How to Move to New York City from Canada

Introduction

After university, I had to make preparations to move to New York City for my new job. This was a novel experience for me; there were lots of moving parts and everyone that I talked to seemed to be equally confused. This is a guide I wish I had when I was moving to NYC. By reading this, I hope your moving process will be a little bit more organized and that you can catch mistakes early on.

Given my usual audience of UWaterloo students, I am assuming that you have already lived in the States before and have bank accounts and a Social Security Number set up. If not, I would strongly recommend reading Irene Zhang’s guide on moving to the US as an intern; she does an excellent job detailing the logistics of moving to a new country for the first time.

While the title of this guide is specific to NYC, I believe at least 80% of this will be helpful for people moving to other parts of the country.

Pre-move

Motivations

This is a step that I believe is the most important in this entire guide and should be done before you even decide to move to the States. Ask yourself this important question: why do you want to move to NYC?

Many people that I know want to move to the city because it has been glamorized. We’ve all heard Jay-Z’s and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” (in fact, I strongly believe this is every New Yorker’s least favorite song, it has been overplayed to death) and social media loves to depict the spontaneous, fun-filled nightlife of the city. However, there is a difference between visiting and having fun in New York City and actually living here. City living is definitely not for everyone; there is little nature, there are a lot of people, and it sometimes feels that you can never escape the busyness of life in this city.

To determine whether the city is a good fit for you, I would encourage you to live in the city for a short term if possible. For current university students, that could mean taking up an NYC internship. For others, it could mean temporarily relocating to NYC in an Airbnb. The process of actually living here temporarily is eye-opening for your criteria in choosing where to live full-time. For example, before I interned in the city, I thought I could easily live in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. By the first month of my internship, I realized I was dead wrong; I needed a peaceful and quiet place to live. Furthermore, I realized that I enjoy living close to friends and that I should prioritize this when finding a place. All of these realizations could not have come to fruition if I did not live in NYC for a few months.

I would also strongly encourage people to live in different cities to expand your mental model on what type of cities you would enjoy living in throughout your university internships. Live in suburbs. Live in bustling neighborhoods. Live with your friends. Live farther away from your friends. All of this experimentation will give you more knowledge on what makes you happy and prevents you from falling into mimetic desire.

Finances

I am not a financial advisor, so please take this advice with a grain of salt and do your own research. I would recommend reaching out to a financial advisor, as the move to the US may have tax implications. The following is meant to provide structure for your own financial plans.

As a Canadian immigrant to the States, there are a couple things you may want to investigate:

1. Liquidating your TFSA: The TFSA is a tax-advantaged investment account that residents of Canada can open. Investments can grow tax free in such an account and is very similar to the US’s traditional/Roth IRA. Unfortunately, the US does not recognize the tax-free status of the TFSA and it may go through stringent financial investigation by the IRS during tax season as a US resident. Many Canadians choose to liquidate the TFSA to avoid this problem.
2. Moving financial assets to the US: The IRS requires filing an FBAR if you have foreign financial assets of more than 10,000 USD. Many Canadians choose to move their money to the US to avoid this report. You can look at Wise as a potential tool to move large amounts of money without paying exorbitant foreign exchange fees.
3. Departure taxes: Many Canadians choose to declare non-residency in Canada to avoid paying Canadian taxes on US income.

Asides from dealing with Canadian finances, I would strongly recommend reading up on how US finances work. Some things to look into:

1. Traditional IRA and Roth IRA
2. Roth 401K
3. HSA from high-deductible health insurance plans

This is also an excellent time to brush up on your personal finance strategy. It would be quite wise to learn about budgeting, investing and how to save responsibly as you enter into a new phase of life.

To solo or not to solo

As we graduate from university, we often stick in our own mental models of “living together is cheaper and more fun”. While that is not wrong for many people, it is also worth reconsidering whether you truly want to live with roommates for a longer period of time when you move to New York City.

I for one decided to get my own place. While my roommates throughout my entire 5 years of university have been nothing but kind and fun, I had an inner feeling that I would get a lot more peace and quiet if I were to live by myself. Another reason why I switched to living by myself because roommate calculations change slightly when you’re living with them for 1-2 years rather than 4 month increments. There are no breaks. If problems appear and fester, it can really impact your relationships. All of these factors pushed me towards going solo.

Now that I have lived by myself for a few months, there are a few pros:

• Live life on your frequency: I often wanted to cook at certain times or clean at a certain frequency but roommate plans often disrupted my wishes. Now that I am living by myself, I can choose when to cook & clean, which has brought me a lot of peace of mind
• Decorate to your heart’s pleasure: Since the space is all mine, I can decorate it to what I like and buy higher quality furniture as I know that I will keep everything with me for a while.
• Speed in decision-making: Since I only had to care about one person when making choices (myself), I was able to quickly find apartments and furniture and make other decisions quickly. I have seen other roommates significantly slow down their decisions because they had to balance everyone’s opinions, sometimes even to the detriment of one member of the group.
• Unfamiliarity with roommates: If I was to live with roommates, I would be really hesitant with living with people whose living patterns are unknown to me. They could be messy, they could be a recluse, they could be rude. There are many unknowns that I would have had to deal with for at least a year so I generally shied away from living with people I didn’t know really well.

