"You Will REGRET Becoming A Canadian Non-Resident!" What To Know BEFORE You Leave Canada

you will regret becoming a Canadian nonresident is the most common negative question that I got when I made the announcement that I am planning on becoming a Canadian non-resident before the end of this year and who knows maybe it will be maybe I will just greatly regret this decision for reasons that I obviously am not privy to at this point in time cuz obviously nobody knows what the future is going to bring but what I also know is to not trust random people on the internet who don't actually know my specific case and who are

not me and can't make decisions for me so on this one I'm going to trust myself I'm going to go with you know my own knowledge of my particular situations and why I do think that this is going to be a great decision for me at least for the time being for anybody who is potentially thinking about doing this I hope today's video will be thought-provoking to you where I am going to cover 10 really important points or even questions I should say um whether non-residency is really the right decision for you starting with number

one and this is a very very important thing to make sure you understand and that is the difference between citizenship residency and tax residency having read a lot of the comments that I've gotten on my Series so far there's a lot of people that don't seem to understand the difference between all of those things cuz they can all be the same or sometimes they can be all completely different so your citizenship that is almost all always the country that you were born into that you received a passport from and that most likely you have lived

most of your life in so in my particular case I was actually born in Ukraine I had a Ukrainian passport for most of my life because I could not apply for a Canadian one until I was an adult at 18 years old cuz my mom actually held on to her Ukrainian citizenship cuz she wasn't sure if she would you know stay or go and Ukraine only allows one citizenship so that's a very important thing to get clear on is does your country allow you to have multiple citizenships or is there ruling that you can only

have one citizenship I have already said how many times that I am incredibly grateful to be a Canadian Citizen and of course it is a very strong passport so I do not lose that by becoming a non-resident I am forever a citizen unless I chose to renounce it and become a citizen somewhere else that only allows one citizenship or I decide to become a terrorist neither of those options are likely now residency residency usually applies to where is your home where do you have real estate where do you have familiar bonds like usually your closest

Family like your wife husband kids usually that's the group that they're talking about third do you have bank accounts in that country do you have a driver's license do you have health care in that country and also is your business in that country that is something that every country will take into consideration uh before they call you a tax resident now this is the part that I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on just yet this is something you know that can get very complex depending on how you decide to structure your company

you know for all specific reasons so in my particular case with the country that I'm going to be moving to it is going to be both my residency and also my tax residency that is almost always the easiest way to go about things so so the point that I'm trying to get across is make sure you understand the difference between those three categories and the rules around all of that can range depending on the country that you're from now question number two when you are considering becoming a non-resident of any country what is your why

why are you doing this why are you leaving your country obviously there must be some kind of reason I don't think people just randomly decide to make a decision like this and move abroad especially if you do live in a privileged wealthy country like Canada I do understand why some people will kind of look at my decision as you know kind of crazy doesn't really make sense to them and I get that because there are so many benefits to living in this country but I think people have have to understand that it really depends on

whether your job is in Canada like if I had you know a job that was Central to Canada that would be that but if you have your own business that you can be anywhere in the world to do and especially if it requires moving around as much as mine does no no Canada really is not at all the best fit um for that specific uh scenario even just you know location wise but when you take into consideration the current you know cost of living of course it's happening all over the world but Canada is still

one of the most expensive countries to live in especially when it comes to the real estate the taxes are also quite High here and third I'm not saying this particular one applies to me super super strong but of of course if you don't really agree with the government policy in your country if there's some kind of social issues going on and lastly I think one of the other really common reasons for people becoming non-residents is they are just looking for new opportunities you know depending on the kind of business you have or maybe it's just

a lifestyle sort of opportunity of just maybe trying to be around a different group of people now Point number three might actually be the most important question on this list I mentioned the other two first because you should ask yourself those questions first but this one's probably the most important one which is how will you survive there are some people on the internet that think it's just easy to move abroad and life is so much cheaper in all these other kind countries if I'm coming from Canada or us like I can easily live off my

