Canada’s Super Visa is the tool most families use to do this, since the country’s permanent-residence route for parents and grandparents, the Parents and Grandparents Program, has been closed to new intake since 2020.
The Super Visa is not a path to permanent residence, but it allows a parent or grandparent to stay in Canada for years at a stretch rather than the six months a standard visitor visa permits.
Getting there, though, means clearing three distinct hurdles: proving your income, buying the right insurance, and getting your parent through a mandatory medical exam. Each one has specific, current rules that are easy to get wrong.
Prove your household income meets the LICO threshold
The Super Visa’s financial requirement is built around Canada’s Low Income Cut-Off, or LICO, a Statistics Canada measure of the income level below which a household typically spends a disproportionate share of its earnings on food, shelter, and clothing.
To sponsor a parent or grandparent, the host’s household income must meet or exceed the LICO threshold for their family size, and that household size includes the sponsor, their spouse or partner, any dependants, and the parent or grandparent being invited.
As of March 31, 2026, IRCC relaxed how this income is calculated in two meaningful ways. First, sponsors no longer have to rely solely on their most recent tax year; they can now qualify using whichever of the last two tax years shows stronger income, which helps hosts whose earnings fluctuate or who had an unusually low-income year.
Secondly, in certain cases the visiting parent or grandparent’s own Canadian-earned income can now count toward meeting the threshold, though income earned abroad does not qualify and must be verifiable through the Canada Revenue Agency.
In practice, sponsors document this with a Notice of Assessment from the CRA covering the qualifying tax year, supported by T4 or T1 slips, an employer letter confirming job title and salary, recent pay stubs, or, for self-employed applicants, an accountant’s letter confirming annual income.
A spouse or common-law partner can co-sign to combine incomes if the sponsor doesn’t meet the threshold alone, though the government has not published an exact formula for how much each co-signer must contribute independently, so this is worth confirming with an immigration consultant rather than assuming a fixed split.
Only the host’s spouse or common-law partner is eligible to co-sign in this way, and that co-signer must also be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or registered Indian in their own right.
Getting this documentation complete and consistent the first time matters, because incomplete income evidence is one of the most common reasons Super Visa files stall or trigger a request for more information, and a request for additional documents can add weeks to an already lengthy processing timeline.
Buy the right medical insurance before you apply
Once income is settled, the applicant, meaning the visiting parent or grandparent, must show proof of private medical insurance before IRCC will issue the visa.
The policy must provide a minimum of $100,000 in emergency coverage, including hospitalisation and repatriation, and it must come from a Canadian insurance company or a foreign insurer approved by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
The coverage has to be valid for at least one year from the date of entry into Canada, and it must be paid in full, or arranged through an IRCC-approved installment plan, at the time the application is submitted. A quote or a pending arrangement is not sufficient; the policy needs to be active and demonstrably in force.
This requirement exists because Super Visa holders are temporary residents who, in most provinces, have no access to publicly funded provincial health coverage.
A single hospital stay in Canada without insurance can run past $10,000, so the mandatory policy protects both the visiting parent and the sponsoring family from an unplanned financial shock.
Because the exam and the insurance purchase both need to be current at the time of submission, it’s worth timing them close together rather than buying insurance months in advance of a medical exam or vice versa, since a mismatch between the two can create unnecessary back-and-forth with IRCC.
It also helps to shop the policy carefully rather than defaulting to the first quote offered, since coverage limits, exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and installment terms vary meaningfully between insurers, and a policy that technically meets the $100,000 minimum can still leave real gaps in coverage for an older applicant with an existing health condition.
Get through the mandatory medical exam
Every Super Visa applicant, without exception, must complete an immigration medical exam conducted by an IRCC-approved panel physician; a family doctor cannot perform this exam unless they happen to also be a listed panel physician.
The exam typically includes a physical examination, a chest X-ray, and blood and urine tests depending on the applicant’s age and medical history, and results are submitted electronically to IRCC. The results are valid for 12 months, so if the rest of the application isn’t finalisd within that window, a new exam may be required.
IRCC uses the results to assess admissibility on three possible grounds: danger to public health, which generally concerns active and untreated infectious conditions such as tuberculosis or syphilis; danger to public safety, which concerns conditions that could pose a risk of sudden incapacity or unpredictable behaviour; and excessive demand, which is a cost-based test tied to the strain a condition might place on Canada’s publicly funded health and social services.
For 2026, the excessive demand threshold sits at $144,390 in projected costs over five years, or roughly $28,878 per year. If an applicant’s condition is expected to require care above that amount, or care that would meaningfully worsen wait times for Canadians, that can raise a concern under this ground.
It’s worth being precise about what this actually means in practice, because it is not an automatic refusal system. If a medical officer flags a possible concern, IRCC issues a Procedural Fairness Letter rather than an immediate denial.
That letter explains the specific concern and gives the applicant up to 90 days to respond, typically with updated medical reports, evidence of ongoing treatment and its outcomes, or a mitigation plan showing how the family will manage the cost of care privately rather than relying on public services.
Many applicants successfully resolve a flagged concern this way. The honest, upfront move is to disclose all pre-existing conditions at the exam itself, since a condition that surfaces later, after non-disclosure, causes far more delay and risk than one that’s addressed head-on from the start.
Booking the exam early in the process, rather than waiting until every other document is ready, also gives a family enough runway to respond properly if a Procedural Fairness Letter does arrive, instead of scrambling against a deadline.
FAQs
How many consecutive years does a Super Visa allow an elderly parent to remain in the host country? Up to five consecutive years per entry, without needing to leave and re-enter Canada. If the parent is already in Canada on a Super Visa, they can apply for a further two-year extension from within the country, and the visa itself remains valid for multiple entries over up to ten years.
Does the sponsoring child need to hold full citizenship, or is permanent residency sufficient? Permanent residency is enough. The host must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or a registered Indian under Canadian law, and must be at least 18 years old and living in Canada at the time of application.
What specific medical conditions trigger an automatic refusal during a parental visa health screening? There is no automatic refusal list. IRCC assesses the medical exam results against three grounds: danger to public health (typically active, untreated infectious diseases like tuberculosis), danger to public safety, and excessive demand on public health or social services, currently capped at $144,390 in projected costs over five years. Even where a concern is flagged, IRCC issues a Procedural Fairness Letter first, giving the applicant 90 days to respond with medical evidence or a mitigation plan before any refusal is finalized.