IEC Health insurance can be provided by employer?

[samanta60]

Hi
I have an IEC work permit. I will probably get a job offer soon and am planing to activate my IEC permit after I get that offer. The employer will provide me with health insurance (I don't know what type but they have coverage for every employees).
Would this be acceptable and sufficient to activate IEC?

 

[scylla]

Hi
I have an IEC work permit. I will probably get a job offer soon and am planing to activate my IEC permit after I get that offer. The employer will provide me with health insurance (I don't know what type but they have coverage for every employees).
Would this be acceptable and sufficient to activate IEC?

It may or it may not be. Employer-based plans layer on top of exiting provincial health care coverage. In other words, employer plans assume you already have provincial health care coverage and then provide additional benefits on top of the provincial coverage. If you can, I would call your employer's health insurance provider to ask if you qualify for their plan now - or if you will have to wait until you are covered by the province. Typically you don't qualify for the employer benefits until after you are covered by the province.

 

[PMM]

Hi

It may or it may not be. Employer-based plans layer on top of exiting provincial health care coverage. In other words, employer plans assume you already have provincial health care coverage and then provide additional benefits on top of the provincial coverage. If you can, I would call your employer's health insurance provider to ask if you qualify for their plan now - or if you will have to wait until you are covered by the province. Typically you don't qualify for the employer benefits until after you are covered by the province.

1. No it wouldn't and neither would the provincial be sufficient, when eligible, as neither contains repatriation, a requirement of IEC health insurance. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/arrival.asp

 

[samanta60]

Does it mean that, if I am already employed by employer 1 on a temporary work permit and before my current job ends I activate my IEC and get employed by employer 2 (while still being employed by employer 1 for some time), then I will be fine because I have the basic provincial health insurance and the employer 2 can add its plan to that?

 

[scylla]

Does it mean that, if I am already employed by employer 1 on a temporary work permit and before my current job ends I activate my IEC and get employed by employer 2 (while still being employed by employer 1 for some time), then I will be fine because I have the basic provincial health insurance and the employer 2 can add its plan to that?

No - you're not fine unfortunately. As PMM explained, your coverage needs to include repatriation. Neither provincial coverage nor your employer plan will include this.

 

[samanta60]

No - you're not fine unfortunately. As PMM explained, your coverage needs to include repatriation. Neither provincial coverage nor your employer plan will include this.

Thanks for the reply.
Could you please explain what it means?

 

[scylla]

Thanks for the reply.
Could you please explain what it means?

It's basically medical evacuation - insurance that covers your return to your home country in the event it becomes medically necessary.

 

[Bs65]

Keep in mind that when you activate your IEC permit you need to show health insurance for the duration of your IEC term.It would be a hard sell to convince CBSA that the employer insurance was guaranteed for the full term given it would be tied to an employer and you would have no way to guarantee that employer will keep you employed for the duration. Worst case if going with employer insurance you could end up with an IEC time a lot less than the published time or not even have the IEC permit issued at all due to lack of required insurance including repatriation to home country.

 

[samanta60]

Thanks for the reply.
- Then if I am from Germany and am going to stay in Canada on IEC, do I have to buy health insurance from Germany? What kind of insurance? It should be a private one or the public insurance that people usually have?

- Around how much does such an insurance cost for one person one year?

- If I have dual nationalities, do I have to show insurance from the country based on which I applied for IEC, or the insurance can be from either country I am a citizen of?


- If I am on IEC and my spouse and child are accompanying me, can I activate my IEC (having the required insurance) and then apply for visitor permit or open work permit for my family based and include my family in the insurance that my employer provides me with?