Austin dating site matches U.S. singles with Canadians to escape Donald Trump

An Austin company is helping set up Americans with ready-to-marry Canadians to help people in the U.S. gain Canadian citizenship in the event that Donald Trump wins the presidential election.

Maple Match just launched about a week ago, but they have already gotten a big response.
“Ultimately, the idea just sprung on me that why not connect Americans and Canadians on a dating site? And with the Trump candidacy, we thought it might be a good time to see what would happen,” said Maple Match founder Joe Goldman. 

According to the website, Maple Match is "making it easy for Americans to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency," but even if you are a Trump supporter you can sign up for the site to meet eligible Canadians.

“We have a good split of men and women, people who are gay and straight, all sorts of people have signed up for Maple Match and all age ranges too,” said Goldman. 
               
More than 25,000 people have already signed up for the free site; 5,000 of them from Canada. The founder of Maple Match said although the company does not help with the legal paperwork involved in immigrating, it will help people in the U.S. find a Canadian significant other so they can apply for citizenship.

“Ultimately, what's important is that two people who love each other and decide to move to a different country take those legal and citizenship factors into account when making those decisions,” Goldman said. 

Google searches in the U.S. for the phrase "move to Canada" climbed 350 percent after Trump's big win on 'Super Tuesday' in March. Maple Match has been able to capitalize on that population.

“We’ve had a lot of people say that they're concerned, we've had a lot of people saying they're ready to leave America, we've had a lot of people saying they'd like to stay in America because of a Trump presidency,” said Goldman. 

According to the Canadian government, about 250,000 people move to the country each year.

The bad news, marrying a Canadian does not automatically grant you Canadian citizenship. You must still apply for citizenship and meet several requirements.