Despite Election Night vows, Americans not flocking to Canada after Trump win

Remember when countless people vowed to move to Canada if Donald Trump was somehow elected president of the United States?

Well, it hasn’t happened.

Just 66 more people applied for permanent residency in Canada during the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2016, according to a CNN story citing statistics from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Then again, it’s more difficult than it seems to immigrate to Canada.

Most immigration programs require a job offer from a Canadian employer, a year of skilled work experience in Canada, a high level of English — and possibly French — and not a small amount of money.

“Immigrating to Canada is not easy right now, and I imagine a lot of people who were interested in immigrating to Canada, once they did some research, realized that it was a longer and more difficult process than they expected,” Suzanne Rix, an immigration lawyer based in Nova Scotia, told CNN.

That could change, thanks to a fast-track application process the Canadian government launched in mid-June for high-skilled workers, the CNN story says.

The accelerated process builds on efforts of Canadian technology companies to attract global talent that could transform Toronto into the next Silicon Valley, as new U.S. immigration policies close the doors to would-be applicants.

This story was originally published July 1, 2017 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Despite Election Night vows, Americans not flocking to Canada after Trump win."