Journey of a Trump Refugee
El Viaje de un Refugiado de Trump
Le Voyage d'un Réfugié de Trump

More and more of the friends I have made from Canadian immigration whatsapp groups are landing and/or moving over these days! Here are my pointers on what to do in the first days after landing. Note that some of this is Toronto-specific but hopefully will still be helpful for those settling elsewhere. Quarantine - COVID-19 update  as of November 2020 The COVID-19 situation changes constantly; check this page for the travel situation , this  page for current updates and announcements , a comprehensive page of links to governmental resources and updates . As of November 2020, anyone arriving in Canada from outside the country must quarantine for 14 days . Be sure to plan for your quarantine ahead of time. You will need to stay in your lodging the entire time; you are not allowed to go out even to get food or take a walk. When you arrive at the airport, you will be asked specifics about your plans for quarantine and where you will be staying. Many people have also been called on...

TD Bank is a great resource for US expatriates and anyone living in Canada who has a nontrivial amount of US dollars. Some people have asked me specifics about accounts at TD Bank, so I decided to write this post. I have the following accounts with TD: TD Canada U.S. Daily Interest Chequing Account TD US TD Convenience Checking TD Preferred Savings with Rate Bump The Details TD Canada Two US currency account choices are available: The U.S. Daily Interest Chequing Account officially has no minimum balance, but a minimum balance of $1500 is needed to avoid being charged a fee of $1.25 per transaction. The Borderless Plan requires a $3000 minimum balance to avoid monthly fee. Additional perks include free bank drafts and better exchange rates, but the exchange rates are still very bad compared to those of the currency exchange companies described in my other post , so I don't care about the better exchange rates. TD US I like TD Convenience Checking...

Summary Updated November 2020: I have opened accounts with the following banks so far: BMO - first year free of monthly fees for newcomers. Builder savings account with decent interest rates. https://www.bmo.com/main/personal/newcomers-to-canada/ HSBC - first year free of monthly fees for newcomers, $500 cash bonus for depositing $10,000 and signing up for online banking within a month. Message me to get an additional $100 refer a friend bonus. http://www.hsbc.ca/celebrate Tangerine - online bank. Savings account gives 2.75% 2.5% 2.15% (as of November 2020) interest for the first 6 months and 1.2% 0.2% 0.15% (as of November 2020) after. No fee chequing account . Use my referral code 53568186S1 to get an additional $50 signup bonus. https://www.tangerine.ca/en/products/saving/savings-accounts/ EQ Bank - online savings account with an ongoing 2.3% 1.7% 1.5% (as of November 2020) interest rate, but you cannot keep more than $200,000 in the account...

I did a lot of research and made some mistakes on currency exchange in my first few weeks in Canada. Since I only had US dollars, all my research was based on getting the best rate for converting US dollars to Canadian dollars, and this post is written from that point of view, but all the currency exchange companies mentioned exchange a variety of currencies, so hopefully those of you exchanging from other currencies will also benefit from the information below. Summary If I have a small amount of US cash to convert, I post on kijiji or craigslist to find someone local to exchange cash with at the official rate . If I can't find anyone or need to convert a large amount (more than a few thousand dollars), I check rates at all the currency exchange places described below but usually end up going with Knightsbridge . I transfer US dollars from my TD Bank account in the US to my US currency account at TD Bank Canada and instruct Knightsbridge to take the US dollars from...