Opinion: Sorry, but there's no quick escape to Canada for Americans

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With the shocking news of Donald Trump’s election, Americans despondent with Trump’s win began searching for ways to immigrate north. There were so many that Canada’s immigration website crashed.

And many Canadians, taking a page from Trump’s idea to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S., have responded on social media by announcing plans to build their own wall to block out anyone fleeing Trump’s presidency.

But many of those liberal-leaning Americans (and maybe even some Republicans) might be shocked to learn that it isn’t so easy to just pick up and move to a foreign country.

Canada doesn’t need to build a wall to keep out all the Americans willing to renounce their ties to the U.S. and trade their baseball gloves for hockey sticks. Canada has an admirable universal health-care system, sensible gun laws and a ridiculously popular and handsome prime minister, but its immigration system is broken.

Americans who have taken to Twitter to express panic and outrage, and who have threatened to move to the Great White North should have applied to Canada years ago, like I did, if they really wished to immigrate. Because it now takes more than 26 months to process a visa for the spouse of a Canadian citizen already living in the country.

I am an American who has been waiting 27 months for my residency visa. Meanwhile, an immigrant applicant does not have access to Canada’s coveted health-care system, cannot legally work or study, and would find it extremely difficult just to open a bank account.

Despite having left a job, our friends and families in the U.S. to establish a life in Canada with the person we love, the Canadian immigration system has treated us no better than a piece of paper being pushed around in a bureaucratic and inefficient system.

This negligence takes a toll on immigrants’ lives, our marriages, our sense of worth, our self-esteem, and our mental and physical health. We lose our sense of everyday purpose because we are not allowed to work or become fully functional members of Canadian society. Some of us have moved to Canada excited to start a life with our partners, excited to live in a country with a sterling reputation on the international stage.

But the Canadian immigration system has failed its immigrants and has failed our Canadian partners who have sponsored us to live in the country. Twenty-seven months to process a visa seems like an outrageous length of time for a developed country. It’s as ridiculous as a building a wall between two countries.

So I’m sorry to break the news to my fellow Americans: Canada should have never been their back-up plan. Canada has its own problems and its immigration system is one of them. They should try Mexico instead.