Moving to Canada from Ireland

Our residency index: 80/100, comparatively open. It is our own rating of how realistic long-term residency in Canada is for Irish citizens, based on the routes Canada publishes. Long-term residency runs through points-based skilled economic streams (Express Entry's Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, and Canadian Experience Class) and Provincial Nominee Programs, with no fixed income or self-funded investment threshold for a capable applicant.

Our dataset has no self-funded income or savings threshold for Canada. Check the official requirements before you apply.

For short visits, Irish passport holders need an e-visa or eTA before a visit, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold Irish passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. Vancouver

   75% match

   Est. cost

   €3,765/mo

   Avg temp

   10°C

   Safety index

   60/100

2. 2

   2. Toronto

   71% match

   Est. cost

   €3,991/mo

   Avg temp

   9°C

   Safety index

   60/100

3. 3

   3. Ottawa

   70% match

   Est. cost

   €3,832/mo

   Avg temp

   7°C

   Safety index

   60/100

4. 4

   4. Montréal

   68% match

   Est. cost

   €3,919/mo

   Avg temp

   7°C

   Safety index

   60/100

5. 5

   5. Calgary

   65% match

   Est. cost

   €3,872/mo

   Avg temp

   4°C

   Safety index

   60/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €3,765 a month in Vancouver to €3,991 in Toronto. For comparison, we estimate €4,127 a month in Dublin. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Canada is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax); Ireland is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in Ireland after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

• Best places to live in North America
• Best English-speaking cities to move to
• Easiest countries to move to

• Moving to Canada from the US
• Moving to Canada from the UK
• Moving to Canada from Australia
• Moving to Canada from New Zealand

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding Irish passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.