Health Insurance in BC for Outland Spousal Sponsorship

[mad_dr]

Hello all,

Just a quick question I hope. Here are a few facts to begin with:
1. I am British and my wife is Canadian.
2. We both live and work in the UK currently but are going to settle in BC in a month.
3. My wife has lived and worked in the UK since 2005.
4. My application for PR is underway and should hopefully be complete within the next month or two.
5. I will be heading to Canada with my wife on October 1st. I will land as a tourist and my wife will land as a returning Canadian citizen so that she can work.
6. When my PR arrives, I will flagpole and present myself as a newly-landed PR.

We had both assumed that we'd need to obtain health insurance for the first 3 months that we're there (and that I'd possibly need health insurance for the time that I'm a tourist PLUS the first 3 months that I am a PR.

However, I've found a thread on here that indicates that the 3 month 'waiting period' for me actually began at the point when my wife's eligibility to sponsor me was confirmed (April 2013) and that therefore I can receive health cover from the moment I land.

Some questions I have:
1. Is it true that my 3 month 'waiting period' began when my wife was OKayed as a sponsor?
2. If so, does my wife have to be resident in Canada (and therefore eligible herself for healthcare) for ME to qualify? She obviously hasn't contributed to the system over there in years.
3. Does the health insurance cover me from when I am granted PR status or even when I'm visiting as a tourist (EG If I popped over there to visit the in-laws for a few days)?
4. Does my wife's Canadian Healthcare eligibility begin from the moment she re-enters as a returning citizen or after a 3 month 'waiting period'?

I'm slightly confused as what I've read indicates that I'LL be eligible for coverage from the moment I land but my Canadian wife will have to pay for insurance for the first 3 months!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice.

Andy

 

[mad_dr]

Anyone with any ideas or experience of this?

 

[anskuhh]

Anyone with any ideas or experience of this?

I was just about to post about the exact same topic!

 

[GetUsHome]

We moved to BC from the US. American with PR and returning Canadian. We both had to get 3 months provincial residency before we could get our medical insurance from the province. We both used travel insurance from the US for our first 3 months living in BC.

I would assume the PR had to wait 3 months after they had got PR as well. We had PR before we moved to BC.

 

[Rob_TO]

Some questions I have:
1. Is it true that my 3 month 'waiting period' began when my wife was OKayed as a sponsor?
2. If so, does my wife have to be resident in Canada (and therefore eligible herself for healthcare) for ME to qualify? She obviously hasn't contributed to the system over there in years.
3. Does the health insurance cover me from when I am granted PR status or even when I'm visiting as a tourist (EG If I popped over there to visit the in-laws for a few days)?
4. Does my wife's Canadian Healthcare eligibility begin from the moment she re-enters as a returning citizen or after a 3 month 'waiting period'?

1. No. This could only be true if you were currently living in Canada. Since you are not in Canada, no waiting period can start yet.

2. Yes she needs to be resident in BC. You guys can't apply or start any waiting period while living in the UK.

3. Basically you can apply as a tourist, since you would be the spouse of a BC resident with PR app in process: http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/msp/infoben/pdf/covering-a-spouse-or-child-who-is-an-applicant-for-permanent-resident-status-in-canada.pdf
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/msp/infoben/eligible.html
A spouse or a child of an eligible B.C. resident may also be deemed a resident provided that an application for permanent residence status has been accepted for processing by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), and the application remains active.

4. Your wife will need to wait the balance of the month she returns to Canada, plus 2 additional months before she is eligible. If you apply at the same time as her, you could possibly get health care coverage the same day she does.

You might want to consider coming here Sept 30 instead of Oct 1. If you arrived Sept 30, the 1 day left in Sept would count as 1 month of "waiting", and then you would only need to wait 2 more months so could get coverage Dec 1.

If you arrive Oct 1 then you need to wait out ALL of Oct, Nov and Dec so would get coverage starting Jan 1.

 

[mad_dr]

Hi all,

Many thanks for the really helpful replies! We'll sit down and discuss this but will probably end up obtaining coverage for the first three months.

Annoyingly we have no choice but to leave on October 1st; the flights aren't daily and we're bringing animals so need to arrive on specific days. I suspect that to shift everything this late on would be more expensive than the extra month of health insurance coverage...

Many thanks again all,
Andy