change status from visitor to??? baby born in calgary premature

[civic14]

I am also skeptical as RossLee. The honest thing to do would be to stay in Canada and LEAVE as soon as your baby is healthy enough to travel, but basically you are saying that you want to stay here for good. As you say "no body want to travel and get sick and have 80k bill in the head. and no body want to have a premature baby." and nobody wants to leave their country just because of a very terrible situation.

My advise would be that you stay here until your baby is healthy enough to travel and then leave the country for good (most likely to Italy). I sincerely don't believe that the hospital expects you to pay, as you are a visitor, the situation was exceptional and unexpected (they must have been well aware that you are from Venezuela and 80k are the savings of a lifetime). You should have no problem extending your visitor status as you should have in writing your baby's diagnosis which state she can't travel for the time being.

If the price to pay for your baby being healthy and with you is to be inadmissible to a country you didn't even had the intention to immigrate to (neither you have close family), then so be it.

Other options I have seen in emergency situations is that the parent leaves the country and goes back to where hew works. Then he sends money to their family until they can travel. This option might be better for you as the one in debt is you and you are the one who wants to work. Of course this has been done in situations quite different than yours. I understand that you want to be with your family but extraordinary situations need extraordinary sacrifices.


God bless your baby and your family.

muchas gracias amigo.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I sincerely don't believe that the hospital expects you to pay, as you are a visitor, the situation was exceptional and unexpected (they must have been well aware that you are from Venezuela and 80k are the savings of a lifetime).

Of course the hospital expects them to pay, otherwise the hospital will have to absorb a huge loss and Canadian taxpayers will end up footing the remainder of the bill. It doesn't matter that the couple are visitors or that they are from Venezuela. Canada has been trying for years to crack down on unpaid medical bills racked up by visitors, as it is a massive drain on our healthcare system and diverts precious funding away from services needed by Canadian citizens/residents.

Read about this couple in a similar position who ended up with a one million dollar bill http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-baby-costs-aussie-couple-1m-1.1197529. They paid an initial $10 000 and will be paying $300/month to BC Children's and Women's Hospital for the rest of their lives.

 

[mikeymyke]

How is this cost even enforcable against a foreign visitor?

 

[Jalex23]

How is this cost even enforcable against a foreign visitor?

It can't. If you read the note it says "Evans and her husband paid $10,000 to BC Children's and Women's Hospital on a credit card as a gesture of goodwill and the hospital has agreed to absorb part of the cost." In fact the note is just "we would like to", "it is not fair", etc.

Also this happened in Australia... for them paying a 300CAN monthly is not too much, for a latinamerican country this is a big issue.

So if the hospital expects them to pay well.... I wouldn't want to be under their care if they can't assess what I could in under 1 minute.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

It can't. If you read the note it says "Evans and her husband paid $10,000 to BC Children's and Women's Hospital on a credit card as a gesture of goodwill and the hospital has agreed to absorb part of the cost." In fact the note is just "we would like to", "it is not fair", etc.

Also this happened in Australia... for them paying a 300CAN monthly is not too much, for a latinamerican country this is a big issue.

Yes, they paid it as a gesture of goodwill so that the hospital wouldn't take action against them to collect it; they then set up the payment plan for the same reason. Hospitals can and do use international debt collection companies to chase people across countries for such large debts.

It doesn't matter where they came from. And you can go on about the fact that these people are from a Latin American country but that in no way means that they are poor. If they can afford to take a multi-week trip to Canada simply to purchase baby things, they obviously aren't that poor.

 

[Jalex23]

Yes, they paid it as a gesture of goodwill so that the hospital wouldn't take action against them to collect it; they then set up the payment plan for the same reason. Hospitals can and do use international debt collection companies to chase people across countries for such large debts.

It doesn't matter where they came from. And you can go on about the fact that these people are from a Latin American country but that in no way means that they are poor. If they can afford to take a multi-week trip to Canada simply to purchase baby things, they obviously aren't that poor.

Yes, Canuck I get your point.

Regardless of all of this, a Hospital which gives this service and expects payment well....

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Regardless of all of this, a Hospital which gives this service and expects payment well....

As cold as it may sound, a hospital is really just a business. They have staff to pay, overhead costs and they are accountable to their "bosses", the government and taxpayers. They do try to work with people in these situations, as in that article, where the hospital absorbed some of the cost and accepted a payment plan that will obviously never really pay it off.

At least we have a system that would never turn anyone away for treatment, even if they flat-out stated "I have no insurance and will not be able to pay." That's more than can be said about many other countries.

 

[civic14]

I read that about the 1 million dollar baby.

if the couple pay 300 each month for 40 years or maybe less if the guy die they only pay about 144.000 dollar.

the bills is 1 million.

In venezuela we have an exchange control from the goverment.

we travel because they give us 1000 to 2500 dollars each year to travel for very cheap cost each dollar.

now the price of the dollar in the black market is like 10 time more expensive right now.

thats why we travel but no because we are rich. because if you don´t travel you loose that amount of dollar and every year is start again.

a lot of people they travel to some countrys to exchange the dollars and then come back to venezuela and sell the dollars for 10 times more expensive.

caracas is one of the more expensive cities in the world right now.

and now like 2 months ago we don´t have diapers, medicine, food for babys like formulas.

 

[Veeery_North]

Side note:

Remember the baby will need her own passport to leave Canada.

 

[Msafiri]

civic14,

1. What is the actual medical condition of your daughter at this time? My reading is that she is not in hospital any longer. If there was significant medical risk she would still be in hospital.

2. So you get 2500 dollars from the Venezuelan government on a preferential rate against the Bolivar? How much is the total cost of your trip to Canada including the shopping budget?

3. Did you have medical insurance for your trip? (CIC really ought to require and enforce this for visitor visas like the Schengen states do).

4. Why should the chikungunya virus influence Canada's immigration policy - if it did what's to stop say someone from RDC (Congo) stating they can't go back because there is Malaria or someone from Liberia that there is Ebola.

5. Post focusing on the baby recovering you may be better seeking entry into Italy or even an EU state such as the UK where you will have the right to work and reside based on your Italian spouse exercising treaty rights. You will probably find the level of medical care for which you are eligible on par or even better than you can get here in Canada.

6. Don't clog up the judicial system and waste even more taxpayer money on a refugee claim which is doomed to fail from the start or an H&C application solely based on a Canadian born child....similar cases have made it to the Supreme Court....no anchor baby system in Canada sorry!

 

[civic14]

1. thanks god she is doing great. she is 2 month old and weight 3 kg. she still small. and we have to give her vitamins, iron, special formula etc.

2. yes the goberment give us 2500 $ each year. well now im running out of money.

3. yes my wife have 2 insurance. 1 with her family and dad and its for travel but no cover pregnancy and another from her work and that cover pregnancy but only in venezuela and they don´t pay in dollar.

4. I was thinking that because my baby is a canadian citizen they have to take care of their citizen. example: i have cousin born in the US and when in venezuela 10 year ago a civil war happen the US country call to my cousin if he want to leave the country because of that.

5. yeap, that is what we are thinking now to do. going to europe to see what we can do there. I have to wait a little more time because my baby still small.

6. i´m not going to do refugee. i´m trying to find work legally. wish me luck.

thank´s.