Mexicans head north for a better life. Way north.

But Rosenblatt responds that very few Mexicans overstay their visas or come illegally to Canada. "They go back home to their families with a lot of money in their pockets, secure that they can easily return the next year if they please," he says.

Officials at the Mexican Ministry of Labor, which handles the paperwork for this force, agree, saying that 80 percent of the temporary workers come home, get rehired, and return to Canada the following year.

By the end of 2005, Canada expects to have invited in close to 240,000 new foreign immigrants, temporary workers, and refugees from around the world (as a percentage of its population, that is three times what the US currently allows in legally). The number of Mexican immigrants is still relatively low compared with the 36,411 Chinese and 25,569 Indians who moved to Canada last year. But, stresses Ambassador Lavertu, a trend is noticeable.

While most immigrants go to Canada's biggest cities - Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa - some of the provinces are recruiting, too. Thinly populated Manitoba, for example, is bringing in about 4,000 newcomers a year under a program that lets it nominate prospective immigrants even when they don't meet standard federal criteria.

"NAFTA brought us closer. Bilateral trade has tripled, Canadian firms have come to Mexico, education and tourism ties have been tightened ... and now immigration is rising," says Lavertu. "After 1994 [when NAFTA went into effect] we woke up to the Americas, especially to Mexico," he says. "And I think Mexico started looking over at us then, too."

In an effort to encourage immigration from Mexico and elsewhere, the Canadian government has been relaxing and simplifying its immigration rules over the past few years. Mexican tourists enter Canada just by showing a passport, and the process of applying for either permanent or worker status is far easier and usually cheaper than the often subjective process of getting a US visa.

"Just getting a hearing [for a visa] at the US embassy is a feat," says Javiar Gomez, a Mexico City house painter who waited four months to hear whether or not he could get a tourist visa to visit his brother in Chicago last year. He didn't get the visa. "You have to pay [a nonrefundable $100 fee] before knowing if you will be accepted or not. Its infuriating," he says.

Temporary workers who want to go to Canada fill out one form. There's no charge. The same application to the US, according the US Embassy website requires, among other things:

• "A copy of the I-129 petition and the original approved I-797 petition. "

• "A BANAMEX receipt for the 1,150 pesos (adjusted according to exchange rate) application fee. There can be additional fees for individuals obtaining work visas."

• "Supplementary application form if applicant is male between the ages of 16 and 45."

Any Mexican can apply for an immigrant visa to Canada. But the US rules say that only Mexicans who have family or a sponsoring employer can apply for the same visa.

Three months ago, Carral and Anhalt paid an immigration lawyer about $860 to handle all the paperwork for both of them. They threw a disco farewell party, kissed their parents goodbye, and packed up for Toronto.

"The climate is terrible," admits Carral, reached by phone in Canada. "Our furniture has not yet arrived," adds Anhalt, who is working night shifts in an Italian trattoria and planning to open his own Mexican restaurant someday.

"But we are happy," says Carral. This week she starts a new job.

"It's not like a 'wow' job," she allows. "But it is a beginning, and it's a new home where we feel OK."

• Ms. Harman is Latin America bureau chief for the Monitor and USA Today.

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