Visitors to Canada

Visitors to Canada insurance

Provincial health plans cover residents of Canada, not visitors. There is no reciprocal arrangement for most countries, so from the moment someone lands, every doctor, ambulance and hospital bed is billed directly to them. Visitors to Canada insurance is what stands in the way of that bill.

Your price in about a minute

Ages, arrival date, and how long they are staying. Nothing to pay until you choose a plan.

Coming on a Super Visa? Start with Super Visa insurance instead — it has its own rules.

Who Needs It

Four situations, the same policy

Tourists and family

Anyone here on a visitor visa or an eTA, for a fortnight or for six months.

New PRs and workers

Covering the provincial waiting period, which runs up to three months in some provinces.

Returning Canadians

A long absence can end provincial coverage, and re-enrolment is not instant.

Workers and IEC

Permit holders whose province does not cover them, and Working Holiday participants.

The Cover

How much to buy, and what it pays for

Coverage runs from $10,000 to $500,000, for anything from a single day to two years. The amount is the main lever on price, and it is the one people most often set too low.

$10,000 sounds like a lot until you price a Canadian hospital. A night in intensive care can pass it on its own, and an air ambulance transfer will exceed it several times over. For most visitors $100,000 is the sensible floor — and because premiums do not scale in a straight line, moving from $50,000 to $100,000 usually costs far less than doubling the number suggests. Check the actual difference in the quote results before you economise on the limit.

What every plan we place covers:

Emergency hospital and ward accommodation
Physician and specialist fees during an emergency
Diagnostics — X-rays, scans and 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

It is emergency cover, not a health plan. Routine checkups, dental cleanings, prescription refills for a condition someone already has, elective procedures, pregnancy and childbirth on most plans, and anything somebody travels to Canada specifically to obtain are all outside it. If it is not an emergency, assume it is not covered and ask before booking it.

The Decisions

Deductible, timing, and staying longer

Choosing a deductible

The deductible is what you pay before the insurer pays anything. Moving from $0 to $500 or $1,000 brings the premium down noticeably, and for a healthy traveller on a short trip that is a fair bet.

It stops being a fair bet in two cases: if finding that sum in an emergency would genuinely be difficult, or if the person travelling has a condition that makes a claim more likely. Set it against what you could comfortably pay on a bad day, not against the saving on the premium.

Buy before they fly

This is the one that costs people money. A policy bought after arrival normally carries a waiting period — commonly a few days — before the cover becomes active, so the first week is uninsured anyway. Worse, anything that has already happened since landing is treated as pre-existing on the new policy.

Coverage starts on the date you choose, not the date you pay, so buying weeks ahead costs nothing extra. Set the start date to the landing date. If the flight moves, call the insurer and shift the start date before the original one passes — that is usually free, and afterwards it usually is not.

If the visit runs long

Extensions are routine, as long as you arrange one before the current policy expires and no claim has been made. An extension continues the cover you already have. Letting the policy lapse and buying a new one instead restarts every pre-existing clock from zero and re-dates everything that has happened in the meantime, which is a far weaker position for the sake of a phone call.

Health History

When there is a condition on record

Most visitors over sixty have something — blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, a procedure some years back. Plenty of plans cover it, provided the condition has been stable for that insurer’s stability period, usually 90 or 180 days.

Stable means unchanged rather than healthy: no new symptoms, no new medication, no change of dose, no new treatment or test still pending. A dose adjustment two months before departure can put a condition inside a 180-day window while a 90-day plan clears it — same person, same health, opposite outcome. Two plans at the same premium are not interchangeable once a condition is involved, so read how stability periods work before you choose on price.

Declare everything, including what seems minor. Insurers pull medical records on any claim of size, and a non-disclosure can void the whole policy rather than just the part relating to that condition.

If you are covering a provincial waiting period rather than a holiday, the specifics are on our pages for new immigrants and foreign workers and returning Canadians. When a claim does come up, start at how to make a claim.

Not sure what to buy

Tell us who is coming and for how long.

Give a licensed agent the ages, the dates and any medical history, and you will get back the plans that actually fit — with the deductible, the limit and the stability period laid out side by side. The advice costs nothing and there is no obligation to buy.

Talk to an agent

Visitor insurance questions

Not for a regular visitor visa or an eTA — nobody will stop you at the border for lacking it. It is mandatory for a Super Visa. For everyone else it is optional right up until somebody needs a hospital, at which point the bill is yours in full.

Plans run from $10,000 to $500,000. $10,000 does not go far against a Canadian hospital stay — one night in intensive care can pass it. $100,000 is the sensible floor for most visitors, and the step up from $50,000 usually costs far less than doubling the cover suggests.

Yes, but with two penalties. Most insurers apply a waiting period of a few days before the cover becomes active, and anything that has already happened counts as pre-existing on the new policy. Buying before departure avoids both and costs no more.

Many plans do, if the condition has been stable for the insurer’s stability period — commonly 90 or 180 days with no change of medication or dose. See pre-existing conditions, because this is the detail most declined claims turn on.

Usually, provided you arrange it before the current policy expires and no claim has been made. Extending continues the existing cover. Buying a fresh policy instead restarts every pre-existing clock, so it is a much weaker position — sort the extension out early.

If coverage never started, you generally get the full premium back. If they go home early, most insurers refund the unused days pro-rata less a small fee, as long as no claim has been made. Send us the departure stamp.

Cover them before they land

Compare visitor 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