Canadians Traveling to the USA in 2025

[LuvvsMickey]

I am so upset with the way some americans and the political leaders are treating us, I sold both my DVC contracts.

We're doing the same.

 

[CPBv2]

You lost me at your opening sentence LOL CBC produces garbage propaganda.

Sounds like you miss Sun TV.

 

[jeepwreck]

I am so upset with the way some americans and the political leaders are treating us, I sold both my DVC contracts.

we just bought a contract and waiting for it to close

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Sounds like you miss Sun TV.

huh? Weird comment.

 

[deedubb]

I am so upset with the way some americans and the political leaders are treating us, I sold both my DVC contracts.

Sounds a bit drastic. Why not just rent out your points for now? Cheeto won't be there forever, and I can't imagine any future rational POTUS treating us and the rest of the world like he has.

 

[PetePanMan]

We're doing the same.

Regardless of one’s political views, governments in US and Canada will come and go over time. We still enjoy DVC but times change with age / health, family (grown up kids), interests etc. For us, the biggest issue is still the exchange rate. It’s deadly

 

[LuvvsMickey]

Regardless of one’s political views, governments in US and Canada will come and go over time. We still enjoy DVC but times change with age / health, family (grown up kids), interests etc. For us, the biggest issue is still the exchange rate. It’s deadly

That's exactly it. Our age, health issues and the mighty dollar have ultimately forced our decision.

 

[Reepicheep]

Stats Canada has released statistics for November, giving the year over year drop (or rise) in Canadians visiting the USA. The drop in tourism which started in January continues, with the November drop consistent with the previous months.

-CAR- -AIR-
+7% +4.6% Dec
+1% -1.4% Jan
-23% -2.4% Feb
-32% -14% Mar
-35% -20% Apr
-38% -24% May
-33% -22% June
-37% -26% Jul
-34% -26% Aug
-35% -27% Sep
-31% -24% Oct
-29% -19% Nov

******

I've come across some articles which refer to the number of Canadians who cross the border on a daily basis to work in the US. This is especially true for the citizens of Ontario, more specifically, Canadians who live in Windsor, Niagara, and Sarnia. I've been unable to come up with statistics which are 100% reliable, but a very conservative estimate would be that 10,000 Canadians in Ontario cross the border on a daily basis to work in the US (one source claimed that 11,000 residents of Windsor cross the border daily, so an estimate of 10,000 Canadians crossing the border daily to work is almost certainly an underestimate).

Let's do a conservative, back-of-the-envelope calculation and assume each of these workers crosses the border 3 times a week. This gives us:

10000*3*52/365 = 4,274 daily crossings by car for work.

On a daily basis, roughly 43,300 Canadians cross the border by car into the US. This means that roughly 10% of border crossings by car are day trips by Canadians who are going to work. These Canadians likely spend very little while in the US.

Personally, I like the idea of Canadians working in the US and taking money out of the US economy. And, taking this factor into account would imply that the drop in tourism to the US is actually higher than the border crossing statistics indicate.

 

[lanejudy]

Personally, I like the idea of Canadians working in the US and taking money out of the US economy.

Somewhat. However the taxes (local, state and federal including FICA - our social security and medicare taxes) from their pay remains in the US, with just a foreign tax credit taken against Canadian tax liability. And you have no idea if those employees may be shopping while in the US -- groceries, gas, etc. It's more likely a wash.

 

[deanimal]

Personally, I like the idea of Canadians working in the US and taking money out of the US economy

I have to say I did exactly that when I worked in the US as a nurse in 2003 and 2004. Did my time, lived in agency provided housing, spent only enough to stay alive and came back to Canada with enough money to put a good down payment on my first house.

Oh, and learned enough about their medical system from the inside to know that I would never, ever, ever want to live there long term. And that's based on how bad it was 20 years ago!

 

[Reepicheep]

Thought I'd mention that the Canadian and world wide boycott of American products is going exceptionally well.

EXAMPLE ONE: Jim Beam, the US's largest producer of bourbon, has announced that they are shutting down their largest distillery for one year, due to the the collapse of the bourbon and whiskey export market to Canada.

