North America.

The continent, in numbers.

North America carries the structural USMCA trade corridor of 2026 across the United States, Canada, and Mexico at 502 million combined population, with the structural cost basket from 1,140 USD a month in Merida and Oaxaca through 1,440 USD in Mexico City, 2,440 USD in Austin, 2,640 USD in Miami, 3,140 USD in Toronto, 3,640 USD in Los Angeles, 3,840 USD in Vancouver, 4,140 USD in San Francisco, and 4,640 USD in New York central Manhattan.

The structural US visa stack runs the H1B specialty occupation at the qualifying lottery (85,000 annual cap), the O1 extraordinary ability visa at the qualifying achievement record, the L1 intracompany transfer at the qualifying corporate corridor, the EB1, EB2, and EB3 employment based green card pathways, and the E2 treaty investor at the 100,000 USD plus business investment minimum. The Canadian Express Entry at the 67 point Comprehensive Ranking System threshold runs the structural skilled worker permanent residence corridor.

For the parallel filters, the cities for tech jobs ranking places San Francisco, New York, Austin, Los Angeles, and Toronto inside the global top 15 tech anchor; the cities for finance ranking places New York at the global number 1 financial centre per the GFCI 38 reading.

The countries that make it up.

The climate across the continent.

The structural North American climate runs five deep. The structural Mediterranean tier across the central California coast (San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego) carries the year round 54F to 84F daytime envelope with the structural cool summer marine layer at central San Francisco; the structural Los Angeles equivalent runs at 64F to 88F July daytime.

The structural humid subtropical tier across the southeastern United States (Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston) carries the structural 78F to 92F July to August daytime envelope with the August to October hurricane season risk; the structural Miami November to April optimal winter window runs at 70F to 80F daytime.

The structural continental tier across the Northeast and Midwest United States and southern Canada (New York, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, Montreal) carries the 24F to 38F January window and the 78F to 88F July equivalent. The structural Toronto February daytime equivalent runs at 28F to 32F.

The structural Mexican altitude tier at Mexico City (7,300 ft elevation), Guadalajara (5,141 ft), and San Miguel de Allende (6,400 ft) carries the structural year round 54F to 78F daytime envelope (the structural Mexican absolute mild climate corridor). The structural Yucatan and Caribbean coast tier at Merida, Cancun, and Playa del Carmen runs the structural year round tropical 76F to 92F equivalent.

The visa stack.

North America carries no Schengen equivalent. The structural visa friction sits at the country tier with the structural ESTA 90 day visa exempt window for the United Kingdom, EU, Australian, Japanese, South Korean, and Singaporean passport into the United States (the structural Visa Waiver Program at 41 qualifying countries), the eTA 6 month window for the United States, EU, and Australian passport into Canada, and the structural FMM 180 day tourist visa into Mexico.

For the longer than 90 day horizon, the United States H1B specialty occupation visa runs at the 85,000 annual lottery cap (65,000 regular plus 20,000 master degree exemption); the O1 extraordinary ability visa runs without lottery at the qualifying achievement record; the L1 intracompany transfer runs at the qualifying corporate corridor; the E2 treaty investor at 100,000 USD plus business investment minimum (the structural treaty country list at 81 qualifying nations); the EB5 investor green card at 800,000 USD targeted employment area minimum.

For the structural Canadian permanent residence corridor, the Express Entry runs at the 67 point Comprehensive Ranking System threshold with the structural Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, and Canadian Experience Class streams. The structural Provincial Nominee Program runs the parallel pathway at the qualifying province threshold; the Quebec Skilled Worker runs the structural Francophone bilingual corridor.

For the structural Mexican inbound, the Temporary Resident visa runs at the 4,300 USD monthly income or 71,200 USD savings tier (the structural one to four year renewable corridor); the Permanent Resident visa runs at the 7,200 USD monthly income or 287,000 USD savings tier. The structural Mexican passport at the 5 year permanent residency naturalization corridor delivers the structural United States and Canadian visa exempt 180 day window.

The healthcare and the schools.

North American healthcare runs three deep. The structural United States private corporate insurance tier covers 67 percent of the working age population at the qualifying employer sponsored tier (the structural average annual employer family premium at 24,400 USD per the Kaiser Family Foundation 2025 reading); the structural Affordable Care Act marketplace tier covers the qualifying individual at the 2010 ACA corridor; the structural Medicare covers the 65 plus tier; the structural Medicaid covers the qualifying low income tier.

The structural Canadian universal public tier runs the structural provincial Medicare across Ontario OHIP, British Columbia MSP, Quebec RAMQ, Alberta AHCIP at the resident tier with the structural waitlist compression risk at the specialist tier (the structural CIHI 2024 reading at the 22 week median wait for elective surgery); the structural Mexican IMSS public tier runs at the federal employer sponsored corridor; the structural INSABI replacement at the IMSS Bienestar runs the universal public coverage at the qualifying resident tier across the federal Mexican territory.

The structural North American university tier sits at the global anchor with 18 of the QS World University Rankings 2026 top 50 (the United States Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Princeton, UChicago, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Berkeley, Cornell, UCLA, NYU, Northwestern; the Canadian University of Toronto, McGill, UBC, Waterloo). The structural United States private university tuition runs at 56,000 to 84,000 USD annually at the central Ivy League and elite tier; the structural Canadian public tuition runs at 6,400 to 14,400 CAD annually at the federal tier (the structural compression against the United States equivalent).

Where we would move.

For the structural global financial and tech anchor on the structural English working language axis, the United States cluster of New York, San Francisco, Austin, and Los Angeles delivers the North American number 1 anchor at the 2,440 to 4,640 USD cost basket plus the H1B and O1 visa stack. The full United States country report walks the federal tier.

For the structural Canadian permanent residence anchor on the structural Express Entry axis, the Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal cluster delivers the regional number 2 corridor at the 2,440 to 3,840 USD cost basket plus the Express Entry at 67 point CRS threshold and the structural Provincial Nominee Program parallel pathway. The structural Canadian universal healthcare runs at the residency tier.

For the structural Mexican cost compressed altitude anchor on the structural Temporary Resident visa axis, the Mexico City, Merida, San Miguel de Allende, and Oaxaca cluster delivers the regional cost floor at the 1,140 to 1,640 USD cost basket plus the Temporary Resident at 4,300 USD monthly income minimum. The structural Mexican USMCA trade corridor and proximity to the United States deliver the structural relocator value tier.