Canadian Retirees Visa

Almot wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
I don't think the 8 month thing would do much for us. Although I can see spending 8 or 9 months on the road it wouldn't be all in the US. Lots of countries out there to see. I can see how some might be interested though, age group etc. It will be interesting to watch. I think health care costs could get nuts.

Health insurance, yes. You lose provincial plan after 7 months in a calendar year (subject to 2 years exemption once every 5 years). Then you will need a private plan for the US that doesn't require a valid provincial coverage, and for people over 65 those are either very expensive, or have very low coverage like 50K - a laughable amount for US hospitals. And you also need to pay for a private plan in-Canada when you return home and wait 3 months to re-activate the provincial plan.

You also lose your GIS pension after uninterrupted 6 months out of Canada.

Some people will probably benefit from this new "retiree visa", not sure how many.

Agreed. For many if you are going to go expat the US would not be the destination to do it in. Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Greece, Italy Morocco, would all be better choices with affordable health care costs. Mexico is a driveable option , the rest you pretty much have to fly to. But there will always be a market for the classic Canadian snowbird in Florida or California or Arizona. It works well for certain age groups and at some point many have had enough of adventure and are ready to just take it easy. We still work 5 months of the year and enjoy 3 or 4 months of the year in SoCal. But the other three months we are on the road somewhere. This year we are doing two and a half months in Europe and a little in North Afrika. All the body parts are still working well and we figure we'll use them while we can. :)