Cost of study abroad (visa/healthcare) in Canada/USA/Australia

[Ineedcoffeenow]

DD is wanting to study abroad in either Canada, USA or Australia. Obviously there’s the travel costs and living costs will vary by location. I’m specifically interested in the costs of getting a visa to those countries and healthcare. She’s only just started university so we have a little while, but Can anyone help?

Watch the visas for Canada. My friend's son has a chronic health condition. A few years ago, he was offered and accepted a place at a Canadian university, including a very attractive scholarship, which he accepted. Applied for the visa and was refused due to the potential burden on the health care system. As far as the university was concerned, it was nothing to do with them. He ended up having to refuse the offer and reapply in the US for the following year.

I would avoid going to the US at present, given the various university cuts and other fairly obvious reasons.

Thanks for that warning.

I think she’s now written off the USA so Canada is her first choice right now.

My student has made contact with a 4th year student who did a semester at the Canadian university they’re interested in doing a Winter Semester at in Jan 2027.

My Student is in 1st Year. They’re meeting for coffee and my student is researching what Qs to ask them.

My list is as follows:
Applying for Study Permit/Visa/Biometrics - process, cost & timescale
Paying for student Accommodation - can it be done monthly or do we stump up 4 months in one go (hope that’s not the case!)
Proof of CAN$ 10,000 - can the SAAS schedule of maintenance loan payments function as this? Or do you have to show this sum sitting in student’s bank account on application?
Logistics of the potential of ‘swapping’ accommodation with a Canadian student ie. My student being able to ‘sublet’ (with landlords permission) their private rental in a shared house to a visiting Canadian student for a term?

Other costs such as mobile/data in Canada.

I imagine that they’ll discuss a lot of this but imagine that there will be ‘boring’ stuff such as cost/details of medical and travel insurance that they might not be across.

I guess the best question I can ask my student is whether the other student would mind me getting in touch with THEIR parent(s) to pick their brains !

Anyway I thought I’d post on here just in case anyone else had more ideas of crucial questions to ask. TIA 😊

Australia has reciprocal health care rights with uk ie people in uk entitled to nhs are entitled to Australia’s version called Medicare

DD was at a Scottish university(graduated over 10 yrs ago)and did a compulsory year abroad for her 3rd year of studies.She went to a large US university and loved the whole experience.I can’t remember the costs of all the specifics,but she had to go down to London for the appropriate visa and we had to show proof of our income to show we could support her financially.She had to pay health insurance every semester and buy all her books although she managed to borrow some from the library when she needed to.
DD didn’t want to go into university halls so she put a message on a university forum looking to share a house with other students. She ended up in a shared house with 3 lovely American girls and had a great time. Can’t remember how much the rent was,but I remember thinking it was reasonable in comparison to the cost of halls..She’s still in touch with a couple of the girls and had an invite to the wedding of one of them.
We put money at the start of each semester into the American bank account she opened.