Canada - Barbados

Even expatriating to another English speaking nation is not without its difficulties.

The fact that you won't have a language barrier helps, but you'll have to accustom yourself to a significantly different accent, so you'll need to hone your listening skills.

Other factors to concern are learning as much as possible about the culture, customs and traditions of the local residents.

You'll need to find out information about government services, healthcare, education (if applicable), and the bureaucracy surrounding them.

Crime rates are a big concern the rate in Canada is 1.6 while Barbados is considerably higher at 11.3 so that's going to take of getting used to. You'll have to get lots of information from the locals where you should and shouldn't be hanging out, what time you should not be out in the streets in certain areas, etc.

Don't forget too that you're probably going to be considered as nothing but a glorified tourist no matter how long you live there and in some countries that means being charged higher prices for just about everything. Locals all over the world love to take advantage of any opportunity to get more for their product or service. Who can blame them if they see you as just a better source of revenue. Learn how to haggle over prices, strike deals. Find out what the locals do, in many countries shopping successfully means cultivating relationships, dealing with friends of friends, etc., in order to get the best deals.

The more you can learn about your new country before you actually arrive there the better off you're going to be and your adaptation will be easier.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

The more you learn about the culture, customs and traditions of a country, the less likely you are to inadvertently offend people by committing some social gaffe that can leave you with egg on your face or worse still locals who are offended by your lack of cultural sense.

Thank you so much. That is great for start. Any advice where to buy a property?

Sorry, I can't help you on that score, I'm a Canadian living in Brazil now for 12 plus years.

One other thing is that you'll want to find out about income tax implications and if there's a Canada/Barbados Tax Treaty. You'll have to also ask if CPP or QPP (whichever you will be receiving) will make direct deposits to Barbados, or you should really maintain a Canadian bank account anyway and have funds deposited there.

If you receive Canadian sourced income, pensions, annuities, rental income, etc., you're always going to have to file a Canadian T1 General and you will also have to declare any foreign/world income on your T1, you may not necessarily be taxed on that income, but it might have the effect of bumping up slightly the taxes you will pay on Canadian sourced income.

Thank you so much. Yes, I checked on that - Canada and Barbados have Tax Treaty and CPP can be deposited into Barbados bank account.
If you don't mind I would ask you some more questions. Did you keep your Canadian citizenship? In other words, did you have to be certain number of months in a year in Canada to be able to keep Canadian citizenship and are there residency rules for CPP and OAS security?

lovingbarbados wrote:

What should I know before making decision to move from Canada to Barbados? I still plan to work in Canada next 5 - 8 years and am thinking to buy rental property in Barbados for that time. When I am ready to move completely, that should be my home. Any advices? What should I be aware of?
Thanks.

Why Barbados? 

Oh-oh... first sign of warning... thanks.

Hi John,
Why Saint Lucia? Would you recommend it to consider rather then Barbados?

lovingbarbados wrote:

Oh-oh... first sign of warning... thanks.

Hello,

You may want to read my responses in this thread https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 39#1659402

lovingbarbados wrote:

Hi John,
Why Saint Lucia? Would you recommend it to consider rather then Barbados?

As a rule of thumb, someone who wishes to relocate somewhere should listen to the opinions of expat(s) who already live where the person wants to settle down to.

The conflicting rule is that, in the end, everybody is free to do as he pleases. 

I'm a born Canadian and thus will never "lose" my Canadian citizenship and certainly would never give it up.

I don't know what the situation is for naturalized Canadian citizens, but I don't think you would lose your citizenship either unless you specifically renounced it.

The only thing that I can think of is that you certainly could be Deemed Non-Resident by the Canada Revenue Agency and thus be subject to a 25% Withholding Tax (non-refundable), but I think you can get around that easy enough by filing a NR-5 and you'll be filing an annual T1 General every year anyway if you're receiving CPP benefits. My tax rate dropped from 25% down to 10% after filing an NR-5 and since my Brazilian income is so small I get back every penny that CPP deducts for income tax when I file my annual Income Tax Return.

Make sense. Thanks!.

Hi I am Ousmane, I would like new to Barbados.
Thank