JimandBettina

Does anyone know if I have to wait the 3 months for Health Care after arrival as a Canadian citizen. I have never lived there but will be moving there for good soon so will have to get a SIN and drving licence and health care. I just wondered whether the 3 month thing is for those on PR or other such visa?

Cheers,
Jim

caleo

My husband is Canadian too, but we all had to wait 3 months for healthcare.

JimandBettina

Great caleo! I just wanted to know. Thanks very much.

Animal

The 'official' route is to wait 3 months but we managed to get ours before that time. When we went in they just checked the date printed on the PR card (when we landed) which was 12 months before.

J-A-UK

3 Months wait but our Manitoba health care covered the void

MarylandNed

You were lucky because that's not a typical scenario. Being able to prove that you are a Canadian PR (or even a citizen) by itself is not enough. You need to provide one document from each of these 3 lists:

http://www.forms.ssb.gov.on.ca/mbs/s...e/9998-82E.pdf

Normally OHIP coverage begins 3 months after the earliest date that you can prove that you took up legal residence in Ontario. So they'll backdate it if possible but you must be able to prove a date that you began residing in Ontario.

My daughter is a Canadian citizen who was raised mostly in the US. She moved back to Canada to attend university and had a hard time getting OHIP coverage. The major problem was that she had no acceptable proof of address. She lived in a university dorm so had no rental lease or utility bills to prove her address and they wouldn't accept a letter from the university. To cut a long story short on the Canadian cell phone, she was under 18 at the time she got it and they wanted my name and US address on the bill. She also didn't have a full US driving license she could exchange for an Ontario license.

After struggling for a while trying to figure out a way around the red tape, someone at Service Ontario suggested she get one of the relatively new Ontario Photo ID cards (only available to people who don't have Ontario driving licenses). Strangely you don't need proof of address for this but, once you have it, it can be used as proof of address for the OHIP card application. After she received her Ontario Photo ID card, she went back to the OHIP office and they backdated her OHIP application to the date she applied for the Ontario Photo ID card.

caleo

Our 16 year old had problems with proof of address too, but they accepted a letter from the school. They are pretty strict with the checks and documentation required.

MarylandNed

Yes, they are usually very strict. It obviously also depends on who you deal with. A letter from a school isn't on the list of approved documents so you're then depending on someone being flexible and using their common sense - but that's unusual when dealing with bureaucracy!

One thing I forgot to mention is that we tried getting my daughter's bank (TD) to send her a bank statement so that could be used to prove address. However, TD said that would mean changing her account type since the free student account didn't provide paper statements. OHIP said they wouldn't accept a letter from the bank either...it had to be a monthly statement. Believe me we were pulling our hair out trying to figure out a way around this.

We were thinking about obtaining contents insurance for her dorm room (an insurance policy is acceptable proof of address) but all the furniture was provided by the university and she didn't have much of value anyway. Thankfully we eventually got to speak to a really nice lady at Service Ontario who was able to suggest the Ontario Photo ID card route.

Even when we finally went to the OHIP office to file the application for the OHIP card, the agent there tried to trick my daughter with a series of questions. These questions were obviously designed to prove that my daughter's real home was in the US, that she was not "permanently" residing in Ontario at all and was only in Ontario to attend university. There is definitely a grey area here for students. In addition to having to reside in Ontario for at least 153 days in any 12 month period (easy for a full-time student to fulfill), you also have to satisfy them that Ontario is your "main" residence or home. This is more subjective.

I could see what was happening and that my daughter was about to be denied OHIP coverage simply because of the trick questions of this agent. At this point I intervened and explained that as far as I was concerned my daughter had left home and was now out in the world on her own. Yes, she'll visit me in the holidays but as far as I was concerned my house was no longer her main residence. The agent said she was talking to my daughter - not me. I replied that I was the home owner and if she knew about people living in my home without my knowledge she better be willing to talk to me too! I asked to see her supervisor. At this point the agent finally backed off. I understand that they are concerned about fraud but the moral of the story is to make sure you have everything in order before going along to file the application.

Zoe Bell

OHIP appear to have randomly cancelled Ben's coverage yesterday. According to the nice letter they sent him.

MarylandNed

Not saying that this applies to you but you reminded me of something.

I was at a Service Ontario office last month. There was a young lady there inquiring why her OHIP coverage had been cancelled. The agent explained that they had sent her something in the mail that she hadn't responded to and so her OHIP coverage had been cancelled. I think the young lady had moved. The latest photo OHIP cards don't contain an address but you still have to make sure you inform them of any address changes. Also respond to anything they send you in the mail that requests a response.

Zoe Bell

We haven't moved, Ben renewed his card fairly recently (within the last year)

Something kicked up because he's a citizen now but wasn't when he first got OHIP ( I seriously think they make up the rules as they go along), as far as I'm aware (broadly speaking) OHIP is residency not Immigration Status based. So why this would cause them a problem I do not know.

Apparently they need to see his passport

Ironically I renewed my card whilst still a PR ( I'm no longer a PR) and haven't heard a damn thing, all the wanted from me was to see my driving license

Souvy

The driving licence is the de-facto ID card. It contains everything anyone needs to know. My missus can renew her QC health card just with her licence. I don't have one, so I have to jump through all the hoops.

caleo

After we applied for ours (5 of us) I received a letter in the post saying the information they had for y card was not the same as immigration records and I was to send them a copy of the latest item I had from immigration - this was my PR card, the same card as I used for ID when applying for OHIP. They said my card would be invalid until they had this information.

I sent them a copy of the front and back of my PR card, and they sent me an email saying my card is now valid........mind boggles!

Zoe Bell

This does beg the question , if they have access to immigration records , they should now be able to tell that he is a citizen, and it doesn't explain why mine is valid but his isn't.

MarylandNed

It's both. Just because you reside in Ontario doesn't mean you are entitled to OHIP coverage (e.g. you might be in Ontario illegally).

Also, you can do certain things online (e.g. update your address) by entering the last 4 chars of the citizenship/immigration document they have on file for you.