More Americans are searching online about moving to Canada. But will they come here?

In the last few weeks, there has been a surge in the number of Americans searching online about moving to Canada and recent political events appear to have been a major catalyst.

But will they follow through?

Immigration lawyers say it's a difficult question to answer, but they are already starting to see an uptick in U.S. citizens contacting their offices for help.

According to Google Trends, searches for "move to Canada" started spiking in the U.S. last month.

The biggest uptick was on June 28, one day after President Joe Biden faced off with former President Donald J. Trump in a highly anticipated televised debate. Biden was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for fumbling the debate and giving Trump an early win in the high-stakes campaign.

A screenshot of Google Trends on July 16, 2024, shows spikes in online searches in the U.S. about moving to Canada following major political events in the last few weeks. (Source: Google)

Another rise in Google searches from the States came on July 2, following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling that handed Trump broad immunity from prosecution for actions within his constitutional powers.

A third spike in searches about moving north came last Sunday, the day after the attempted assassination of Trump, who was shot while speaking at a rally in Butler, Penn.

Feeling unsafe, American man wants to settle in Quebec with his family

Gun violence in America — declared by the U.S. surgeon general last month as a public health crisis — is one of the main reasons why Kyle, an American citizen living in the New York area, has been seriously considering moving to Canada, and has his eyes set on Quebec.

Kyle (a pseudonym) says he feels less safe as an openly gay man living in the U.S. and wants to bring his husband and their son to live in Canada. He spoke to CTV News on the condition that his identity remains confidential. (CTV News)

In an interview on Tuesday, he said the windows of his five-year-old son's school were hit with bullets after hours when a man was gunned down in the parking lot last March. He said it was the fourth time his son’s schools have been exposed to gun violence. 

"There are millions of parents across the country that hug their kids as they drop them off and wonder if that's the last time they're going to see them alive," he said, with his voice breaking. "And it should not be that way."

Kyle is a pseudonym. He agreed to be interviewed on the condition that his real name not be published because of privacy concerns since he says he's feeling less safe living in the U.S. as an openly gay man raising a child with his husband — another reason why he wants to leave.

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"I came to New York in order to escape growing up in the midwest, and it's not far enough," he said.

"People like me, people like my husband, are going to be persecuted for who we are as Democrats, as non-Christians. I am an atheist, my husband is a Buddhist. We're two men raising a child. My partner is an immigrant of Chinese descent and nothing about us is what this new Trump America is supposed to be."

Kyle, who works in the film and media industry, is in the process of trying to move north but is learning that the immigration process for people in his situation is not a swift one.

"If we had a choice to pack up the car and leave tonight we would," he said, but "the skill sets that we have are not at the top of the list for what Canada is looking for right now."

More Americans asking about moving to Canada, immigration lawyers say

His situation doesn't surprise Barbara Jo Caruso, the co-president of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers' Association, since she said immigrating is such a competitive process.

"First, you have to qualify, and it sounds like [he] had the requisite education, probably language skills and work experience, but then you have to be invited to apply. And that becomes a much more competitive pool of candidates. And again, being younger is a leg up and already being in Canada with a work permit will give you a significant advantage," Caruso said.

Barbara Jo Caruso, co-president of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers' Association, said some of the people from the U.S. who reach out for immigration help cite the upcoming presidential election in November. (CTV News)

She said she has been seeing a slight rise in the number of Americans reaching out with immigration questions.

"Generally, there's usually a statement that they're not pleased with the direction things are going in the United States," she said, noting that the increase is not as high as it was during the 2016 election cycle that put Trump in the White House.

Back then, Canada's citizenship and immigration website crashed due to a huge spike in web traffic from the U.S. as results from the presidential election rolled in.

Montreal immigration lawyer Jean-Philippe Brunet said he has also seen a slight increase in the number of Americans recently contacting his firm, Galileo Partners, asking how to move to Canada for work-related reasons but also reasons that are "election-related."

"They're inquiring because they're worried about the current state of the election where it's very charged on both sides. For most people, it's finding a way to have a calm family life, I reckon. A lot of them are inquiring or confirming that they know that in Canada there is peace from a social standpoint," said Brunet, who has been an immigration lawyer for nearly 30 years.

"We see an uptrend but it's not huge. Will we see more … because of the events of last weekend? Potentially."

Montreal immigration lawyer Jean-Philippe Brunet said his firm has been getting more requests from Americans looking to move to Canada in recent weeks. (CTV News)

The "Americans Living in Canada" Facebook group, which offers investment and tax advice for Americans living in or moving to Canada, is seeing the same spike in interest from abroad.

Its membership requests started to rise after the June 27 CNN debate and then they surged significantly after the July 13 Trump shooting in Pennsylvania.

The number of requests to join the 'Americans Living in Canada' group on Facebook surged following the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump on July 13, 2024. (Source: Phil Hogan)

Phil Hogan, one of the group's administrators, said members are largely on the left side of the political spectrum who want to move to Canada for different reasons, including "political instability" and "LGBTQ human rights issues," among others. 

"Moving to Canada if Trump gets elected again — this is the main one now," Hogan wrote in an email to CTV News.

It's not only Americans, though, who have an interest in changing area codes. Data from the U.S. census showed that more than 126,000 people moved from Canada to the U.S. in 2022, marking a 70 per cent increase from the previous year. Immigration lawyer Len Saunders told CTV News last month that he belives the main reason is housing affordability in the States. 

Not an easy process

Interest in moving doesn't always translate into packing up the suitcase.

Immigration lawyers like Brunet say a large proportion of the inquiries he gets don't eventually pan out for a number of reasons, including the specific qualification requirements, the unattractive tax system in Canada, and the federal government's foreign buyer ban on Canadian homes. 

"Even now, Quebec has the only program in Canada for immigrant investors. It's limited, mainly addressed to francophones, and it takes quite a while to process. It takes years to process, certainly not months and certainly not before the integration of either President Biden's second term or President Trump's second term.

It can take more than four years to process applications under Quebec's investor program, according to an estimate on the Government of Canada's website.

Brunet said obtaining permanent residence can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. To be eligible for Canadian citizenship, an individual needs to be physically in Canada for 1,095 days within a five-year period. Applications can take a few months to more than a year to process after that, he said.

As Kyle navigates Canada's immigration system, he feels like time is running out and more of his fellow Americans will be looking to Canada in November.

"We are under threat, we are in jeopardy," Kyle said, "there are lots of us, there are going to be more of us."