K1 Visa Health Insurance

[InRainbows14 17]

Hi all, I'm a long time lurker on this forum and have found it so useful for navigating this process, so thanks for all of your anonymous help!

 

I will be entering the US soon on a K1 visa, and have started thinking about health insurance. I'm just wondering, would I be able to purchase travel insurance for the first few weeks before marriage (e.g. from https://www.sevencorners.com/#start ), or would my immigrant intent invalidate this insurance? I understand that policies like this are geared towards travellers, but given that the K1 is technically a nonimmigrant visa, and I would have to leave the country after 90 days if a marriage never took place, surely there's no certainty of immigrant intent until after we apply for Adjustment of Status?

 

Does anybody have experience/ know of anybody who has arrived with one of these plans, and successfully made a claim? I've seen a few threads about this (apologies for yet another), but a lot of the advice against it ("You're an immigrant, so that would invalidate the insurance") seems quite speculative and not based on actual anecdotal evidence.

 

Just for the record, my long-term plan is to purchase insurance off the marketplace, but I understand I'll need my Adjustment of Status NOA1 for that, and we're not planning on getting married for around a month after my arrival (busy festive period etc). It would be nice to have some very basic coverage for piece of mind for the first few weeks before getting on a proper plan, but I don't want to waste money on something worthless.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Georgia16 2,858]

We had that one and my son actually ended in the hospital by ambulance 2 days after we arrived and they were useless. 
 

best you can do is marry as soon as possible and get in his insurance. 

[yuna628 9,677]

1 hour ago, InRainbows14 said:

Hi all, I'm a long time lurker on this forum and have found it so useful for navigating this process, so thanks for all of your anonymous help!

 

I will be entering the US soon on a K1 visa, and have started thinking about health insurance. I'm just wondering, would I be able to purchase travel insurance for the first few weeks before marriage (e.g. from https://www.sevencorners.com/#start ), or would my immigrant intent invalidate this insurance? I understand that policies like this are geared towards travellers, but given that the K1 is technically a nonimmigrant visa, and I would have to leave the country after 90 days if a marriage never took place, surely there's no certainty of immigrant intent until after we apply for Adjustment of Status?

 

Does anybody have experience/ know of anybody who has arrived with one of these plans, and successfully made a claim? I've seen a few threads about this (apologies for yet another), but a lot of the advice against it ("You're an immigrant, so that would invalidate the insurance") seems quite speculative and not based on actual anecdotal evidence.

 

Just for the record, my long-term plan is to purchase insurance off the marketplace, but I understand I'll need my Adjustment of Status NOA1 for that, and we're not planning on getting married for around a month after my arrival (busy festive period etc). It would be nice to have some very basic coverage for piece of mind for the first few weeks before getting on a proper plan, but I don't want to waste money on something worthless.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Travel insurance is not viable. You are immigrating not visiting. Also insurances like this, and this also includes things like temporary short term and insurance specifically marketed toward new immigrants ARE NOT ACA compliant, the coverage is dubious at best and I cannot recommend it to anyone as being a particularly useful use of money.

 

Does your new spouse not have insurance you can be added to?

 

While some people do buy short term coverage (again it does not offer prexisting coverage and may not provide adequate service, and further still may NOT be accepted by most doctors), others do choose to go without until they marry.

 

My best suggestion is to get your SSN shortly after arriving (not required for insurance but it will make life easier), marry as soon as possible, and either have the spouse add to their insurance or file AOS asap and use the marketplace exchange.

[SalishSea 17,841]

Here is what we did:  my then-fiancé had an existing one year travel insurance plan from NZ which covered only urgent/emergent care vs pre-existing/routine.  It was a one-year plan and still valid when he entered the US on 10/17/18.   We got married four days later on 10/21.  The next day we submitted the paperwork to add him to my workplace plan since marriage is a qualifying event.  His coverage kicked in 9 days later on 11/21.

 

Worked out great for us.  He never had to use the travel insurance.

 

 

[flfreddy 92]

Insurance that is primary will be good, dont buy secondary insurance.   I dont think they ask you visa status in a ER situation.   If it happens in a hospital, call for authorization and have them pay direct if not file a claim later.   Anyone any exp on whether Q like what was your visa status or was it simply were you travelling?

[Hank_ 9,174]

http://www.immigrationhealth.com/plans.htm

[JFH 12,190]

*~*~*moved from “K-1 fiancé visa process and procedures” to “moving to the USA” where this topic is regularly discussed*~*~*

[J Laredo 25]

15 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

Here is what we did:  my then-fiancé had an existing one year travel insurance plan from NZ which covered only urgent/emergent care vs pre-existing/routine.  It was a one-year plan and still valid when he entered the US on 10/17/18.   We got married four days later on 10/21.  The next day we submitted the paperwork to add him to my workplace plan since marriage is a qualifying event.  His coverage kicked in 9 days later on 11/21.

 

Worked out great for us.  He never had to use the travel insurance.

 

 

 

18 hours ago, yuna628 said:

Travel insurance is not viable. You are immigrating not visiting. Also insurances like this, and this also includes things like temporary short term and insurance specifically marketed toward new immigrants ARE NOT ACA compliant, the coverage is dubious at best and I cannot recommend it to anyone as being a particularly useful use of money.

 

Does your new spouse not have insurance you can be added to?

 

While some people do buy short term coverage (again it does not offer prexisting coverage and may not provide adequate service, and further still may NOT be accepted by most doctors), others do choose to go without until they marry.

 

My best suggestion is to get your SSN shortly after arriving (not required for insurance but it will make life easier), marry as soon as possible, and either have the spouse add to their insurance or file AOS asap and use the marketplace exchange.

My husband is entering the US next weekend. I can sign him up for my work insurance on that Monday, but his coverage won’t be active until the first of the month. I thought I could get him the travel insurance that I always use after I moved back to the US from Mexico (and went to see him on long visits.) 

so this won’t work do you think? Like I should go to somewhere like Blue Cross or other carriers and they might be able to give us a short term policy? I stupidly assumed it would be easier because I saw the ads for fiance health insurance on this site. I didn’t think that it would be different for spouses.