Super Visa Insurance

Super Visa insurance requirements, explained

Four conditions, and that is the whole list: at least $100,000 of coverage, valid a full 365 days, from an insurer Canada accepts, paid for rather than quoted. Here is what each one means when you are actually filling in the application.

What IRCC Checks

The four conditions

$100,000 minimum

Emergency healthcare, hospitalization and repatriation — per person, not per family.

365 days, minimum

A full year from the coverage start date, whatever the length of the visit.

An accepted insurer

A Canadian insurer, or one of the providers IRCC has designated outside Canada.

Paid, not quoted

Proof the premium has been paid. A quote on its own is not evidence of anything.

Condition by Condition

What each one actually means

A Super Visa application stands or falls on its documents, and the insurance document is one of the few you can get completely right in an afternoon. Our main Super Visa insurance page covers the plans themselves and what they cost. This page is about what a visa officer is checking when they open the letter.

$100,000 in emergency medical coverage

That is the floor, not the target. The policy has to cover emergency healthcare, hospitalization and repatriation — those three are named in the requirement itself. Plenty of plans go to $150,000 or higher and the difference in premium is smaller than most people guess, but $100,000 is the number that satisfies the rule.

Each person needs their own $100,000. If both parents are coming, that is $100,000 each, not $100,000 between them. A few family plans share one limit across everybody named on the certificate, which is worth checking before you pay.

Valid for at least 365 days

A full year from the day coverage starts. This is where applications get held up more often than anywhere else: someone buys a six-month policy because the visit is planned for six months. The length of the visit is beside the point. The insurance requirement is a year, and a 180-day policy fails it no matter how long anyone intends to stay.

Set the coverage start date to the day they plan to land. If the flight moves, phone the insurer and move the start date before the old one arrives — most will do it at no charge as long as the policy has not begun.

From an insurer Canada accepts

Two options, and only two. A Canadian insurance company, which is what nearly everyone uses. Or an insurer outside Canada that IRCC has specifically designated — that list is short, published, and changes rarely. A general travel policy bought back home from a company that is not on it will not be accepted, however good the coverage looks on paper.

Paid for, with proof

A quote proves nothing. What is wanted is evidence the policy exists and has been paid for. If you are paying monthly, the insurer issues a confirmation letter stating the policy is in force under an approved instalment plan — that letter is what you upload, and it is worth keeping the receipt for the first payment beside it. The wording varies between insurers, so ask to see the letter a specific plan produces before you commit to monthly.

All four are yes-or-no tests, and a plan either passes or it does not. Run a quote and you will only be shown ones that pass — what is left to decide is the coverage amount, the deductible and the price.

The Document

What the confirmation letter has to show

The insured person’s full name, spelled the way the passport spells it
The insurer’s name, plus a policy or certificate number
The coverage amount, in Canadian dollars
An effective date and an expiry date at least 365 days apart
Confirmation that emergency healthcare, hospitalization and repatriation are covered
Evidence the premium has been paid

Names are the quiet failure point. If the passport reads Kuldip Singh Sandhu and the certificate reads Kuldeep Sandhu, that is a mismatch somebody has to explain later. Read the letter the moment it lands, and send it back for a correction the same day if anything is out — insurers reissue these in minutes.

The policy is one document out of several

The rest of a Super Visa application has nothing to do with the insurer: a letter of invitation from the child or grandchild in Canada, proof that their household meets the low-income cut-off for its size, and an immigration medical exam. Buying $500,000 of coverage instead of $100,000 does not strengthen any of that. It satisfies the one requirement it exists for, and no more.

If the person travelling has a heart condition, diabetes or anything else on record, the requirement itself does not change — but the plan worth buying does, because stability periods differ from insurer to insurer. Read how pre-existing conditions are handled before you compare on price alone. And if this is your parents’ first trip over, our page on insurance for parents and grandparents covers the rest of what to expect.

Not sure it qualifies

Send us the letter. We will read it.

Email the confirmation letter before you upload it and a licensed agent will check it against all four conditions — the amount, the dates, the insurer and the proof of payment. It takes a few minutes, it costs nothing, and we will do it whether you bought the policy through us or not.

Talk to an agent

Questions about the requirements

Yes. The paid policy is part of the application, so it goes in with everything else. Coverage itself can start later — set the start date to the day they plan to arrive, not the day you apply.

Every insurer we place business with refunds it against a copy of the refusal letter. Some deduct a small administration fee, some refund in full. Ask us for the exact clause on a plan before you buy and we will pull the wording up.

Yes, and some families do. A Super Visa allows stays of up to five years at a time, so buying two years up front and renewing after that is common. One year is the minimum, not a ceiling.

No. It is still $100,000 and still 365 days. What changes is which plans are worth buying, because each insurer defines a stability period differently. More on pre-existing conditions.

Only if that insurer appears on IRCC’s designated list of approved providers outside Canada. If it does not, the policy has to come from a Canadian insurer — you can buy it here on your parents’ behalf and have the letter emailed to them.