Canada's Super Visa for Senior Parents
Nowadays globally many parents and grandparents are traveling to visit more often to see their children and grandchildren. This trend is great for the families of immigrants keeping them together but in the same time could be an issue for the social system of each country and putting some stress on the government budget.
Canada found a way to avoid this issue a few years ago with the so called “super visa” for seniors. It allows the applicants who doesn’t want to become citizens but would like to stay longer with their children in Canada for up to 2 years. This way the Canadian border control allows seniors to visit and stay with their families and in the same time keeps the social system and government budget safe. The applicants for this visa can extend their stay with multiple 2 years visits over a period of 10 years.
There are a number of requirements for the applicants which should be met before the visa is granted. The family of the applicants, the children should provide prove of income to guarantee they are not in financial difficulty. The applicant itself should have private health insurance during the stay in Canada. During the application process the applicant needs to pass a medical exam to prove good health condition. The “super visa” holder is not eligible for welfare or any Canadian government funded seniors home. All those regulations are needed to protect the healthcare and social system and in the same time to allow access for the elder parents to visit their families for longer time without having citizenship. For the five years of the existence of this visa program about 100 000 parents and grand parents have been granted the visa in order to visit, stay and help their relatives.
More information about Canadian visas.