Super Visa Requirements

The $100,000 Super Visa Insurance Minimum, Explained

IRCC requires super visa applicants to hold private medical insurance with a minimum emergency coverage of $100,000, valid for at least one year from the date of entry. Here is what that means in plain language, straight from the IRCC requirements.

August 25, 2026

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If you are inviting a parent or grandparent to Canada on a super visa, one number comes up in every checklist: $100,000.

It is not a fee, and it is not money anyone has to hand over. It is the minimum amount of emergency medical coverage the insurance policy has to provide. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) treats it as a document requirement — the application is assessed against it, and a border services officer can ask to see the proof again on arrival.

This page walks through exactly what IRCC asks for, why the requirement exists, and the questions that come up most often. Everything here traces back to IRCC's own published pages, which are linked at the bottom.

At a Glance

The Requirement in Six Points

Minimum coverage

$100,000

The policy must provide a minimum emergency coverage of $100,000. This is the floor, not a recommendation. A policy for less does not meet the requirement, no matter how good it looks otherwise.

Validity

At least 1 year from the date of entry

The policy must be valid for a minimum of 1 year from the date of entry — not from the date you bought it, and not from the date you applied. If the coverage will expire before your parent or grandparent leaves Canada, IRCC says to renew it so the stay stays covered.

What it must cover

Health care · Hospitalization · Repatriation

IRCC names all three. A policy that covers hospital care but excludes repatriation does not satisfy the requirement.

Who can issue it

A Canadian insurer — or an OSFI-authorized insurer outside Canada

Since 28 January 2025, a policy from an insurance company outside Canada is accepted, but only if that company is authorized by OSFI under the Insurance Companies Act to provide accident and sickness insurance, appears on OSFI's public list of federally regulated financial institutions, and issued the policy while doing insurance business in Canada. Brokers and claims administrators are not insurance companies.

It must be bought, not quoted

Paid in full, or in instalments with a deposit

IRCC is explicit: quotes aren't accepted. The proof has to be a real policy that has been paid for — either in full or with a deposit under an instalment plan — and it must name the insurance company that issued it.

Proof at the border

Bring your policy confirmation

A border services officer may ask to see it before admitting your parent or grandparent under the super visa. IRCC requires proof of a health insurance policy on each entry to Canada, and the document must be available for review by border services officers on request. Carry it in hand baggage, not in a checked bag.

Why Does IRCC Require This?

The short answer: visitors to Canada are not covered by provincial or territorial health care plans.

A parent or grandparent on a super visa can stay for up to five years at a time, with multiple entries over a period of up to ten years. That is a long time to be in the country with no public health coverage behind you. If something goes wrong — a fall, a cardiac event, a stroke — the bill lands somewhere. Without insurance, it lands on the family, or on a hospital that has no realistic way to collect it.

IRCC's own framing of the January 2025 change says the point is to make sure parents and grandparents “have adequate health insurance when entering Canada,” precisely because “they are not eligible for provincial or territorial health care plans.”

So the $100,000 figure is doing three jobs at once:

1
Protecting the visitor. Emergency care in Canada is expensive when you are paying for it yourself. A few days in intensive care, an air ambulance transfer, or a surgery can run well into six figures.
2
Protecting the host family. Most people who sponsor a super visa application are not in a position to absorb a hospital bill of that size. The insurance requirement converts an unbounded risk into a known premium.
3
Protecting the public system. Provincial health systems are funded for residents. The requirement keeps long-stay visitors from becoming an unfunded cost to hospitals.

Worth knowing: $100,000 is not a new or a recently raised number. IRCC's original 2011 backgrounder for the super visa already set the same minimum, with the same one-year validity and the same health care / hospitalization / repatriation scope. The requirement has been stable for the life of the program.

The Requirement, Line by Line

This is IRCC's list of what the health insurance policy must do, with a plain-language note on each.

IRCC requires the policy to…	What that means in practice
provide a minimum emergency coverage of $100,000	Check the policy’s coverage limit, not the premium. Anything under $100,000 fails.
be valid for a minimum of 1 year from the date of entry	The clock starts when they land in Canada. Buying a one-year policy months before travel can leave a gap at the end.
cover the applicant's health care, hospitalization and repatriation	All three, in the policy wording. Repatriation is the one most often missing from cheap travel plans.
be paid in full or in instalments with a deposit (quotes aren't accepted)	A screenshot of a price is not proof. You need a confirmation of purchase.
include the insurance company name that issued the policy	The document must name the insurer. A broker’s letterhead alone is not enough.
be valid for each entry to Canada	The super visa allows multiple entries over up to ten years. Coverage must be in place every time they arrive.
be available for review by border services officers on request	Bring the document to the border, every time.

For a policy issued by a company outside Canada, IRCC adds one more: the document must include a statement that it was issued or made while the company was doing insurance business in Canada.

Who Is Allowed to Sell the Policy

This is the part that changed most recently, and the part people get wrong most often.

Canadian insurance companies. Straightforward — a policy from a Canadian insurer meets the issuer requirement.

Insurance companies outside Canada. Accepted since 28 January 2025, but only where all three of these are true:

the company is authorized by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) under the Insurance Companies Act to provide accident and sickness insurance;
the company appears on OSFI's publicly available list of federally regulated financial institutions; and
the company issued or made the policy while doing insurance business in Canada.

