Travel health Insurance for K1 visa travel

[Joanne82 1]

Hi. 

 

I will be flying to the US on 4th April on my K1 visa. I will be getting married in 2 weeks after I arrive and my fiance is in the US military so I will be covered by his health insurance immediately.

 

I have travel health insurance with my bank, but they say it is only for holidays (trips of no more than 31 days), which this trip is not.

 

I have been looking into temporary, short term medical insurance in the US but they all seem to be for a year are £100 a month and require 30% of the medical costs to be paid for by me. Ouch. It is also unclear about how I would be covered while I was travelling from the UK to the US, so if my plane crashed, what would happen to me while I am in this no-man's land of citizenship and insurance.

 

What has everyone else done? Or do most people just chance it. I just want to be sure as I really couldn't afford medical bills or want my parents to have to pay for repatriation of my body.

 

[yuna628 9,676]

3 hours ago, Joanne82 said:

Hi. 

 

I will be flying to the US on 4th April on my K1 visa. I will be getting married in 2 weeks after I arrive and my fiance is in the US military so I will be covered by his health insurance immediately.

 

I have travel health insurance with my bank, but they say it is only for holidays (trips of no more than 31 days), which this trip is not.

 

I have been looking into temporary, short term medical insurance in the US but they all seem to be for a year are £100 a month and require 30% of the medical costs to be paid for by me. Ouch. It is also unclear about how I would be covered while I was travelling from the UK to the US, so if my plane crashed, what would happen to me while I am in this no-man's land of citizenship and insurance.

 

What has everyone else done? Or do most people just chance it. I just want to be sure as I really couldn't afford medical bills or want my parents to have to pay for repatriation of my body.

 

Any basic travel insurance you have will be null and void the moment you touch down on US soil since you are not visiting - you are immigrating. There are policies you can purchase that will extend coverage up to 24-48hrs or longer after landing for immigrant purposes - I believe my husband chose that option in order to cover all the household belongings he brought with him and additional coverage for electronics. It required talking to his broker and there are a few companies that specifically offer it. They are called emigration insurance or one-way insurance. It will still cover if something should happen to you on the plane in the even of loss of life etc. Again this type of insurance will virtually only cover you in the event of loss of life/injury on the plane, your belongings on the plane etc. Once you land and everything is fine, that's it for the policy. You can purchase travel medical insurance but again it would be rather useless since you are A) not a visitor and B) it would be void upon landing - and you will be covered under your spouse's insurance within two weeks. There are companies that offer temporary short term insurances directly marketed to immigrants while they are in limbo of being added to their spouse's plans while within the US - but it sounds like you'll have the health insurance part all covered fairly quickly. If you are concerned of the costs in event of repatriation you'll have to review the fine print of each policy carefully.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2017 by yuna628