International students in Canada can usually get up to $250,000.00 of life insurance coverage and can get up to $300,000.00 with Industrial Alliance under their no-medical, simplified issue plan called Access Life as long as you can answer “no” to all 15 health and lifestyle questions in their life insurance application form.
As an international student in Canada, you may be experiencing life in a new country for the first time. Maybe you have left your life and loved ones behind, or maybe you are finally on your own after living with your parents.
Whether you’ve moved here alone or you came to Canada with your life partner and children, life insurance can help provide the necessary protection against the financial consequences of death to protect your loved ones from the immediate cash needs that may arise in the event of premature death.
You may be wondering why international students need life insurance too. Well, regardless of your residency status, life insurance is an important financial risk management tool that helps protect the ones you love from life’s uncertainties. Life insurance can help ensure that your family has enough money to pay for final expenses, such as funeral and repatriation costs, and ideally provide them with funds while they’re adjusting during an already difficult time.
While attending school full time, international students are allowed to work up to 20-hours a week, and if you came here with your spouse or partner, he/she usually lands a work permit and are able to work full time to provide for loved ones’ financial needs while you are in school.
If you have to work for income in order to provide for your loved ones’ needs, you need life insurance because premature death can take away your loved ones’ most important asset – YOU, when you are at work!
Having a life insurance policy can give you peace of mind in knowing that if anything happened to you or your partner, your family would have enough money to cover the immediate expenses that may arise as a result of death, pay off loans that you may have incurred in your home country in the course of your student visa application, and even provide income for the surviving loved ones (depends on the amount of coverage).
Life Insurance Underwriting for International Students
Just like life insurance for everyone else, life insurance applications for international students are usually underwritten by the life insurers based on attained age, sex, health condition, and lifestyle.
Fully underwritten plans require that you would have stayed in Canada for at least 6-months before you can get approved for coverage. In most cases, you can get approved for a maximum of $250,000.00 with a fully-underwritten life insurance policy.
The underwriting process is where they verify your medical history as well as that of your immediate family members (parents and siblings), your lifestyle, and your medical records in the case of those with pre-existing conditions that may affect their life insurance rate or approval.
Of course, you don’t have to wait for 6-months after you arrived in Canada to get a life insurance policy for yourself and your loved ones. There are no-medical, simplified issue life insurance policies that are suitable to newcomers, regardless of their residency status.
Industrial Alliance offers a No-Medical Simplified Issue life insurance policy called “Access Life”, which offers coverage to non-residents such as international students in Canada for up to $300,000.00.
Industrial Alliance is one of Canada’s biggest insurance companies and has been in the insurance industry since 1892.
Canada Protection Plan, on the other hand, offers up to $250,000.00 of no-medical, simplified issue life insurance policies to non-residents.
Canada Protection Plan is Canada’s leading no-medical, simplified issue insurance carrier. They have a huge lineup of simplified-issue products designed for those who simply want to get immediate coverage, those who may not get approved by regular insurance providers due to health or lifestyle, or those whose residency status does not meet the status required by regular insurance providers.
Insurance Options for International Students
As an international student in Canada, you would have already invested a significant amount of money to pay for your tuition fees, the student visa, and your pocket money to support yourself and your family for a couple of months while you (and your spouse) are looking for work.
The healthcare costs in Canada are probably one of the highest in the world. A couple of days’ stay in the hospital can potentially put a person through financial insolvency.
As you may be aware, non-residents, or more suitably, temporary residents in Canada such as international students are not covered by Canada’s provincial health insurance. As such, you are responsible for the costs of medical services for yourself and loved ones. Most Canadian colleges and universities does offer group emergency travel insurance for their students, so you may already have it, optionally, you can also add your partner and children to that coverage but if you haven’t, you can get a more affordable policy for them as a stand-alone emergency medical travel insurance.
In this section, I’ll list down the insurances that international students should have.
International Students Travel Insurance
The international students travel insurance has slightly better coverage than the usual visitor to Canada insurance. For one, it offers maternity benefits of either $1,000.00 or $6,000.00 depending on which insurance carrier you have your policy with.
As mentioned, you may already have this through your school, if not, we can help you implement one to help protect you and your loved ones against unexpected medical costs in case of illness or injury.
Emergency Medical/Health Travel Insurance
Without insurance, a simple emergency room visit could cost at least $900, and an overnight stay could easily equate to thousands of dollars.
With a stand alone emergency travel insurance, you could cover your loved ones up to $300,000.00 against emergency medical costs, this is more popularly known as the visitor to Canada insurance.
While your spouse is a work permit holder, as a temporary resident, he or she is not covered with Canada’s provincial health insurance right away, it takes between 3 to 6 months, depending on your province of residence.
Similar to the student coverage, this emergency medical travel insurance does not cover routine consultations, however, it financially equips your family against Canada’s high costs of medical services in case your loved ones fall ill, has accidents, or injury, at least until your spouse’s government health insurance kicks in.
Life Insurance
You may have found this article by searching for life insurance for international students. If you were searching the web for life insurance solutions, you are already aware of the importance of life insurance for yourself and loved ones.
In most cases, international students who come to Canada don’t have close relatives who may be able to financially assist them in the worst case that they experience death in the family and event if you do; your relatives may not be financially equipped to absorb the financial impact of premature death, so it’s best to have life insurance in place because even if you’re coming to Canada without a spouse and children, someone would have to pay the costs of death, so spare your friends and/or relatives this burden and transfer this risk to an insurance company.
Free Consultation
We offer a free initial consultation to those who would like assistance in managing their financial risks and in building wealth in Canada.
As an international student, there are a limited number of financial solutions available to you, however, it’s a good idea to avail of financial solutions that are already available to you in order to protect yourself and your loved ones against the financial consequences of serious life events such as premature death, unexpected illnesses and/or injuries.
Once you become our client, and you’re willing to work with us long-term, we can guide you through the process of slowly accumulating wealth when you transition into your permanent residency here in Canada.
Click here to book a free life insurance consultation with us and we’ll help you find a solution that best meets your needs and budget.
