Who It Is For

Insurance for new immigrants and foreign workers

Landing in Canada as a permanent resident or on a work permit does not switch on provincial health coverage. In British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec you can wait up to three months. This page is about covering that gap, because an emergency during it is paid entirely out of your own pocket.

The Gap

What you are actually insuring

Up to three months

BC, Ontario and Quebec make new arrivals wait. Most other provinces do not.

The bill is yours

No provincial plan means the full cost of an emergency lands on you.

Starts on landing

Buy before you fly and cover activates the day you arrive, with no waiting.

The whole family

Spouse and children share the same gap, and usually a better family rate.

The Detail

How the waiting period works

This one catches people because it feels wrong. You have the visa, you have the paperwork, you may already have a SIN and a bank account — and you are not covered for a hospital visit. The product that fills the gap is ordinary visitors to Canada insurance; it is just being used for a different reason.

Status and coverage are separate

Becoming a permanent resident makes you eligible to apply for your province’s health plan. It does not enrol you, and eligibility is not the same as an active card. You apply, the province processes it, and in some provinces a waiting period runs on top of that.

British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec each run up to three months. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces generally cover you from arrival and registration. Confirm your own case with the provincial ministry — these rules are set province by province and they get revised.

What an uninsured emergency costs

An emergency room visit that turns into an overnight admission runs into thousands. A cardiac event or a serious fracture with surgery runs into tens of thousands. Hospitals bill uninsured patients directly and they do pursue it. Set against that, a few months of private cover for a family is a small number.

Buy before you fly

Two reasons. First, a policy bought after arrival normally imposes a waiting period of several days before it becomes active, so you are exposed anyway. Second, anything that happens between landing and buying is a pre-existing condition on the new policy, and pre-existing conditions have their own rules.

Set the start date to the day you land. Coverage runs from that date, not from the day you pay, so buying weeks in advance costs nothing extra.

Buy for the gap, not the year

Match the policy to the waiting period plus a little margin — a three-month waiting period suggests four months of cover, not twelve. If the provincial plan comes through earlier, cancel and most insurers refund the unused days pro-rata, less a small fee, as long as no claim has been made.

Run a quote with your landing date and the number of months you need, and you will see what the gap actually costs to cover.

Before You Buy

What to work out first

Which province you are settling in, and whether it has a waiting period
Your actual landing date — coverage should start that day
How long the gap is, plus a few weeks of margin for processing
Whether a work permit of your length qualifies for provincial cover at all
Everyone who needs including: spouse, children, and anyone arriving later
Any existing medical condition, and when the medication last changed

Apply for the provincial plan the week you arrive. The waiting period usually runs from the date of arrival, but the clock on your application only starts when the province receives it. Filing late does not shorten the wait — it extends it, and extends what you have to insure privately.

Foreign workers and IEC participants

Work permit holders are treated inconsistently across the country. Some provinces cover you if the permit runs six months or more, some require an employer named on the permit, and some do not cover temporary workers at all. Working Holiday and IEC participants are frequently not covered anywhere, and some visa categories require proof of private insurance before the permit is issued.

If you cannot confirm in writing that you are enrolled, treat yourself as uninsured and buy cover. The premium is far smaller than the risk.

If parents or grandparents are joining you later, they are a separate case — see Super Visa insurance for a long stay, or returning Canadians if they have provincial coverage that lapsed while they were abroad.

Not sure you are covered

Tell us the province. We will tell you the gap.

Give a licensed agent your province, your landing date and your status, and you will get a straight answer on whether there is a waiting period, how long it runs, and what covering it costs for your household. No obligation to buy anything.

Talk to an agent

Questions from new arrivals

Permanent residence and provincial health coverage are two separate things. PR status makes you eligible to apply for the provincial plan; it does not enrol you, and in several provinces it does not start the cover for up to three months. Private insurance fills that gap.

British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec are the ones that catch most people, each running up to three months. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces generally start coverage from the date you arrive and register. Check with the provincial ministry for your own case — the rules do change.

It depends on the province and the length of the permit. Some provinces cover work permit holders whose permit runs six months or more; others do not cover them at all. If you are not certain you are enrolled, assume you are not and insure the gap.

Yes, but you will usually face a waiting period of a few days before the cover becomes active, and anything that happens in the meantime is treated as pre-existing. Buying before departure avoids both.

Cancel the policy and most insurers refund the unused days pro-rata, less a small fee, provided no claim has been made. Send us the confirmation of your provincial enrolment and we will handle it.

Yes. Spouses and children can go on the same policy or on their own, and family rates are usually better than insuring each person separately. Everyone in the household has the same waiting period, so nobody should be left out.