Top Tips for Super Visa Applications

A Super Visa is a great way for families to spend extended periods of time with each other. In this article we share our best insights, based on years of experience, to enable you to find success with any Super Visa application for your parents or grandparents.

Before applying for a Super Visa to Canada , ensure that your parents or grandparents have a significant amount of time before their passports will expire. A Super Visa will be issued for a maximum of 10 years, or until the expiry of their passport, so you only need to make the one application in order for them to travel back and forth for the next decade. If their passports are set to expire sooner than that, you may consider applying for new passports before making the visa application. Getting a new passport now is much less hassle than making another visa application later.

Although the IRCC manual for Super Visa applications states that a Super Visa will enable entry to Canada for 2 years each trip, in reality, what we have found is that the first entry to Canada is given for 2 years and a visitor record is issued. If your parents or grandparents leave Canada and then return before those two years have concluded, then they are usually allowed to enter again up until the expiry of the original two-year period. If they leave Canada after staying for an initial 2 year period, their Super Visa second entry is probably going to have a 6-month limit. Which brings us to our next point about extending a Super Visa.

Once your parents or grandparents are inside Canada, it is possible to apply for a 2 year extension to remain in Canada by making an application to extend their stay as a visitor and including all of the documents that are required for a Super Visa application. What this means is that after the initial 2 year period has passed, even though they might only be given a 6 month entry upon subsequent arrival to Canada, they can still remain in the country longer as long as you apply for an extension before their status will expire.

We are often asked, “Can I apply for my parents super visa from Canada?”.  Yes, if your parents are already visiting Canada on a regular visitor visa and want to stay longer than 6 months, you can apply for the 2 year Super Visa extension by following the process noted above.

Finally, remember that a Super Visa is still a temporary application to Canada and you are not only required to demonstrate the Super Visa requirements, but you are also required to demonstrate that your parents have strong ties to their home country and will eventually be going back. Previous international travel as well as assets, savings, pensions, volunteer work, other close family, organizations that they are a member of – anything that is a significant part of their daily life abroad should be documented as a part of the application to show that they are well settled in their home country and are only travelling to Canada for a temporary purpose. If your parents or grandparents are from a country where life is not as good as it is in Canada, you may have a difficult time getting any kind of visa approved for them, and expert advice is strongly recommended prior to making any type of visa application. It’s far better if the application is prepared properly the first time because once a refusal is on record, it can be tougher to get approval with a subsequent application.

The Way Immigration has successfully assisted hundreds of parents and grandparents to visit their family members in Canada. We would be pleased to help you with a Super Visa application to enable your parents or grandparents to visit you in Canada.