Wife is Pregnant... What to do?

[ortom]

I got travel insurance after living in canada for 4.5 years so she can get travel insurance, but it only covers emergency visits not regular doctor visits. And the pregnancy is not covered. Any complications up to delivery are covered. The only travel insurance that would cover delivery is global gold health insurance, I believe its called. However that costs about 5000$. The other alternative would be to pay for the doctor visits yourself, someone told me about 200$ a month and use a midwife for the delivery, which is free.
Or you could contact your MP and see if they can call the cic office and speed up your application.

Unfortunately no insurance will cover pregnancy after it's happened. So it's a no go there. The other thing is the only insurance she could get would be travel insurance, but I checked into that too and they said she can only get it if she wasn't yet in the country. You have to buy it before you leave on you trip.

 

[rebecassss]

I'm not quite sure i understand here. If you have provincial healthcare coverage, you don't need private insurance (unless you are looking for other things like dentist coverage).

And if you don't have healthcare, then you can easily get private travel insurance. This travel insurance is approx $50 per month and can be for as long as you want, and would cover any medical emergencies care, tests, drugs etc. It doesn't matter if you are in Canada already, and it doesn't matter on the applicant's status here. This will not cover any pregnancy related issues, but can still be a useful thing to have for any other medical emergencies that can happen.

My fiancee had a minor stomach issue, and after a few trips to doctor, a few tests and some meds... the bill the health insurance company paid was around $600! Here in Toronto some emergency rooms demand you pay them over $800 up-front just to get admitted.

who did you get insurance with?

 

[amitheonlyone]

That's why I said the registry employees are usually well informed. By the time you get to Alberta and can apply for her healthcare, you will probably have your AIP (approved in principle). You can bring that and it's accepted. If not, you will need to talk to the registry and see if they will accept the PR receipt. Hopefully you applied for an open work permit with the Inland application, because that's what gives her Implied Status. Proof of those two things should work - it's just a matter of finding an employee that is knowledgable enough to understand.

I find the healtcare system tends to be rather forgiving and works with people. I applied for healthcare in October 2012 and my status expired in Nov 2012. I had applied for a renewal in Oct as well. In December, healthcare called us and asked about my status. I explained when I applied and how I applied. They gave me 90 more days with healthcare to get my new status and bring in proof. I am not 100% sure if they will cover her with just a PR application and Implied Status, but once she gets the OWP and AIP, there will be no problems.

She will covered by healthcare as soon as she gets the card. She can go to the doctor the same day if needed.

Alberta healthcare also has a really nice doctor search feature. It allows you to search by a number of criteria, including language spoken. She may be able to find a doctor that speaks her native language, if that isn't English. No guarantees, but it gives her options. http://www.cpsa.ab.ca/PhysicianSearch/AdvancedSearch.aspx

What is an open work permit? I didn't apply for a work permit because the visa was just about to expire and her grades weren't good enough. It was too risky to try to get a work permit with poor grades and a student visa that was about to expire so we figured PR was out best option. So, without the work permit am I back to square one or can I still get the health card with just a PR receipt? When I say "I only have a PR receipt" I honestly mean that's literally all I have. Nothing else. It's the only thing keeping her here.

 

[amitheonlyone]

I'm not quite sure i understand here. If you have provincial healthcare coverage, you don't need private insurance (unless you are looking for other things like dentist coverage).

And if you don't have healthcare, then you can easily get private travel insurance. This travel insurance is approx $50 per month and can be for as long as you want, and would cover any medical emergencies care, tests, drugs etc. It doesn't matter if you are in Canada already, and it doesn't matter on the applicant's status here. This will not cover any pregnancy related issues, but can still be a useful thing to have for any other medical emergencies that can happen.

My fiancee had a minor stomach issue, and after a few trips to doctor, a few tests and some meds... the bill the health insurance company paid was around $600! Here in Toronto some emergency rooms demand you pay them over $800 up-front just to get admitted.

Is there travel insurance you could recommend that's open to residents of Prince Edward Island? Kanex doesn't let me apply. They say it's not available in their area.

Yeah, I'm covered provincially and I have insurance through my work. I was wanting to know two things:
1) Easiest/Fastest way to get her a health card and when I could have it.
2) Requirements for covering her under my work's insurance plan and the soonest I could do it (I think they require a health card number)

 

[amikety]

With an Inland Spousal permit, she can apply for an open work permit. It does not rely on her grades or student visa. It's completely part of the PR spouse application. They will award the OWP after AIP, meaning she would get the work permit about 6-7 months into the process.