savings or you know retirement funds and sure sometimes that is the case you know uh some people do have a lot in savings or have really good Investments that they are getting you know monthly uh dividends from but in a lot of other cases I think people greatly underestimate just how much money it is going to cost not only to become a non-resident cuz you know you will have a capital gains tax if you have a lot of assets here in Canada I'll kind of touch on that later you very likely will also have to

pay for an immigration lawyer to help you with your paperwork to you know get the permissions to be able to make this kind of move you'll obviously have your flights getting set up in a new living environment whether you choose to rent or buy real estate furnished unfurnished so all of those things can be very big expenses on top of the fact of how will you pay for your daytoday life to live in that country it's usually only once you've gotten permanent residency citizenship or you're going there specifically on a work visa which is usually

sponsored by another company so if you're like me where you're basically a digital Nomad your whole business is online it doesn't really affect what's going on in that country almost for sure you will be able to do that kind of work and become you know a tax resident of that country you could set up a company in that regard usually there are some barriers around you as a foreigner going to another country and taking locals jobs unless that country really needs that and they're asking people to come on specific visas for that reason now question

number four really does actually tie with my last point and it is are you able to get a residency permit in the country that you want to live in now if you guys watched my last video where I touched on why southeast Asia ended up being cut as an area of the world to live in one of the big reasons for it was the fact that it's either very difficult or very expensive to get a permanent residency or citizenship in the majority of the countries there so that was a big reason of why I decided

to go with Eastern Europe cuz they had a few more options that made sense for me on many different levels including the fact that quite a few longstay visas usually could turn to permanent residency after about 5 years I just felt like if I'm going to be investing so much in this move and I really want want to feel you know solid that this is a country where I could potentially buy real estate and that I could spend my retirement maybe I wanted the confidence that I have the paperwork to actually live here now Point

number five is how will this affect your social connections luckily in my case I am single as a pringle and I do not have to take into consideration anybody else's opinion on this matter I can choose for myself if I want to make this move if I was married if I had children that would be a whole other story now of course in my case I still have you know my family here in Canada I have my mom and dad I also have my family in Ukraine which is you know one of the main reasons

of why I chose Eastern Europe because I do want to be close to them I have friends kind of all around the world of course a good chunk of them are here in Canada but my friends are all kind of sprinkled around and uh you know my parents are also kind of toying with the fact of where are they going to retire in the future as well are they going to stay in Canada are they going to move social connections really are an important factor to take into consideration and even if you are just fully

single you have no friends you have no family I'm so sorry um and you know you're just sick of your country and you're moving to a new place you're ready to you know make new friends maybe meet a significant other really think about whether this is a place where you can do that easily now Point number six can either be kind of easy or really really complicated depending on your particular case you really need to think about how will this move affect your bank accounts and your Investments it's actually a great benefit if you don't

have any real estate if you don't have any super complex Investments if you don't have you know like corporations or anything like that here in Canada or things like trusts all of that begins to be really muddy with what you should do in terms of becoming a non-resident luckily I don't have any real estate I never Incorporated my company I'm just a sole proprietor so I don't have that to deal with and uh with my bank accounts and I think this is the case in other countries too but once again do your own research you

can keep your bank accounts in the country that you're from but you just can't have any like savings accounts or any kind of investment accounts cuz those obviously have the potential to make you money meaning that you would have to pay income tax on that now Point number seven is important to think about whether you are young or old and that is your pension this is once again a point where I would recommend you consult with you know Service Canada or your own tax consultant that you really trust to give you information about your specific

case so I have worked and filed a tax return here in Canada for 15 years including this year and I have contributed you know a good chunk of money to CPP which is the Canadian pension plan and then I should technically qualify for OAS which is old age security once I reach 65 now to fully qualify for an OAS pension you need 40 years of work experience so if I was to get any money from that fund I would only qualify for about 40% of the payment if I never came back to Canada and you

know contributed to the tax system here but there is a caveat and this is very important to understand for the OAS they have a rule where to get whatever kind of portion you need a minimum of 10 years of working working in Canada after the age of 18 but that is only for people who choose to retire in Canada you have to work at least 20 years in Canada after the age of 18 to qualify to receive it abroad so in my particular case if I never come back to Canada and you know file another