EXAMPLE TWO: The US Travel trade surplus/deficit has gone from a surplus in 2024 to a deficit of approximately $70 billion in 2025. The reasons for the deficit are: (1) more Americans are travelling overseas for vacations, and (2) the Canadian tourism boycott has resulted in a significant drop in spending in the US by Canadians.

EXAMPLE THREE: The US Senate has released a report, describing in detail the effect the Canadian boycott is having on all border states, including Alaska.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

 

[Reepicheep]

I have to say I did exactly that when I worked in the US as a nurse in 2003 and 2004...

When my daughters worked at Disney World for the summer, the Internal Revenue Service deducted tax on their income, but the money was returned when I filed a US tax return for them (basically, because of an international agreement between Canada and the US, the income was taxable in Canada but not in the US). Did the same thing happen with you?

Incidentally, the BC government is actively trying to hire nurses from the US. The last I heard, over 140 nurses had already moved to BC and started work there.

As an aside: for my oldest daughter, the first year she worked at Disney World, I filed a regular 1040 tax form (which US citizens use), when I instead should of filed a 1040-NR (non-resident form). Apparently, this mistake caused the IRS to conclude that my daughter was a US citizen, because during the Covid years she received all three support payments that That Man sent to all US citizens (a total of $3200 via three payments). We returned the cheques, but I kind off wonder if my daughter could have gotten away with cashing them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

EXAMPLE ONE: Jim Beam, the US's largest producer of bourbon, has announced that they are shutting down their largest distillery for one year, due to the the collapse of the bourbon and whiskey export market to Canada.

It has great impact but the missing component that is unlikely to be talked about to Canadians or Europeans is that the U.S. drinking habits over the last several decades have shifted in a downward trend, which if you dig into articles you'd find that, if you have paid attention to alcohol consumption especially among the Gen Z you'd find that. Certainly tariffs, when there's heavy reliance elsewhere on product consumption, is big but if you don't talk about the dwindling consumption of alcohol domestically then you're cherry picking "due to.." part of your comment. There's a decent amount of breweries that have shut down over the years that have little to do with what is occurring outside of the U.S.

But an export to Canada and Europe has masked the financial impacts to certain companies, allowing temporary but not finite growth. To put it another way if the alcohol consumption was very high the impact of what you're speaking about would be much more mitigated. In specifics to hard liquor the aging time requires forward anticipation of sales making impacts not usually seen for a few years.

 

[deanimal]

Did the same thing happen with you?

yes, I think that's how it worked for me as well. However back in the old days of 2003, I ended up picking up a paper tax form from a US post office and mailing it in to get a return.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that I was told that when I returned to Canada I needed to physically hand my paper work visa in when I crossed the border. But I came back from my last work assignment through a small town border crossing late at night after driving all day and no one on the US side seemed to know what the process was for handing back my visa. They said I could come back the next day to sort it out but I couldn't be bothered; it expired at the end of the year anyway and I wasn't planning on working there again. I've been going back and forth for travel every since.

But now I wonder. Did I technically break a law when I didn't hand in that work visa at the border? Could someone at the border say that I had a work visa on my record that was never properly cancelled when I left the country and deny me entry? Does that make me a criminal? Never would have thought I'd be asking myself that, but here we are.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

yes, I think that's how it worked for me as well. However back in the old days of 2003, I ended up picking up a paper tax form from a US post office and mailing it in to get a return.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that I was told that when I returned to Canada I needed to physically hand my paper work visa in when I crossed the border. But I came back from my last work assignment through a small town border crossing late at night after driving all day and no one on the US side seemed to know what the process was for handing back my visa. They said I could come back the next day to sort it out but I couldn't be bothered; it expired at the end of the year anyway and I wasn't planning on working there again. I've been going back and forth for travel every since.

But now I wonder. Did I technically break a law when I didn't hand in that work visa at the border? Could someone at the border say that I had a work visa on my record that was never properly cancelled when I left the country and deny me entry? Does that make me a criminal? Never would have thought I'd be asking myself that, but here we are.

Most likely the reason would have been to update your I94 /I95 profile. I94 /I95 is needed by all visitors except: U.S. Citizens, returning resident aliens, aliens with immigrant visas, and most Canadian citizens visiting or in transit.

