Travel Insurance?

[JoeWyatt 0]

Hello all, UK native engaged to a Californian here.

So I had a successful K1 Visa interview today (hooray!) and am expecting my passport and Visa package to arrive in a fortnight, so I'm starting to shop around for flights.

Here's my situation: My fiancee and I have recently moved home after several years working abroad together. She currently has no full time job and isn't planning on starting one until after the wedding wraps up (wedding planning is still in full swing and she doesn't fancy the prospect of asking for a couple of weeks off for a wedding and honeymoon from a brand new employer). This means of course that I possibly won't be able to jump onto her insurance plan once we get married and I switch to spousal Visa, because she may not have one yet.

Here's what I'm considering: I can get Travel Insurance. I can either buy a potentially more expensive return flight (a "dummy" flight, I just won't turn up on the day of the return) and get insured for the period between those two flights plus the flights themselves, or I can get a one-way ticket and fork out a flat rate of £500 for a year's worth of travel insurance (with the cheap flight I've found, that adds up to £1032 in total).

Obviously the dummy flight option will possibly be cheaper overall but the year of insurance will keep me covered for longer, potentially for the time that it takes me to get a green card and insurance of my own.

So, question to all of you: Do you think it's worth me doing this? Does Travel Insurance cover enough? Should I fork out for the £500 Year's worth of coverage? Has anyone not gotten travel insured and wishes they had? My money situation is tight but I know how important insurance potentially is in the states and the idea of being without it worries me. Obviously the fiancee will not be complacent about findkmnywork but do you think I should do this just Jim case?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

The many threads on here in the past on the subject have all pretty much concluded that travel insurance won't pay up if you have a claim because you have actually immigrated and are not really a tourist. Use the Advanced Search and look for "Travel Imsurance" and display results as posts, not topics.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Another good advanced search is

Find Words: insurance

Find author: Yuna628

Results as: posts

Scan down her posts and find the ones about health insurance.

[yuna628 9,713]

Okay: you have a few options here.

I'm not sure what you meant by switching to a spousal visa... because typically what the K1 will need to do after marriage is to adjust status which will allow you to continue to live in the US and obtain authorization to work.

Keep the following rules in mind regarding health insurance in America:

All persons in the US, immigrants or citizens must have health insurance or they will be subject to a tax penalty. If your US fiancé doesn't have insurance a penalty may be assessed. And if you go for a lengthy period of time without insurance, the penalty may apply too. This doesn't mean one has to obtain insurance of course, insurance is not a mandatory thing. It's all in what the persons chooses to afford vs risk. The yearly penalty is cheaper than the cost to have insurance.

Travel insurances, temporary insurances, travel health insurances, and insurances marketed towards immigrants are considered substandard by the federal government, and thus the penalty still applies. They consider them as if you don't have insurance, because they are inferior. I am also dubious about these plans providing real useful coverage when you actually need them.

There are some UK travel insurance companies that will cover you while on the flight and up to a few days after you arrive. My husband spoke to his broker, and they covered him for the flight and up to 24hrs after touch-down or so. He took this extra one-way insurance only because he had a lot of valuables with him for the flight (he chose one way). You choosing to take a flight and cancelling the return is certainly cheaper, but will get you nowhere with insurance. Your intent is to immigrate and is not for a visit or brief trip, which will break the terms of the insurance should you require it's use. I always certainly encourage coverage for at least the flight, to protect your loved ones in case of your demise or the loss of your items, but that's about it. You'll have to contact your broker for a ''one-way insurance plan'' for that. The fee was nominal, somewhere between 50-80 quid.

But as I said, this type of insurance will help nothing when you have immigrated to the US.

Your options there for that are as follows:

Go without for a short period of time until you or wife begin to work and gain insurance through employer (you'll need to adjust status and apply for an EAD before you can work). You can use minute clinics that often offer wellness and prompt care for as much or cheaper than a monthly premium. If you go without for a short time, it is unlikely the penalty will apply or if it does, won't be much.

Go for Obamacare. As a new immigrant and newly married you qualify for Obamacare via the state or federal exchange. If your state has an exchange, you must use it rather than the federal. Open enrollment is closed, but you will qualify under special enrollment. Some qualifying documents will be your NOA1 for your adjustment of status, or if waiting longer your EAD or Green Card. You can find out more info by the link in my signature. Don't ever let any one on the phone tell you that your immigration status prevents you from insurance, you may need to ask for a supervisor. In addition while an SSN can make things easier as an identifying document when you apply, you are not required by law to have one and it does not prevent you from obtaining insurance. A phone person may say that. They are lying. I would recommend however to get an SSN, soon after you arrive in the states. Often people think that the ACA/Obamacare is affordable, afterall it stands for Affordable Care Act. Alas, the affordability is only for some persons. Since you live in Cali, the state has an exchange which is called Covered California, I believe. Like the federal exchange, immigrants certainly qualify.

Buy health insurance out of pocket, privately. Think of Obamacare like a giant health insurance search engine. Many of the same plans you find there can also be obtained privately by looking online or calling an insurance company. Some may or may not be cheaper. It all depends on a variety of factors. You may cancel at any time. I bought insurance privately. They only required proof of marriage.

Expect in either case for sticker shock.

[VictorPen 0]

On 6/23/2016 at 7:52 PM, JoeWyatt said:

Hello all, UK native engaged to a Californian here.

So I had a successful K1 Visa interview today (hooray!) and am expecting my passport and Visa package to arrive in a fortnight, so I'm starting to shop around for flights.

Here's my situation: My fiancee and I have recently moved home after several years working abroad together. She currently has no full time job and isn't planning on starting one until after the wedding wraps up (wedding planning is still in full swing and she doesn't fancy the prospect of asking for a couple of weeks off for a wedding and honeymoon from a brand new employer). This means of course that I possibly won't be able to jump onto her insurance plan once we get married and I switch to spousal Visa because she may not have one yet.

Here's what I'm considering: I can get Travel Insurance. I can either buy a potentially more expensive return flight (a "dummy" flight, I just won't turn up on the day of the return) and get insured for the period between those two flights plus the flights themselves, or I can get a one-way ticket and fork out a flat rate of £500 for a year's worth of travel insurance (with the cheap flight I've found, that adds up to £1032 in total).

Obviously the dummy flight option will possibly be cheaper overall but the year of insurance will keep me covered for longer, potentially for the time that it takes me to get a green card and insurance of my own.

So, question to all of you: Do you think it's worth me doing this? Does Travel Insurance cover enough? Should I fork out for the £500 Year's worth of coverage? Has anyone not gotten travel insured and wishes they had? My money situation is tight but I know how important insurance potentially is in the states and the idea of being without it worries me. Obviously the fiancee will not be complacent about findkmnywork but do you think I should do this just Jim case?

Lol, probably the same situation I had

[VictorPen 0]

Just now, SeekerLG said:

hm, what the situation did you have? it gets interesting

the same situation I had with my car insurance company when it refused me to add me to my wife's insurance...

[VictorPen 0]

Ok, I will tell you the whole story: The same situation I had with my car insurance company when it refused me to add me to my wife's insurance... When we changed my insurance company and found a cheap offer of courier insurance from this site http://www.total-insurance.co.uk and immediately concluded a contract, because they had a discount in amount of 20% for contract conclusion, so, for my car we had to pay 799 for the whole year (it's really cheap, because previously I had to pay 1350 for a year), by the way, this courier insurance includes even health insurance

Edited July 23, 2019 by VictorPen

[Unlockable 7,315]

*** Topic from 2016 locked. Please do not reply to old threads.

 

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