A visitor visa for Canada is refused on one point more often than any other. The officer was not satisfied the applicant would leave at the end of the visit. Money in the bank does not answer that question, and neither does a warm invitation.
About this work
One thing, and the Regulations set it out. Section 179 says an officer shall issue a temporary resident visa where it is established that the applicant will leave Canada by the end of the period authorised for their stay, holds a passport, meets the requirements of the class and is not inadmissible. Paragraph (b), the leaving, is where nearly every refusal happens.
That period runs six months by default. Section 183(2) fixes it at six months or whatever other period an officer sets, having regard to the applicant's means of support, the length of stay asked for and the expiry of the travel document. The date the officer writes or stamps in the passport on arrival is what governs. The expiry date printed on the visa is a different thing: it is the last day the holder may present themselves at the border, not the last day they may stay.
None of this is a points test. The officer weighs what is in front of them. Employment, property, dependants and business at home. The purpose of the visit and whether it fits the length asked for. Money to pay for it without working. Travel history and any refusal, from any country. Conditions in the country of residence. Ties at home help an application. Ties in Canada with nothing holding the applicant at home is the pattern that gets refused.
What changed
Two things moved, and both of them help. The host may now use either of the two tax years before the application rather than only the most recent one, and where the host and any co-signer reach 75 per cent of the required income between them, the visiting parent's or grandparent's own income can be counted to make up the rest. It applies to applications submitted on or after 31 March 2026 and to those already in processing.
A host whose income dipped in the most recent year is no longer held to that year. Anybody who changed jobs, took parental leave or had a slow year of self employment can put forward the stronger of the two. The proof is the notice of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for whichever year is relied on.
As a top up, and only once the host and any co-signer reach 75 per cent of the minimum without it. The parent or grandparent then documents their own income the same way, with pay slips for the most recent twelve months and proof of the currency they are paid in.
It takes in the host, their spouse or partner, their dependent children, the parents or grandparents coming to visit, anybody already here on a super visa the host invited, and anybody the host or co-signer sponsored whose undertaking is still running. Counting only the people living in the house is the most common way the figure comes out wrong.
Minimum necessary income runs from $30,526 for a family of one to $80,784 at seven, and adds $8,224 for every person after that. Those are the amounts on the department's own page as at 2 September 2026. They are revised, so check them against the current table rather than against any summary of it, this one included.
Side by side
7 routes, each with its own clock
Three documents let somebody come to Canada without working here. They carry different tests, different fees and different clocks, and an application built for the wrong one is refused on eligibility before anybody reaches the merits. Business visitors are a fourth case and are dealt with further down, because a business visitor applies for whichever of these three their nationality calls for.
| eTA | Visitor visa | Super visa | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Visa exempt travellers arriving by air | Citizens of visa required countries | Parents and grandparents of citizens and permanent residents |
| How long you can stay | Six months, or as the officer fixes it | Six months, or as the officer fixes it | Five years on each entry |
| How long the document lasts | Five years, or until the passport expires | Up to ten years | Up to ten years |
| Government fee | $7 | $100, or $500 for a family of five or more | $100, the same as a visitor visa |
| Medical exam | No | Only for longer stays from certain countries | Always |
| Private medical insurance | No | No | Yes, $100,000 for at least a year |
| Where you have to be to apply | Outside Canada | Outside Canada | Outside Canada, and the visa is printed there |
The route
4 stages, each with its own clock
Every date below is set by the Regulations or by the department's own published instructions, and the source is named beside it. None of them is the firm's estimate.
An application to stay longer has to reach Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada while the current status is still valid. Thirty days of notice is what the department asks for. It is guidance rather than a rule, but an application filed after the status has gone is not an extension at all, and it gets treated as something else entirely.
Where the application was made before the status ran out and no decision has been taken by the time it does, the authorised period continues until the application is decided. This is what lets somebody remain lawfully past the date written in their passport.
There are 90 days from losing status to apply to have it restored. The applicant has to still meet the requirements of the class and not have breached any other condition. After 90 days there is no restoration, only leaving and applying again from outside.
