A new bill before the Parliament would allow parent or grandparent who applies for a temporary resident visa to get private health coverage from a foreign insurance company and to stay here for a period of five years.
After his father died of cancer, Ken Yu began entering Canada’s annual lottery in the hopes of winning an opportunity to sponsor his mother to come to this country as a permanent resident.The Calgary banker has had no success. Instead, he’s been left despondent as he sees more recent immigrants win the draw and be reunited with their parents or grandparents through Canada’s immigration sponsorship program.
The concern over the costs of health insurance — anywhere between $1,800 and $5,000 a year — for visiting parents and grandparents like Yu’s is among the issues that a new bill before Parliament is hoping to address, in a bid to ease family reunification for Canadians who have parents and grandparents abroad.
The Liberal government later introduced the lottery system and, today, Canadians must submit an expression of “interest to sponsor” in an annual draw and only those who get picked can proceed to submit an application. “But we do believe that these measures should not be a substitute to the pathway for permanent relocations of parents and grandparents.”
Immigration policy analyst Richard Kurland said extending the residence period to five years could have unintended consequences. Many of the super visa holders may end up applying for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds after their lengthy stay.
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