tax return here I would not qualify to get any sort of amount unless I live work and pay taxes in a country that has a social security agreement with Canada because what it helps you do is that any years that you contribute to that other country like you know living paying taxes legally all that kind of stuff those years will help you meet the minimum threshold to get whatever portion of pension that you have in you know your former country so in my particular case having only 15 years of work experience here in Canada I

need at least five more to qualify to get just that specific portion of money by living and working in another country that does not mean the Canadian government will pay me any more money I still will only get that 40% unless I move back but because they have that agreement let's say I work 5 years in that country with a social security agreement that moves over to help me meet my Canadian threshold I hope that made sense like basically you want your new country to have as good of you know political and social ties to

your country as possible because usually that will mean that you don't have the double taxation to worry about and ideally it also doesn't have the problem of the tax withhold um on a pension if you choose to retire abroad the majority of countries actually have a tax withholding kind of issue that you will come across where you can still receive your pension but it will be taxed at 25% so just keep that in mind and just make sure that you are aware of you know the long-term implications of what happens to your pension now Point

number eight was one of the most contested topics in my last few videos of a lot of people asking about health care so in my particular case I have you know come to terms with the fact that most likely I will just get a emergency medical insurance um for the first few years that I am living in the country that I am because I don't qualify for their Universal Health insurance and I won't be able to pay into it until I am a permanent resident but either way I do have a feeling that I will

be paying out of pocket quite a bit like even when I qualify for the universal care I don't think it will be as high as the care is here in Canada so I've just come to terms with the fact that I will have to pay for things out of pocket and unless it is something really serious uh you would be surprised surprised how inexpensive it is compared to the outof pocket prices uh here in Canada basically for the last eight years I have done all of my dental work abroad and it is just crazy how

much money I have saved I have also gotten a lot of optometrist appointments abroad I have gotten all my glasses abroad cuz it is just so much less expensive than it is here I've also had quite a few checkups for different things abroad cuz it was just faster than trying to get a referral here in Canada like that's the nice thing that you can just you know pay to walk in and see whoever you need to see now Point number nine I don't really care about Bo but I know some of you may care about

which is will this affect your driver's license you guys know I don't like to drive I don't want to have to drive in the new country that I moved to but I did look into it and I actually am waiting for Service Canada to give me a definitive answer on this because in a lot of countries the one that I'm moving to included you don't automatically qualify to get a local driver's license usually that only happens once you're a permanent resident or a citizen so if you are somewhere on a longstay Visa usually from my

understanding you should be able to use use your local like I mean your old country's driver's license with a international permit you know over it but I don't know for sure that's still you know what I'm trying to figure out and last but certainly not least guys we're actually ending on a very important point if you are thinking of moving abroad and that is number 10 will you be able to adapt to the new language culture and rules of your new country so just like here in Canada there's a lot of people that go on

and on about you know all these immigrants coming here like they don't want to adapt to our culture here they're out here breaking rules or you know circumventing things that makes me so angry but then the same thing can be said if you then move abroad and do the same thing that you are so very against unfortunately I see this all the time in less expensive countries is these foreigners just moving there with so much entitlement thinking that the rules don't apply to them and they make absolutely no effort to actually integrate themselves into the

culture that they are moving to now I get it as far as language like you're not going to learn it overnight from most people it's going to take years like it's usually going to take years find it crazy where people will have lived five 10 15 20 years in you know this new country that they chose to move to they don't know anything about the local culture they don't know how to speak the local language they barely have any local friends they just hang out with their you know other Foreigner friends please be a respectful

kind thoughtful person when moving to another country and really ask yourself and be honest with yourself if this is a culture that you can integrate to that you have similar beliefs to that you feel you can make friends with the locals that you can uplift the society in some kind of way because if that's not the case I don't think you should be moving I don't think you should be able to go over and make problems for that country so you know we are guests in their country and we should behave accordingly so that is

my speech that is my Spiel that is my 10 points that you should consider uh before becoming a Canadian non-resident as always I'm sure the comment section will be just full of fun and I look forward to reading all your guys' comments so I hope you guys found this video helpful uh let me know your thoughts in the comments and as always keep being your own kind of beautiful bye guys [Music]