MommyBear888 said:
Yeah. That's what I've thought. So for us, it's 5 years.
See below.
faiyaz.ally said:
First of all, I don't think there is any place in the form where you have to specify the duration of time your parents would like to stay in Canada for. The only place they would be asked this question is at the port of entry. They will have to declare how long they're planning to stay in Canada because the officer will stamp the validity of the visa "for that particular entry" based on their response, so I would ask them to say "2 years".
There is indeed a field on Page 2 under
Details of Visit to Canada section on IMM5257 form where it asks to indicate how long you plan to stay in Canada. Besides, people normally mention the intended duration of stay in the
invitation letter.
The SV requirement is to have at least one year of insurance, so as long as you satisfy that, you're fine. I don't know if the visa officer at the port of entry will check to see if your insurance is valid for the amount of time that you said you would like to stay in Canada for. But I haven't heard of anyone having this problem. I assume (and other members may correct me if I'm wrong), that most people take insurance for 1 year. I don't know if the Canadian immigration mandates this to be renewed before expiry or not.
I agree with you here. I will give my mom's example:
My mom got SV back in 2012 for nearly 5 years.
- She made her
1st entry to Canada alone in same year only to stay for 3 months. So, we didn't care what the POE officer stamps on her passport although she had to show medical insurance.
- She made her
2nd entry alone again in late 2013 to stay longer. So, I taught her to demand 2-year stay, in fact, I wrote e letter addressing POE officer asking for 2-year stay as my mom can't speak either English or French. Anyway, the officer stamped her 2-year permit without even looking at any paper (not even insurance). She stayed nearly 1.7 years this time and left with the rest of my family for a vacation at home.
- She recently made her
3rd entry on our way back to Canada with a renewed passport. But her SV was expiring in 6 months. So, I asked for 2-year stay permit. The POE officer made us to go see Immigration Office (at Pearson) for that. The immigration officer stamped her 2-year permit after checking 1-year medical insurance, all our passports and asking few questions. That relieved me a lot as I don't have to extend her stay for now.
See my detail post here re: the incidents at Pearson on her 3rd entry.