Visitors to Canada insurance: compare and buy online

Visitors to Canada insurance is emergency medical cover for a parent, in-law or relative who is coming on an ordinary visitor visa or an eTA rather than a super visa. Canada issued about 1.05 million visitor visas in 2025, 303,080 of them to Indian nationals, and none of those visitors is covered by a provincial health plan. Buy before they land: a policy bought after arrival carries a 48-hour to 7-day waiting period for illness at most carriers, and RBC will not sell one more than 5 days after arrival. A 65-year-old pays roughly $110 to $270 a month for $100,000 with stable pre-existing conditions.

Who needs visitors to Canada insurance?

Anyone in Canada without provincial health coverage: a parent on a six-month visitor visa, a sibling on an eTA, a fiancé waiting for sponsorship, or a parent whose super visa is still in process and who came on a visitor visa first. IRCC does not require it for a visitor visa, but the hospital will bill the patient, and the patient’s family in Canada usually pays.

The numbers matter. About half of ordinary visitor visa applications were approved in 2025, against 75 to 81% for the super visa (Go Far Global, citing IRCC’s May 2026 committee package). Many families therefore apply for a visitor visa first, because it is faster and needs no insurance in the file, and buy cover once it is approved. That is a sound sequence as long as the policy is bought before the flight.

Why buy before arrival: the waiting periods

Every major carrier treats a policy bought after arrival differently from one bought before. The reason is simple: a visitor who falls ill on day three and then buys insurance is not a risk the insurer priced. So illness is excluded for a set number of days, and in some cases the policy cannot be bought at all.

Buying before the flight removes the problem. GMS waives its waiting period entirely if the policy is bought before arrival or if the visitor switches from another Canadian insurer with no gap. TuGo states “no waiting period if you buy before arriving.” Injuries are usually covered from the effective date regardless.

Sources: carrier pages linked above and the Manulife guide. The practical rule: buy the policy the day the visa is approved, set the start date to the arrival date, and move it if the flight changes. Every carrier in the table lets you change the start date before coverage begins.

How much coverage: $50,000, $100,000 or $150,000?

For a parent over 60, buy at least $100,000, and $150,000 if the budget allows. A general ward in Ontario costs non-residents $3,750 a day at Niagara Health and $4,005 at Queensway Carleton, with intensive care at $4,500 to $15,642 a day and physician fees billed separately. A three-week ICU admission can pass $100,000.

The 88-year-old in the CP24 story ran up $96,311 in under three weeks at Hamilton General, including time on a ventilator. Her family had bought the $100,000 minimum. Had the stay run another week, the top of the policy would have been reached.

Plan maximums are per policy period. GMS sells $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $150,000; TuGo sells $10,000 to $300,000; RBC sells $25,000, $50,000 and $150,000. The step from $100,000 to $150,000 costs less than the step from $50,000 to $100,000 at most carriers, because the top layer is rarely claimed.

How long should the policy run?

Match the policy to the authorized stay, not to the planned stay. A visitor visa holder is normally admitted for six months; a parent who planned a six-week trip can be asked to stay on after a grandchild is born, and extending a policy is only possible if there has been no claim. GMS, for example, allows extensions only if no treatment was needed and the policy has run less than 365 days.

Visitor plans are priced per day, so there is no penalty for choosing a longer term and cancelling early. Most carriers refund the unused days pro rata if no claim has been made, less a cancellation fee: $250 at TuGo and 21st Century, $150 at Destination, $25 minimum at Manulife. Buying six months and cancelling at six weeks usually costs less than buying six weeks and trying to extend.

Are pre-existing conditions covered?

Stable ones are, on plans with a medical questionnaire. A condition is stable when symptoms, medication and treatment have not changed for the carrier’s stability period before the start date. For a parent on blood pressure or diabetes medication, this is the single most important line in the certificate.

Source: SuperVisaDirect carrier fact sheet, October 2026, and the PolicyAdvisor tables. TuGo also sells an optional rider covering an unstable condition that has been unstable for 7 days or less, to age 79. No-questionnaire plans are cheaper, but the insurer reviews the medical history only when a claim arrives, which is how the Hamilton claim was first denied.

What does visitors to Canada insurance cost?

A 65-year-old pays roughly $110 to $270 a month for $100,000 with stable pre-existing conditions, and a 55-year-old roughly $110 to $190. Rates are per day, so a two-week trip costs a fraction of these figures, and a parent under 55 with no conditions pays considerably less.

Monthly premium, $100,000 coverage, stable pre-existing conditions covered, rates seen Oct 2026 — verify at quote time. Deductible as published by the source, assumed $0.

Source: PolicyAdvisor, rates as modified 16 September 2026; GMS, TuGo and Manulife figures are annual premiums divided by twelve for comparison. Lowest of the six carriers compared on 17 October 2026 for a 65-year-old with stable pre-existing conditions: Secure Travel at about $171 a month. Without pre-existing cover, Secure Travel drops to $135 and 21st Century to $163 at the same age. A $500 deductible cuts roughly 15% at Manulife; a $5,000 deductible roughly 35%.

Can I pay monthly?

Yes, in two ways. Visitor plans are priced per day, so the simplest method is a 30-day policy renewed each month; the carrier must be told before the current term ends and no claim can be open. The second is a true instalment plan, which 21st Century (two months’ deposit plus $50), Travelance (two months plus $60 to $100), Secure Travel (two months plus $120, then ten instalments) and Destination (two months plus $10) offer.

Instalment plans matter most for the super visa, where IRCC accepts instalments with a deposit as proof of payment. For a plain visitor visa, renewal by the month works and avoids the fee. Either way, a missed payment lapses the cover, and reinstatement usually brings a new waiting period. Details are on the monthly plans page.

How is this different from super visa insurance?

It is the same insurance sold under different rules. The product, the carriers and the medical questions are identical; what changes is what IRCC will accept. A super visa requires $100,000 or more per applicant, health care, hospitalization and repatriation, validity of one year from the date of entry and on each entry, a Canadian insurer or a foreign insurer on OSFI’s register issuing through its Canadian business, and payment in full or by instalments with a deposit, all proven in the application and shown to the border officer.

A visitor visa requires none of that. You can buy $25,000 for ten days after the parent has landed. The trade-off is approval odds and stay length: about 50% and six months for the visitor visa, 75 to 81% and five years per entry for the super visa. Our decision guide sets the two routes side by side.

When should a visitor-visa parent upgrade to a super visa?

When they plan to return more than once, or want to stay beyond six months, or when the family’s income clears the LICO table. The super visa is a ten-year multiple-entry visa; once held, the only recurring task is a new one-year policy before each entry. The Parents and Grandparents Program stopped taking new sponsorship applications on 15 July 2026, so the super visa is now the long-stay route for most families.

The application must be made from outside Canada, with a 365-day $100,000 policy already paid and in the file. A parent at the end of a visitor stay should fly home, and the host should buy the super visa policy with a movable start date the same week. Get a quote before booking the return flight, and read the super visa hub for the host income rules.

SuperVisaDirect is operated by Super Visa Direct Insurance Services, an independent Ontario life and accident-and-sickness insurance agency licensed by FSRA (licence [FSRA-LICENCE]). We currently serve Ontario residents; other provinces are coming in 2028. Claims and complaint rights are set out in the THIA Travel Insurance Bill of Rights.