For me as a European, the airlines update my I94 /I95 profile when I check in for flights. Cruise lines also do it automatically for cruise passengers. However there have been issues in the past on some transatlantic cruises where the I94 /I95 profile has not been updated correctly by cruise lines and some Europeans are listed as over stays even though they are physically in Europe. They had to get the US Embassy in their country to sort it out.

You can check your I94 /I95 travel history on the official website https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/search/history-search

 

[Mikey15]

It has great impact but the missing component that is unlikely to be talked about to Canadians or Europeans is that the U.S. drinking habits over the last several decades have shifted in a downward trend, which if you dig into articles you'd find that, if you have paid attention to alcohol consumption especially among the Gen Z you'd find that. Certainly tariffs, when there's heavy reliance elsewhere on product consumption, is big but if you don't talk about the dwindling consumption of alcohol domestically then you're cherry picking "due to.." part of your comment. There's a decent amount of breweries that have shut down over the years that have little to do with what is occurring outside of the U.S.

But an export to Canada and Europe has masked the financial impacts to certain companies, allowing temporary but not finite growth. To put it another way if the alcohol consumption was very high the impact of what you're speaking about would be much more mitigated. In specifics to hard liquor the aging time requires forward anticipation of sales making impacts not usually seen for a few years.

I’m afraid you’re missing the forest for the trees. For one, the downward per capita trend on alcohol consumption isn’t uniquely a U.S. phenomenon; it’s global. The impact the younger population have been having on it has certainly been reported in Canada.

But moreover, the broader market forces and trends are one thing; they’re going to be what they’re going to be. The tariffs in contrast are an extraneous choice (by one person), and the impact of an 85% decline in Canadian imports of U.S. spirits is clearly notable ~in addition to~ the state of domestic & global consumption.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’m afraid you’re missing the forest for the trees. For one, the downward per capita trend on alcohol consumption isn’t uniquely a U.S. phenomenon; it’s global. The impact the younger population have been having on it has certainly been reported in Canada.

But moreover, the broader market forces and trends are one thing; they’re going to be what they’re going to be. The tariffs in contrast are an extraneous choice (by one person), and the impact of an 85% decline in Canadian imports of U.S. spirits is clearly notable ~in addition to~ the state of domestic & global consumption.

There's nothing to miss here. It's the assertion that "due to" when other factors are involved. I never said alcohol consumption reduction was uniquely U.S. by some comments here though it seemed those people were missing the forest through the trees to not think about the changing trends and its effect.

There's no doubt tariffs play a large role but a sole role, no.

The Distillery in question has been running in excess barrels for years.

https://apnews.com/article/jim-beam...own-kentucky-a8303cd04005a9108ff43690faad421b

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/dining/jim-beam-production-pause-whiskey-bourbon.html

 

[Reepicheep]

We know that Canadian visits to the US are down substantially from a year ago. Interestingly, the states of California and Florida haven't released any monthly data on Canadian tourists since June. State data up to that point showed the boycott was having a significant effect on tourism. I suspect state officials have several more months worth of data, but are delaying the release of the numbers because they are so bad.

I came across an article about Florida snowbirds which makes an interesting point:

Canadian Snowbird Caught Off Guard By Reception In Florida: "It's Something I've Never Seen Before"

So, what is this unexpected reception?

...Joan did notice a major change during her current U.S. trip that caught her off guard. Canadians are typically known to say sorry quite frequently. This time, it was Americans who approached her to apologize, even strangers in stores. "It is the Americans who are saying, 'sorry, sorry, sorry.' And that happens on a frequent basis. I've had clerks come from behind counters in stores that I've visited over the past 12 years and hugged me and said, 'I'm so happy that you're back. Thank you for coming back. We're so glad you're here.'"

 

[Zdog]

Just one person's anecdotal experience, but we visit the Jersey Shore often, and a hallmark at one time were visitors from Canada. You knew by the abundance of license plates from Canada. This past year we noticed far fewer, and summertime vacancies abound. But there is a silver lining, as Canadian tourism is up 6%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9d7pj543eo