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

I just got my first job rejection in Canada today. And I am impressed and grateful. After spending far too much time for the last 3 weeks preoccupied with paperwork, dealing with financial institutions here and back in the US, researching and getting set up with curency exchange, and general financial and tax planning (apparently US expatriates have a lot of tax and investment issues to worry about in general - more on these matters in multiple posts to come), I am finally starting to look seriously for a job. I had my first interview last week and was told that final round interviews would be this week. And this morning, Tuesday June 19, I received an email thanking me for my interest in the job and notifying me that they have decided to proceed with other candidates but encouraging me to check and apply for other opportunities at the company. Of course, it is very disappointing to be turned down for a job, especially one that I was interested in and seemed to fit my skills and expe...

Thanks to a fellow immigrant from one of the rentals whatsapp groups who is now a roommate, I was lucky enough to find an affordable room to rent in Toronto before moving, so I was able to move right into a semi-permanent place. It is a room in a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment that the landlord rents out by the room. My goal was to find a relatively cheap rental to stay in until I could buy a more permanent place. Most immigrants stay in Airbnb rentals initially because it is difficult to find a place from overseas, so I consider myself extremely lucky to have found this place. I have been able to meet and chat with the other roommates in my first week here and am happy to say they all are very nice and interesting people. However, one of them is a second generation immigrant, born and raised in Canada, but a Trump supporter! The other night, his friend was over who is an even bigger Trump supporter and also born and raised in Canada! The three of us had a lively discussion. In bri...

"Why are you immigrating to Canada if you are already a US citizen?" is a question many others immigrating to Canada have asked me. The short answer is Donald Trump. On election night in 2016, I decided to emigrate from the US. I had originally wanted to to immigrate to the UK because I have friends there, and we actually were joking about how I should leave the US if Trump gets elected, like a Trump refugee. After doing more research on Canada and Canadian immigration, and hearing about the string of terrorist attacks in the UK early in 2017, I decided in late March of 2017 to immigrate to Canada. One needs to live and work in the UK for 5 years before applying for permanent residence, while Canada has a relatively efficient Express Entry immigration system that can be done from outside Canada and usually lets one move over as a permanent resident within a year. Also, I really like the diversity of Canada and its more welcoming attitude toward immigrants, as well as its ...

May 28, 2018. Every day for the past week, I had been organizing, packing, and cleaning out my belongings in New York, USA. For the past 3 days I had been almost done with the packing and cleaning out of my apartment, except for a few things here and there. A few hours would pass each time I started tackling one of the "few things" left. But moving day had come at last. I had to check among the remaining items the last that needed to be packed into my bags and the rest to give away. Deciding what were absolute necessities I could not do without and finding good homes for the rest was quite a task. When I had moved to New York City 9 years ago, I had planned to settle down and spend the rest of my life here. I loved the excitement and opportunities of the big city, as well as the diverse population and good transit system. I had stockpiled many good bargains over the years to last me through natural disasters and the multiple upcoming decades that I had thought I would sp...

Welcome. I am trumprefugee, a US citizen who recently immigrated and moved to Canada via Express Entry immigration. Late at night on November 8, 2016, when a Trump victory in the US presidential election became inevitable, I decided to leave the US. I finally did so in late May 2018 when I got the opportunity to move to Canada. In this blog I will write about my experience settling in Canada, my observations and ideological musings about Canada, the US, and life in general, as well as my immigration story and practical information about immigrating to Canada. Another goal of mine is to keep practicing and improving my Spanish and French and reach a more global audience, so as much as possible I will make this blog trilingual. The French versions might be sparse at first as I am still a beginner. I apologize in advance for my errors; Spanish and French natives and experts, please feel free to correct my errors in the comments. Why English, Spanish and French? Of course, English is ...