The open work permit is how she gets Implied Status. The PR application itself does not give status alone. Has her student visa expired? If yes or it's close, she needs to send in her application for the OWP asap. It costs $150 plus $200 to restore her status. It sounds like she may be out of status. She needs to mail in application for OWP asap along with a letter and information for her PR application so Vegreville can match the two files together. It doesn't matter if she wants to work or not and she's not required to work. It will give her status to allow her to remain in Canada. Without status, she is at risk of being removed. It seems CBSA usually allows the Inland PR application to run its course and see what happened, but not always.

 

[Rob_TO]

who did you get insurance with?

Going through Kanetix to check all the rates, we chose TIC for visitors to Canada insurance since it was the cheapest. This was done while my fiancee was already in Canada. Made the 1 claim, and absolutely no problems doing so. We paid all up-front, then submitted receipts and got full refund for everything we claimed.

Is there travel insurance you could recommend that's open to residents of Prince Edward Island? Kanex doesn't let me apply. They say it's not available in their area.

Kanetix isn't actually an insurance company. They are a broker that compares multiple companies, and you eventually buy from one of those companies.

When exactly during the quote process are you getting info that you can't apply from PEI? As far as I know travel insurance to Canada shouldn't depend whatsoever on the province. Kanetix doesn't even ask what province you are in when getting a quote... just that you are coming to Canada.

Yeah, I'm covered provincially and I have insurance through my work. I was wanting to know two things:
1) Easiest/Fastest way to get her a health card and when I could have it.
2) Requirements for covering her under my work's insurance plan and the soonest I could do it (I think they require a health card number)

For 1, you may need to move to Alberta.

For 2, I know most if not all company insurance policies, technically require the spouse to be covered under provincial healthcare. In my case, I added my common-law spouse even though she didn't have healthcare at the time, since i didn't know about this rule and they never asked. We made several claims on it for her. It was only a long time later that I learned she was supposed to also have healthcare... which she has gotten in the meantime. Luckily they never found out so never had to pay back.

 

[parker24]

Just to add onto the list of why the pill is horrible

*points to self* Blood clot to the lungs

 

[amitheonlyone]

Just to add onto the list of why the pill is horrible

*points to self* Blood clot to the lungs

Oh my god! Hope you're ok!

 

[amikety]

Just to add onto the list of why the pill is horrible

*points to self* Blood clot to the lungs

I'm against putting hormones in my body or altering the ones already there. My doctor tried to talk me into hormonal based BC last visit. Yeah that didn't go so well. LOL! 8)

 

[amitheonlyone]

We made several claims on it for her. It was only a long time later that I learned she was supposed to also have healthcare... which she has gotten in the meantime. Luckily they never found out so never had to pay back.

Wow! You're lucky as hell. I don't know how that works because my work place asked "What's her health card number?" and I said "She has none." and so they told me she'd need to get one before she could be covered.

 

[amitheonlyone]

Yeah.... So I just found this:
http://www.health.alberta.ca/AHCIP/temporary-residents.html

I don't have the stuff required to get an alberta health card... Or is this one of those "Not by the books" things that you can only get at a specific place? I need a damn health card for her.

 

[anna_i87]

I wouldn't blame the birth control. It's extremely effective, IF taken correctly. My guess is that she didn't take it correctly, perhaps that is what she wanted, to get pregnant? And you're suppose to give it a month or so to adjust BEFORE you 'release' yourself inside of her. ANY time you have unprotected sex, as a grown adult, you should know that pregnancy is a possibility. This shouldn't come as a total surprise to you.

Anyways, good luck with everything, I'm sure everything will work out the way it's suppose to.

 

[zenn]

If you decide to move to Calgary, feel free to ask me anything you need to know. If I don't know, I ask my husband. He's Canadian and lived in Calgary for most of his life. (And secretly enjoys helping me help people on the forum.)

You are very helpful and well informed

 

[amikety]

You are very helpful and well informed

Thanks!

The Open Work Permit application will qualify her for healthcare.

 

[Rob_TO]

Wow! You're lucky as hell. I don't know how that works because my work place asked "What's her health card number?" and I said "She has none." and so they told me she'd need to get one before she could be covered.

I guess it depends on the group coverage provider. They didn't ask for health card number or any questions on her status in Canada, nor any proofs of common-law relationship. I never even considered that a health card would be a requirement. In the time she had coverage with my company with no health card, all the claims we made were for dentist, prescription glasses, chiropractor, massage therapist etc etc. Absolutely NONE of those costs would have been affected or done differently, if she had provincial healthcare also. So i really don't understand why having provincial healthcare is a requirement for these company group plans!