Standing at the check-in counter at Narita last month, the white haired Québecois gentleman behind me started chatting when he heard me say "yes I am traveling through to Montreal, thank you."
"You know hif you leave for more t'an 6 months, they revoke your 'ealt hinsurance hey?"
Yow! So this evening I went digging for that particular piece of worrisome truth. Sure enough, 183 days in a calendar year (January 1st to December 31st.)
Ok phew. I'm in no danger of that at this point, and the gentleman was saying it was 6 months out of three years and that had me worried.
But I kept reading to see, you know, what if I leave for a good long bit. Not so bad really. If I move away, and come back I just reapply for it.
But on this page, I found the sweet sweet deal for me:
Persons who remain covered
- Self-employed persons who are carrying out a contact outside Québec and whose usual place of work is in Québec
Period of coverage
- Duration of contract
Required documents (photocopies)
- Contract between self-employed person and client
Why temporary quitter? In french, one way to say "to leave" is "quitter"... and it's in the URL of the information mentioned above. There's more than one pun in that URL actually.
Of course all of this is moot if I leave for good, however I'm not so sure if change of citizenship is something I can ever be bothered with really. Ah well, time will tell.
Even more personal note: reading this english page with Québec written with the accent made it sound québecois in my head. As if Jean Chrétien were reading it to me... or that guy in the "I am not Canadien tabarnac" spoof.
