How Long Does It Take To Feel Settled in Canada After Immigrating?

Our team loves living in Canada, but we agree that it can take a while to feel truly settled in Canada. The first few years are often fun, but they can be a rollercoaster. You experience everything from Canada’s four magical seasons to career transitions to the stress of moving from temporary to permanent status (assuming that’s your pathway). 

If you’re in the thick of the first few years in Canada, you may wonder how long it takes to really feel settled in Canada. Luckily, we’ve dug into this question for you – in no small part thanks to RCIC Egidija Benotiene of Benotas Immigration, who provided the data behind this article.

Key Takeaways

• Most respondents (53%) surveyed said that it takes around 5 years to really settle in Canada. See the post here.
• 28% said that it takes ten years to really settle, while just 19% said 2 years (one person in the comments even said two months!). 
• Factors that might impact how long it takes for you to feel like you’ve settled in are friends, family and community; financial resources; your career progression and job security; and your goals/aspirations.

The Data From Egidija Benotiene’s Survey

286 people responded to Egidija’s LinkedIn survey, which asked “How long does it take to really settle in Canada?” and asked people whether 2, 5, or 10 years resonated with them. Most of the respondents said that 5 years felt right for them. 

The comments on the post ranged from some newcomers feeling like they never really ‘settled’, they just adapted to the new life. While many others offered their tips for feeling more settled more quickly. 

Tips for Newcomers To Feel More Settled in Canada

Based on the comments and our team’s experiences, the factors that seem to really impact how long it takes to feel settled in Canada include:

1. Finding friends, family and community; 
2. Hitting financial milestones; 
3. Your career progression and job security.

Before we dig in, we did find it interesting that these factors align quite closely with happiness research. There’s research out there that shows close personal relationships, higher-than-median household earnings, and purpose and meaning at work all contribute positively to overall happiness. 

While each of the above factors is the subject of plenty of research, and there are more than a few books written on each too, we’ve dug out some of the key things our team did in Canada to find happiness in our new home country. 

Here are our tips for settling faster: 

Finding Friends, Family, and Community in Canada

There’s no doubt about it, finding friends and building a community can be really tough. But in our experience, it’s so incredibly worth it. This aligns with the research too – like Harvard’s long-term study concluded that close relationships were the factor that provides the greatest happiness. 

Our best tip here to help you feel settled more quickly is to take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people, especially at the beginning. 

You will need to put yourself out there – this looks like asking people for their phone number or to meet up again, and you can even say you’re new and looking for new friends and things to do. It may feel uncomfortable, but it means people know where you are in your journey and they can meet you there. 

We’ve covered tips for the ‘how’ to meet new people in our article on making friends in Canada. Check it out for tips for using apps and hobbies (and more) to make new friends. 

Finally, it’s important to be patient. It can take months to meet the right people – and that’s if you’re really putting yourself out there. From there, it can take a year or longer to really feel connected and safe in those relationships. So don’t expect to instantly become best friends with everyone you meet. Life is busy! And friendships do take time (and experiences) to build. 

Hitting Financial Milestones in Canada

Steph and Rebecca in our team found that hitting financial milestones, like buying a car or a home, in Canada helped us feel like we were starting to settle in. The thing is that these things can take time, which is one reason we aren’t surprised that it takes most people at least 5 years to feel like they settled in Canada. 

Our advice for hitting financial milestones in Canada isn’t to focus hard on really lofty goals (like buying a home in Canada). Instead, it’s to create bite-sized goals that focus on reducing stress and improving financial security in Canada over time. Bonus points if you create a timeline for your bite-sized goals before you even land in Canada so you can start working towards it and feeling settled in your new life from day one. 

Here’s what that timeline may look like (a condensed version, yours should reflect your goals beyond this too): 

Before the move: 

• Save a ‘moving fund’ that includes three months of living expenses plus moving costs, like airfares, immigration, expected car rental fees, and the costs of shipping your belongings. 
• Take a personal finance course for Canada (such as McGill University’s free course).
• Read Scotiabank’s Advice+ articles for personal finance and sign up to hear more from Scotiabank about banking in Canada. 

First months in Canada:

• Open your first Canadian bank account.
• Get your first Canadian credit card. 
• Start to pay down any high-interest and consumer debt accrued (like credit card debt, student loans, and personal loans). 

First 12-18 months in Canada:

• Pay off higher-interest consumer debt. 
• Save a 3-6 month emergency fund. Here are our tips for doing this. 
• At this stage, you may be in a position to start saving towards larger goals, like buying a car or home too. 

This tip works to help you feel more settled in a number of ways: 

1. It celebrates small, achievable victories, which can improve your confidence and help you to keep feeling motivated over time. 
2. It helps to reduce comparison with others and the ‘social media effect’, both of which rob you of joy because your lifestyle doesn’t stack up to the (often fake) lifestyles of ‘others’. 
3. It helps to reduce stress when unexpected items come up, since you are financially prepared and a little more knowledgeable about personal finance in Canada. 

Achieving Career Goals and Job Security

Career satisfaction and stability are massive pieces of the “feeling settled” puzzle, and honestly, this is often the hardest part of the journey. We know how frustrating it is to arrive with incredible international experience, only to face the reality of the “Canadian experience” barrier or delays in foreign credential recognition. 

Facing challenges finding a role in Canada can make you question your worth, but please know this is a systemic challenge, not a reflection of your talent. This reality is part of why it can take years to feel truly established here.

But the payoff is huge because being happy at work can improve your productivity, wellbeing and physical health too! The key, it seems, to being happy at work are progress, purpose, people, and pleasure. 

Being happy, and finding purpose and pleasure at work, may seem really hard if you feel like you’re in a role that’s not what you’d imagined. First things first, you aren’t alone. Many newcomers to Canada feel that they are underemployed compared to their skills – though, interestingly, this is improving over time. 

But with that in mind, you can still focus on those ‘four P’s’ to find meaning even if you are underemployed. 

Here’s what that might look like: 

• You can focus on progress by using the job to improve your English or learn a specific software tool; 
• Focus on purpose by seeing your role as a necessary step that funds your next course or credential assessment;
• Focus on people by building genuine connections with your colleagues (who might become future references); and 
• Focus on pleasure by creating a gratitude journal for your workday and writing three things about your day that you’re grateful for. This is a habit that’s shown to build satisfaction over time. 

We’d also love to recommend joining our community, if you haven’t already. We regularly share news covering immigration, life in Canada, and jobs, that can help supercharge your journey to feeling settled in Canada. To get this info, right in your inbox, join us!