The super visa is a multiple-entry visa for parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. It allows a stay of up to five years at a time instead of the usual six months. Three things decide it: the relationship, private medical insurance, and your household income.
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Up to five years in Canada per entry, on a visa that stays valid for years, so your parents come and go without reapplying each time. Compared with an ordinary visitor visa, it is the difference between a six-month stay and a real period of living with family.
It is not permanent residence. There is no work permit, provincial health coverage is generally unavailable, and time on a super visa does not count toward citizenship. Your parents remain temporary residents and must satisfy an officer they will leave at the end of their authorised stay.
Because the intended stay is longer than six months, an immigration medical exam is required. Applicants must also be admissible on health, criminality and security grounds, like any other visa applicant.
Your parents need private medical insurance with at least $100,000 in coverage, valid for at least one year from the date of entry, covering health care, hospitalisation and repatriation. The policy must already be paid for. A quote is not accepted, and officers do check.
The insurance no longer has to come from a Canadian company. IRCC accepts policies from insurers outside Canada, provided the document states it was issued while the company was doing insurance business in Canada.
Buy the policy with the entry date in mind. Coverage that starts on the application date rather than the arrival date can leave a gap at the end of the first year, and the insurance is looked at again when your parents apply to extend their stay.
The Canadian host must show household income at or above the low income cut-off for their family size, using the figure for a community of 500,000 or more. This is plain LICO, not the LICO-plus-30% figure that sponsorship uses, so the bar is lower than for permanent residence.
Two changes made it easier. You can now qualify on either of the two taxation years before the application, rather than only the most recent one. And where your household reaches the required percentage of the threshold, your visiting parent's own income can be added to close the gap. Applications already in processing on 31 March 2026 are assessed under the new rules as well.
Family size here includes you, your spouse or partner, your dependent children, the parents or grandparents coming, anyone still covered by an undertaking you signed, and anyone already in Canada on a super visa you hosted.
The most common reason is not money. It is that the officer is not satisfied the applicant will leave. Weak ties at home, a vague purpose, an adult child who has just filed a sponsorship, or a thin travel history all push in that direction.
Dual intent is lawful. Wanting to immigrate one day does not disqualify a temporary application, and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says so expressly. It simply has to be presented properly: what your parents are returning to, why the visit is finite, and what happens at the end of it.
A refusal is not an appeal matter. There is no tribunal for a visitor visa refusal. The realistic options are a stronger fresh application or judicial review in the Federal Court, and for most families the first is the better use of money.
Up to five years at a time, rather than the six months an ordinary visitor gets. The officer at the port of entry sets the actual authorised period, so keep whatever document your parents are given on arrival and check the date written on it before you plan anything around it.
Not any more. A policy from an insurer outside Canada is acceptable if it gives at least $100,000 in coverage, is valid for at least one year from entry, covers health care, hospitalisation and repatriation, and states that it was issued while the company was doing insurance business in Canada. It must be paid in full before you apply.
Your spouse or common-law partner can co-sign, and their income counts with yours. Since 31 March 2026 you can also rely on whichever of the last two taxation years is stronger, and where your household reaches the required percentage of the threshold, your parent's own income can make up the balance.
No. A super visa is visitor status. There is no work authorisation, and provincial health coverage is generally unavailable to visitors. That is precisely why the private medical insurance requirement exists, and why the coverage has to be genuine rather than nominal.
Usually yes. An application to extend the authorised stay is made from inside Canada before the current stay expires, with evidence that medical insurance remains in force. Apply early. Leaving it to the final week is how visitors fall out of status, and restoring status is far harder than keeping it.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.