US Car Insurance for a Temporary Canadian Citizen

Q: Hi! I’m a US citizen and I am coming to Canada for a year through IEC working holiday visa, so I’ll be a temporary resident and I’ll be bringing my car with me. Do I need to get Canadian insurance on my car?

A: This is a great question for your car insurance agent as there are a couple of things going on here. First, I am located in the United States, so I can only speak of our insurance rules and regulations here. Second, your car insurance here in the US does normally cover you while you are traveling in Canada, so normally you would not need Canadian car insurance. However, with you being in Canada for a year as a temporary resident this changes your residency and the regular location of where the vehicle is for that long of a period of time; both items car insurance companies use to determine what state and country your car insurance should be from.

Your car insurance agent will be able to tell you if your car insurance company here in the United States would still extend coverage during your time in Canada or if you would need to purchase car insurance coverage on a Canadian policy.  The good news is, even if you do have to get Canadian car insurance, your US policy will still provide you at least temporary coverage while you are getting your Canadian car insurance coverage in place.