Somebody who entered on a super visa after 22 June 2023 may stay five years on arrival, and may then apply from inside Canada for up to two more years, repeatedly, as long as the requirements still hold.
Before the meeting
6 things to bring
Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.
Our approach
The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.
Book a consultationWe take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.
You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.
We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.
You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.
Reported decisions
7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023
Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.
Super visa, parents and grandparents
2026 FC 99Docket IMM-23381-24
Application allowedWork permit, Temporary Foreign Worker Program
2026 FC 105Docket IMM-18690-24
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2026 FC 805Docket IMM-20802-24
Application allowedPermanent residence, Express Entry
2025 FC 275Docket IMM-1797-24
Application allowedWork permit, job offer
2024 FC 1928Docket IMM-6445-23
Application allowedStudy permit
2024 FC 1487Docket IMM-3700-23
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2024 FC 1453Docket IMM-10337-23
Application allowedUpdates
3 notes
Dated notes on the rule changes that reach this work. Each records what moved and when it took effect; this page carries the position now.
In force 31 March 2026
Two alternatives were added to how a host proves income, and one of them lets the visiting parent's own income count toward the total.
In force 15 July 2026
Sponsorship processing continues for files already filed. What stopped is the front door: no new interest to sponsor forms, and no invitations.
In force 11 January 2024
Canada joined the Hague Apostille Convention, and an Ontario notarised document bound for a signatory country now takes one authentication step instead of two.
A visitor visa for Canada is decided on whether an officer believes the visit ends.
The invitation, the insurance, the income table and the medical all exist to make that believable, and each of them is refused on its own terms when it is wrong.
Common questions
11 answered here
Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.
No, and the Act says so in terms. Section 22(2) provides that an intention by a foreign national to become a permanent resident does not preclude them from becoming a temporary resident if the officer is satisfied that they will leave Canada by the end of the period authorized for their stay. That is dual intent, and it is the provision most often missed by families who believe a sponsorship in the queue has to be kept quiet.
The two intentions have to be held honestly at the same time. A parent with a permanent residence application pending can still be a genuine visitor, because the visit ends and the permanent application has not been decided. Concealing it is the separate and far worse problem. Misrepresentation under section 40 carries a five year bar on every application, and it is found on omissions more often than on lies.
So declare the pending sponsorship, the relatives here, and every earlier refusal. The officer can see all three in the department's own system regardless.
Nationality decides it, and then how you travel. Section 7(1) of the Regulations is the rule for the first group: a foreign national may not enter Canada to remain on a temporary basis without first obtaining a temporary resident visa, so a citizen of a visa required country needs one whatever the mode of travel. Section 7.1(1) catches everybody exempt from that, and requires an electronic travel authorisation to enter by air, which covers flying in and transiting through a Canadian airport and leaves arrival by car, bus or train needing nothing.
United States citizens are outside the scheme and need neither, only proper identification such as a valid United States passport. Lawful permanent residents of the United States are exempt from the eTA as well, and travel on a valid green card together with a passport from their country of nationality, which is the pair of documents the airline checks at the counter.
The eTA costs $7 and lasts five years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. It is tied to the passport it was issued against, so a new passport needs a new eTA. A visitor visa costs $100, or $500 for a family of five or more applying together. Biometrics are $85 a person and $170 for a family of two or more, and once given they stand for ten years.
It is a visitor visa, issued on different terms to one group of people. The host has to be the applicant's child or grandchild, by birth or adoption, a citizen, permanent resident or registered Indian, at least 18, living in Canada, and has to meet the minimum necessary income and sign a letter of invitation. In exchange the visa allows entries for up to ten years and a stay of five years at a time rather than six months.
Three requirements have no equivalent on an ordinary visitor visa. A medical examination with a panel physician is always required, not only for long stays from certain countries. Private medical insurance has to be in place covering health care, hospitalisation and repatriation, for at least $100,000, valid for a minimum of one year from the date of entry, and paid for rather than quoted: a quotation is not accepted, though instalments with the deposit paid are.
