Super Visa

Super Visa insurance for parents and grandparents

Super Visa insurance is the medical cover Canada requires before parents and grandparents can be approved: at least $100,000, valid a full 365 days, from an insurer it accepts, and paid for before the application goes in. Compare qualifying plans from six Canadian insurers below and buy in a few minutes.

Your price in about a minute

Ages, arrival date, and how long they are staying. That is most of it — and nothing to pay until you choose a plan.

Prefer to talk it through? Call 437-428-2828, Mon–Sat, 9am–8pm ET.

What Canada Requires

Four conditions, and that is the list

$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.

What You Get

What the policy actually covers

A Super Visa policy is emergency medical cover. It is not a health plan, and it is not a substitute for the provincial coverage your parents do not have. What it does is stand between your family and a hospital bill that can run past $50,000 for a single cardiac admission.

The core of every plan we place looks much the same:

Emergency hospital and ward accommodation
Physician and specialist fees during an emergency
Diagnostics — X-rays, scans, lab work ordered in an emergency
Prescription drugs dispensed during or immediately after treatment
Ambulance, including air ambulance where it is needed
Emergency dental for accidental injury to natural teeth
Repatriation, and return of remains
Follow-up visits an emergency physician orders, within limits

What it does not cover. Routine and preventive care, checkups, dental cleanings, prescription refills for a condition someone already has, elective procedures, pregnancy and childbirth on most plans, and anything you travel to Canada specifically to obtain. If it is not an emergency, assume it is not covered and ask us before you book it.

The Decisions

Three choices that move the price

How much coverage

$100,000 satisfies the rule. $150,000 is the next step up and, on most plans for most ages, the difference in premium is smaller than people expect — often a modest percentage rather than a jump of half again. A Canadian intensive care bed runs into thousands per day, so if the extra is affordable it is generally worth taking.

The deductible

The deductible is what you pay before the insurer pays anything. Moving from $0 to $500 or $1,000 pulls the premium down noticeably, and for a healthy traveller who is unlikely to claim at all, that is a reasonable bet.

It is a bad bet in two situations. If money would genuinely be tight in an emergency, a deductible you cannot produce on the spot is a problem at exactly the wrong moment. And if a parent has a condition that makes a claim more likely, you are simply trading a certain saving now for a probable cost later. Set it against what you would comfortably pay on a bad day, not against the premium.

Pre-existing conditions

Almost every parent in their sixties or seventies has something on record — blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, a stent fitted years ago. Most plans will cover it, provided the condition has been stable for that insurer’s stability period, typically 90 or 180 days.

Stable means unchanged, not healthy: no new symptoms, no new medication, no change of dose, no new treatment or test still pending. A dose adjustment three months before departure can put a condition inside a 180-day window while a 90-day plan clears it — same person, same health, different answer. That is why two plans at the same premium are not interchangeable, and it is worth reading how stability periods work before you compare on price.

Paying For It

Monthly, refunds and changes

Annual or monthly

A year of $100,000 cover for two parents is a real bill to find in one go. Most plans let you spread it: a first instalment plus a setup fee, then a fixed amount each month. The policy is still an annual policy — you are financing it, not shortening it — and the full 365 days is intact.

Monthly costs a little more overall once the setup fee and finance charge are in. What it should never do is push you toward a six-month policy to save money, because a six-month policy does not satisfy the requirement at all. More on paying monthly.

Refunds

Three situations come up constantly. If the visa is refused, the premium is refunded against the refusal letter. If your parents go home early, most insurers refund the unused days pro-rata less a small fee, as long as no claim has been made. If the coverage never started because the trip was cancelled outright, you generally get the lot back.

The one that catches people is a claim. Once a claim has been made, the unused portion is usually no longer refundable — so cancel before you claim if the visit is ending and nothing has happened.

If plans change

Flights move. Call the insurer and shift the start date before the original date passes and it is normally free. Afterwards it rarely is. If the visit is extended, arrange the extension before the current policy expires — an extension continues the existing cover, whereas a fresh policy restarts every pre-existing clock from scratch.

How to Buy

Four steps, start to documents

1. Tell us who is travelling

Ages, arrival date, length of stay, and any medical conditions with medication dates.

2. Compare the plans

Every qualifying plan, priced side by side. Change the deductible and prices move as you watch.

3. Pick one and pay

Card payment, with monthly instalments available on most plans.

4. Get the documents

Policy wording and the confirmation letter by email, usually within minutes.

That confirmation letter is the document the visa office wants, and the one a border officer may ask to see. Check it the moment it lands: the name has to match the passport exactly, the dates have to be at least 365 days apart, and the amount has to be there in Canadian dollars. Our requirements page lists everything it should contain.

If this is your parents’ first long trip over, the page on insurance for parents and grandparents covers the rest of what to expect — what to send them before they board, and what to do if something happens while they are here. When it does, start at how to make a claim.

Ready to see the plans?

Every result meets the $100,000 and 365-day rule. Compare the prices, the deductibles and the stability periods in one place.

Rather just ask someone

Tell us the situation. We will tell you the plan.

Give a licensed agent the ages, the arrival date and any medical history, and you will get back the plans that genuinely work — not just the cheapest row in a table. Most families settle this in one phone call, and there is no charge for the advice.

Talk to an agent

Super Visa insurance questions

At least $100,000 in emergency medical coverage per person, valid for a full 365 days from the date the policy starts, from an insurer Canada accepts. That is the minimum IRCC will accept. Plenty of families go to $150,000 because the extra costs less than they expect.

On most Super Visa plans, yes — typically a first instalment plus a setup fee, then a fixed amount each month. The policy still runs the full year. See monthly payment plans for how the instalments work and what the confirmation letter has to say.

Every insurer we place business with refunds the premium 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 specific plan before you buy.

Many plans do, provided the condition has been stable for a set period before coverage starts — usually 90 or 180 days. Stable means no new symptoms, no change of medication or dose, no new treatment. It is the detail most claims turn on, so read our page on pre-existing conditions before choosing on price.

Before the application goes in — the paid policy is part of it. Coverage itself starts on the date you pick, not the date you pay, so buying early costs nothing and buying late risks a waiting period.

Phone the insurer and move the start date before the original one passes. Most will do it at no charge as long as the policy has not begun. Leave it until after the start date and you are usually stuck with it.

Usually yes, pro-rated for the unused days, as long as no claim has been made. Most insurers charge a small cancellation fee. Send us the departure stamp and we will handle the paperwork.

Either works, but check the limit. Each person needs their own $100,000 to satisfy the rule, and a few family plans share a single limit across everybody named on the certificate. A shared limit does not qualify.

Get it sorted before the application goes in

Compare qualifying plans in about a minute, or talk it through with a licensed agent first. Mon–Sat, 9am–8pm ET. No obligation, and nobody will push you to buy on the call.

Get a Quote

Call 437-428-2828