However, solo living is not for everyone. There are definitely a few cons that can get bad if not managed well:

• Be comfortable with being alone: Without roommates, no one is going to be making small-talk with you when you come back from work. No one will be dragging you to social events. Socialization is now your sole responsibility. This can be difficult for people as many are used to constant social interaction
  • I have always been comfortable with being by myself, so this wasn’t a huge problem for me. When it comes to socialization, I actively initiate plans and try to rope in friends at least once a week, which has been nice!
• Responsibility: There are a LOT of moving pieces when you have to live by yourself that you alone will need to handle. Rent, maintenance, buying furniture, buying decorative pieces, taking out the trash, cooking, cleaning,…the list goes on and on. It is definitely overwhelming at times.
  • The way I mitigated this is through using a simple schedule and todo list. Putting all of the tasks I needed to do on a piece of paper gave me a lot of peace of mind. I could then gradually work through the enormous list of errands.
• It’s expensive: There’s no getting around this. Make sure you plan your finances accordingly to afford your own place.

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer. I would recommend living with some friends in your first year to see if you like living with roommates and then you can choose whether living by yourself is worth it.

Deciding where to live

This is one of the most important choices you will make when you move to NYC, but I want to emphasize that your decision is reversible. If you don’t make a right choice, you only have to live with the decision for a year, whereupon you can switch to a different neighborhood. However, it does pay dividends to make the right decision as soon as you move to the city.

My top tip is to visit NYC beforehand and explore a variety of neighborhoods to see what fits your particular vibes. Check out neighborhoods during weekends, weekdays, nights and days. Try to also talk with people that live in that neighborhood and see what they think of it.

Another tip is to use Streeteasy to check the average price of units in your chosen area and if the vibe of those units fits your desires.

Lastly, make sure to factor your daily and weekly activities when you choose your neighborhoods. Do you enjoy late night activities? Make sure to find neighborhoods with a vibrant night life. Do you like to go to parks? Find a neighborhood that is near some nature. I indexed on living near friends as I foresaw myself spending a lot of time with college friends.

Interior decor

My fellow men: please learn how to decorate. I have visited too many apartments that look like a carbon copy of Blair house with barely any character and mismatched furniture. Why should you decorate your place? You want your place to actually feel like home! Decoration is one of the best ways to showcase your personality in your home.

I definitely was a beginner when I first started learning how to interior decorate. I took a lot of notes from YouTubers and made a Pinterest board to figure out my style. I was not familiar with Pinterest before this but now I am a huge fan; it gave me a lot of inspiration and styles to research.

Once you have found your style, I would make a prioritized list of things to get. You don’t have to be precise with the exact items, but you should have an idea on what things you need to look into when you have found your apartment. Having a list before hand will keep you a lot more organized when you move in as you want be jumping back and forth between different items. When you are in NYC in the midst of setting up your apartment, it might be difficult to carve time to think critically about the furniture pieces you want to get, so might as well think about it before hand (learned about this decision-making strategy in Clear Thinking)

Immigration (for Canadian transplants)

Immigrating to the States under a TN visa is relatively easy, especially if your degree matches with your job. Follow the advice of your lawyer and give yourself at least 3-4 hours before the flight to get through immigration as you may be pulled into secondary screening at the border. I was a little foolish here and only gave myself 2 hours to do immigration at a layover in YYZ and missed my NYC flight by mere seconds; fortunately, Air Canada booked me on the next flight free of charge since I was made late by immigration. Last major tip: make sure you bring your physical diploma to immigration. They do not accept copies.

During move-in

Apartment hunting

Your number one priority when you move to NYC should be finding an apartment. I used Streeteasy to book several appointments a day before I arrived and prioritized these appointments above all else. Depending on when you move, competition can be especially fierce (summer months are quite tough). Speed pays dividends when it comes to apartment searching.

Some of the factors I looked at when I had boots on the ground included:

• How close is it to transit? What is the commute to work like?
• Reviews of the apartment building: use Google Maps & Reddit
• Does the apartment have a doorman?
• Inspect the bathroom & taps to make sure you get hot water
• Is there sufficient space for everything? You don’t want to be in a cramped space if you can afford it

I would also try to come into the city and find an apartment a few days before you start your job. Apartment tours usually happen during work hours, so it is quite difficult to hunt of apartments while you are working.

Decorating your space

Once you have found your place, it’s time to start the most time-intensive part of moving to a city: buying furniture. I would really recommend finding furniture and buying your most essential pieces before you start your job. Searching, finding and building furniture on post-work energy is extremely difficult, which I found out first hand.

There are a couple of good options for furniture:

• Ikea: Ikea is pretty good and is relatively affordable
• Facebook Marketplace: Some new grads swear by marketplace as you can get some pretty sweet deals. However, evaluate whether the process & time needed to travel all across NYC for FB deals just to save $50-100 is truly worth your time. I did this for a few items and quickly found that it just isn’t worth it for me.
• Room and Board: definitely higher end, but couches are top quality
• Flexispot: pretty good chair & desk deals

If you are living by yourself, you have different calculations to make when you’re looking for furniture. You don’t need to worry about splitting furniture costs, who will take furniture when your roommates split up or any other concerns. Your furniture will be with you for a while. If you can afford it, I would recommend looking at higher quality furniture than just IKEA that will guarantee longevity.

Conclusion

Moving to NYC is quite a lot, but a little bit of planning can go a long way. Hopefully, the tips that I have shared will be of some use to people and can set themselves up for success in the city! If people are in NYC and would like to meet up, hmu!