The insurance rule has a trap in it. The policy may come from a Canadian insurer, or from a foreign company authorised by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and appearing on its public list, and in that case the policy has to have been issued while that company was carrying on insurance business in Canada. A policy bought abroad from an insurer that is not on that list does not satisfy the requirement, however good the cover is.
The third difference is where the applicant has to be. A super visa is applied for from outside Canada and the visa is printed by an office outside Canada. A parent already here on a visitor record cannot convert to one without leaving.
It has to do more than say the visitor is welcome. For a super visa the letter is a required document and it carries the host's promise of financial support for the whole visit, the names and details of everybody in the household, and the relationship to the applicant. The family size in that letter is what the income is measured against, so a letter that under-counts the household produces an income figure that fails.
On an ordinary visitor visa the letter is not required and does not bind anybody, and it does not decide the application either. It is useful for a narrow purpose: it explains why this trip, at this time, for this long, to this address. An officer reading a purpose that matches the dates, the money and the ties is being given the answer to section 179(b). A letter that only expresses affection adds nothing to the file.
Income is proved with notices of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for the year relied on. A spouse or common-law partner may co-sign and add their income. Where a host is employed but recently arrived, pay slips for twelve months, an employer's letter and bank statements can carry the point, but the assessment is what the department asks for first.
Section 187 defines it, and the test is about where the money lives. A business visitor is someone engaging in international business activities in Canada without directly entering the Canadian labour market, which the Regulations then define: the primary source of remuneration for the activities has to be outside Canada, and the principal place of business and the actual place where profits accrue have to remain predominantly outside Canada.
The Regulations name three cases that always qualify. Buying Canadian goods or services for a foreign business or government, or being trained in them. Giving or receiving training inside a Canadian parent or subsidiary of the foreign employer, where any goods or services produced are incidental. Representing a foreign business or government to sell goods for it, so long as the sales are not to the general public in Canada.
Meetings, conferences, site visits and after sales service under a contract sit inside this. Doing the work itself does not, and the line is crossed more often by installation and commissioning work than by anything else. Where it is crossed the answer is a work permit, and that is a different application on a different clock.
You can apply again the next day, and most people should not. Nothing stops a second application, but nothing improves it either unless the reason for the first refusal has been found and answered. Order the officer's notes, read what was actually decided, and build the second application against that. A run of refusals on the same file is itself a fact the next officer weighs.
No. A super visa is applied for from outside Canada and printed by an office outside Canada. Parents already here as visitors can apply to extend their stay on a visitor record, which is a different thing and gives no multiple entry right, or they can leave and apply for the super visa from abroad.
Only if the insurer is authorised by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, appears on its public list, and issued the policy while carrying on insurance business in Canada. Cover bought from a local insurer at home that is not on that list will not satisfy the requirement, whatever the policy says.
Since 31 March 2026 there are two options and they work differently. Under the first, the host's total income, with a co-signer's where there is one, meets or exceeds the minimum in either of the two tax years before the application, so a year in which income dipped need not be the year relied on. Under the second, the host's income in the year immediately before reaches at least 75 per cent of the minimum and the visiting parent's or grandparent's own income makes up the rest, with the combined figure meeting the minimum. The second option is tied to that one year rather than to either of the two, and the minimum itself depends on the family size counted in the letter of invitation.
No, and the condition is on the status itself rather than on the visa. A temporary resident admitted as a visitor may not work or study in Canada unless authorised. Short courses of six months or less are the usual exception for study. Section 196 of the Regulations puts the work side plainly: a foreign national must not work in Canada unless authorised to do so by a work permit or by the Regulations themselves. Working before that authorisation exists puts the current status and any future application at risk.
Six months from entry unless the officer writes a different date, and a ten year visa does not change that. The visa's expiry is the last day to arrive at the border. To stay beyond the authorised period the visitor applies for a visitor record before the period runs out.
Bring the passport, any refusal letter and the host's notices of assessment. A visitor visa for Canada is built out of those three documents more than anything else.
