It's not a huge language barrier for SO. (We're not married: we both resisted the pressure to be married and to procreate.) But he'd face some problems getting employed, starting with his age and with the fact he's educated in a Chinese university. (This latter point is a significant source of amusement for him given that Chinese-educated scientists and engineers have almost 50% of worldwide patents issued in 2024, that China broke into the top 10 on the Global Innovation Index in 2025, and that in world university rankings Chinese universities dominate the top 5 Asian list while Chinese universities feature as high as #14 in the global top 50 list.)

So the real choice is "do we retire in Canada?"

And that's the stronger choice only ... ah ... we're not married so his emigration would be very difficult to work out. I mean by Canadian law we're common-law married, but proving this to the incompetent, lazy, and racist assholes at IRCC would likely be a multi-year aggravating chore.

And as much as I'd love to retire to the semi-rural life of northern B.C. (a place he was profoundly impacted by too!), I'm not going to do it without him, and I'm really not super-strongly motivated to commit to a years-long fight with IRCC.