Travel Medical Insurance for Visa Applications

The Schengen requirement

Short-stay Schengen applications require travel medical insurance that meets a set minimum cover for medical emergencies and repatriation, is valid across the entire Schengen area rather than only the country you applied to, and covers the full period you intend to stay.

The most common failure is the third one. A policy that ends on the departure date rather than the return date, or that covers 14 days of a 16-day trip, is rejected on a detail that costs nothing to get right.

Multiple-entry visas

If you are issued a multiple-entry visa valid for a longer period, the insurance requirement applies to each trip you take on it, not only the first. Missions typically ask you to evidence cover for the first trip and to undertake to hold cover for subsequent ones.

This catches people out on their second journey, when the original policy has long expired and nobody thought to renew it. Border officers can and do ask.

Other destinations

• The UK does not require travel insurance for a Standard Visitor visa, though it is sensible to hold it.
• The US does not require it for a B1/B2 either; medical costs there make it worth having regardless.
• Several countries require proof of funds or insurance on arrival even where the visa did not ask for it.
• Anyone travelling for medical treatment should expect their cover to be examined much more closely.

What we arrange

A compliant policy for your exact travel dates, issued in a form the mission accepts, with the certificate wording that names the required cover level and geographic scope explicitly. We check it against the itinerary before it goes into the file, because those two documents disagreeing is the failure we see most.