is conducive to retirement. Cost of living in cities matches that of higher cost of living cities in the USA. Canadian health care is better, but I don't know how health care for residents is compared to Medicare in the USA.
If anything, more Americans are beginning to retire in Mexico as the cost of living is significantly lower and paying cash in the Mexican health care system is equivalent to Medicare in the USA.
Unless you are planning to live off the land you will have expenses: groceries, utilities, maintenance, etc. You will have to pay taxes to the us, and likely to Canada too.
But what if I renounce the US?
Having moved to Canada as a 23 y-o with a valuable (NAFTA approved) skill set that got me a quick but temporary work visa. Hahahahaha. No.
At the time, the process for landed immigrant status took 2 years and $1,500 in 1996 money (neither of which I had to spare).
My best advice is to look at the official immigration website. If you feel like there's some special loophole, consult an immigration lawyer from Canada. It will be worth the money, even if they can simply spell out the reasons why you shouldn't waste your time.
Also - good luck finding housing in Canada. It was bad in 1996 and hasn't gotten better.
Someone once told me they will pay you to move to Alaska. So maybe just get buddy buddy with an oil company.