Americans can’t expect to just move to Canada

Permanent residency slow to process and refugee claims must include persecution

For our heartbroken neighbours to the south who can’t stomach living in a country with Donald Trump as president, Canadian immigration experts have some advice for you: Don’t expect to just pack up and move to Canada. It’s not as easy as you think. “There is no fast way to come here as permanent residents,” said Toronto immigration lawyer Robin Seligman, former president of the Canadian Bar Association’s immigration section.

How about political asylum for Democrats disgusted by the Republican President-elect, and his partydominated Senate and House of Representatives?

“Don’t even think about it. They won’t be able to make refugee claims here for persecution based on race, religion, nationalities and political opinions,” added Seligman. “You have to prove you are targeted and you suffer from that persecution.”

As the U.S. election results rolled in Tuesday night, so many people south of the border were trying to access Canada’s immigration department website that the server crashed.

According to immigration spokesperson Remi Lariviere, the website became temporarily inaccessible “as a result of a significant increase in the volume of traffic.”

Visits to the website from U.S. Internet providers have been rising steadily, peaking at 1.7 million clicks in March. Last month, some1.06 million hits came from U.S. browsers, up 21 per cent from 879,428 a year ago.

While immigration experts don’t expect a huge exodus from the U.S. in the wake of Trump’s victory, some people are seriously thinking about heading north.

“Everyone is talking about going to Canada. It is my plan,” said Wendy Ramirez, who joined her undocumented parents in Houston from Mexico City in 2000, when she was 8. She graduated from the University of Houston in biology a year ago and now works in a hospital.

“The election was too much to watch. We’re so disappointed and there is no word to explain it. We are at a loss right now,” added the 25year-old, who was able to stay in the U.S. because of Barack Obama’s 2014 move to defer deportation for millions of illegal immigrants.

“Getting deported is very real now,” said Ramirez, who has already made inquiries about coming to Canada for graduate school or as a skilled immigrant.

If history is to repeat itself, University of Toronto professor Nelson Wiseman said Canada does not have to worry about an influx of American exiles fleeing a U.S. regime change.

Canada did not experience a spike in U.S. migration in 2004, in the wake of George W. Bush’s re-election, said Wiseman, who teaches political science and is the director of U of T’s Canadian studies program.

Immigration from the U.S. only went up by 15 per cent to 9,463 in 2006, from 8,394 in 2005, the first full year of Bush’s second term, peaking at 10,190 in 2008, when Obama was elected.

“You can’t just want to move and get in. It’s a big decision. It makes good headlines, good storylines, but people don’t act on it. You have your family, your job. What are you going into?” Wiseman said.

Options for permanent residency to Canada are plenty: skilled immigrants, provincial nominee programs and Canadian experience class — all require some sort of work experience here and job offers, as well as spousal sponsorships (if you are married or in a common-law relationship with a Canadian).

For those looking for a temporary break from four years of Trump governance, there are other options as foreign students and temporary foreign workers on work permits.