Pregnant and waiting on PR

[pat2015]

Hi,

My husband and I applied for PR through Express Entry on May 4th. My medicals and those of our child were done on April 20th. I got pregnant in July and my due date is April 3rd 2015. I would love if anyone could answer the following questions, please:

- Supposing we get PR within the next couple of months, would my medical care for the remainder of the pregnancy as well as the birth be covered if we go to Alberta? Are tehre any other provinces with no waiting period?

- In case PR takes longer, and since my due date is so close to the one year anniversary of my medicals, could I possibly travel into Canada with my husband and then leave a couple of weeks after to have the baby in my home country? Would the fact that I would still not have the physical PR card pose a problem? I know from different threads on this forum that the baby could then enter as a visitor (we are from a visa waiver country) and then we could apply to sponsor him. If we did this, would the baby have any kind of medical coverage during the first few months? If not, is it possible to insure a newborn privately?

Thanks

 

[Leon]

If you arrive in Alberta with the intent to settle and commit to staying there at least 6 months per year, you would get 1st day coverage and your care and childbirth would be covered under AB health. Most provinces don't actually have a waiting time for new PR's. Those who do have a waiting period are BC, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick although Quebec has an exception for maternity care and child birth and New Brunswick was looking into changing this some time ago. I don't know if they did.

Everybody else, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba as well as other provinces in the east do not have a waiting period for newcomers.

If you choose to do a quick landing and go home to have your baby, you can as you say bring your baby later and sponsor him once you arrive in Canada. Your PR cards will either be sent to an address you have given in Canada, friends or relatives, and they can mail them to you or if not, worst case, you can apply for a PR travel document at your local visa office which they should not have a problem giving you as you are a new PR and are not in breach of the RO (residency obligation).

Your child will be on visitor status and some provinces health care may cover him as a part of your family and because he is being sponsored. It may also help when you arrive in Canada that you ask for a visitor record for him. This means that the immigration officer can in light of your situation give him a visit visa for a year instead of 6 months in order for you to complete the sponsorship.

However, it would be less complicated to have the baby in Canada.

 

[pat2015]

Thanks for the excellent response, Leon. That helps a lot!