Two clarifications IRCC makes directly, because they trip people up:

OSFI does not keep a list of foreign insurance companies that are outside Canada, unless they are registered with OSFI as branches or subsidiaries in Canada.

Insurance brokers and insurance claims administrators are not insurance companies.

In practice this means a general travel policy bought from a local insurer in another country will usually not qualify — not because it is a bad policy, but because that insurer is not on OSFI's list. And a confirmation document that names only a broker or a claims administrator does not identify the insurer, which is a separate failure point.

At the Border: What Actually Happens

The super visa itself is issued by IRCC. Admission to Canada is decided separately, at the port of entry, by the Canada Border Services Agency. Holding a valid super visa lets your parent or grandparent travel to Canada and seek entry; it does not by itself guarantee they will be let in.

Because IRCC requires proof of insurance on each entry, and requires it to be available for review on request, the practical advice is simple:

Carry a printed copy of the policy confirmation, and keep a copy on the phone as backup.
Make sure the document shows the insurer's name, the coverage amount, the policy period, and the insured person's name.
If the policy was renewed or extended, bring the current confirmation, not last year’s.
Keep it in hand baggage. A document in a checked suitcase is not available for review.

What $100,000 Does — and Does Not — Mean

A few things the number is often assumed to cover, that it does not:

It is emergency medical coverage, not general health coverage. Super visa insurance is built around sudden and unexpected medical events. Routine care, planned procedures, prescriptions for existing conditions, dental cleanings and eye exams are typically outside it.
It is not a substitute for provincial health insurance. Super visa holders are visitors and remain outside provincial and territorial plans for the duration of the stay.
Meeting the $100,000 minimum does not mean every claim is paid. Policies carry their own exclusions, waiting periods and — very commonly — pre-existing condition clauses with a stability period. IRCC does not regulate those terms. This is a matter of reading the policy wording, and it is where most families are caught out later.

IRCC's published requirements set a floor for the application. They are not a statement about how well a given policy will perform when there is a claim. Those are two different questions, and it is worth answering both before buying.

Related Requirements That Are Not Insurance

Insurance is one document among several. Briefly, and separately from the $100,000 rule, a super visa application also involves:

An immigration medical exam with an IRCC-approved panel physician.
A letter of invitation from the child or grandchild in Canada, who must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or registered Indian.
Proof that the host meets the minimum necessary income for their family size. This is the piece that changed most recently: the Ministerial Instructions that came into force on 31 March 2026 replaced the September 2023 instructions, and their main update was to the income eligibility criterion — not to the insurance requirement, which was carried over unchanged.
Proof of the relationship between the applicant and the host.

If someone tells you the insurance minimum changed in 2026, this is almost certainly what they are thinking of. The insurance clause did not change. The income calculation did.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

IRCC’s wording is "a minimum emergency coverage of $100,000," alongside a separate requirement that the policy be valid for at least one year from the date of entry. IRCC does not define how the limit is structured internally — whether it is per claim, per policy period, or lifetime aggregate. That is set by the policy wording, so check the certificate of insurance.

IRCC's published requirements do not mention deductibles either way. What they do require is that the coverage amount be at least $100,000. A deductible changes what the insured person pays out of pocket before the policy responds; it does not change the coverage limit.

Yes. IRCC accepts a policy "paid in full or in instalments with a deposit." What is not accepted is a quote — the policy has to actually be purchased.

Proof of a purchased policy is part of the document set, and quotes are not accepted, so in practice yes — the policy needs to exist before the application is submitted.

That is entirely a matter of the insurer’s own terms, not an IRCC rule. Refund terms on visa refusal vary between insurers and between plans. Read the cancellation and refund clause before you buy, and keep the refusal letter if you need to make a request.

IRCC's guidance is direct: if the insurance will expire before they leave Canada, renew the policy so coverage continues through the stay. Proof of a valid policy is also required on each entry.

Only if the issuing company meets all three OSFI conditions above. Most locally sold foreign travel policies do not, because their insurer is not on OSFI's list of federally regulated financial institutions.

Yes. IRCC requires the document to include the name of the insurance company that issued the policy, and states plainly that brokers and claims administrators are not insurance companies. Ask the broker for a confirmation or certificate that names the underwriting insurer.

From the date of entry to Canada. This matters if travel plans shift after the policy is bought — a policy dated to start well before arrival can run short at the far end of the stay.

Every entry. A super visa provides multiple entries over a period of up to ten years, and IRCC requires proof of a health insurance policy on each entry to Canada.

No. The minimum has been $100,000 since the super visa launched in 2011. The 2026 change was to the host's income requirement.

That is a judgment call, not an IRCC rule. $100,000 is the legal floor for the application. Whether it is the right amount for a specific person depends on their age, health history, how long they are staying, and what the family could absorb if the limit were exhausted. Higher limits are widely available.

IRCC References

Every requirement on this page comes from these Government of Canada sources:

Information current as of 25 August 2026. IRCC's forms and documents page was last modified 30 July 2026. Requirements can change — check the IRCC pages linked above before applying. This page is general information, not immigration or insurance advice.

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