DS-5540 Health Insurance Recommendations

[NMHayek 56]

Hello all, 

 

I am preparing my husbands DS-5540 Public Charge form before our interview at the consulate. I would like to have a insurance quote with the document. Has anyone researched insurance plans that a new arrival to the USA can purchase? All the information I have found online seem to indicate that all he can get is short term travel insurance. Anyone purchased insurance yet or gotten any quotes for insurance regarding this?  And which insurance provider did you use? Thanks!

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

Get a quote from your job/HR of what it would cost to add him to your plan and print that out. Your other option would be to visit healthcare.gov and research plans.

Short term travel insurance would not work as he is immigrating not traveling. 

[NMHayek 56]

23 minutes ago, Luckycuds said:

Get a quote from your job/HR of what it would cost to add him to your plan and print that out. Your other option would be to visit healthcare.gov and research plans.

Short term travel insurance would not work as he is immigrating not traveling. 

Sorry I wasn't clear, I am located in Egypt with my husband. I do not live in the USA at the moment, so employee insurance is not available to me. I will amend my post. Could I get insurance from Healthcare.gov while living abroad? And how would that benefit him? Sorry so confusing

Edited June 10, 2020 by NMHayek

[NMHayek 56]

PLEASE NOTE: I am not located in the USA, I live in Egypt with my husand at the moment. So employee health insurance is not an options for me. Thanks! Unfortunately It doesn't seem I can edit my post.

Edited June 10, 2020 by NMHayek

[Punisher 40]

You are posting in I-130 processing section while you are clearly past that stage.

 

regarding insurance from US employer, make sure the plan allows adding spouse coming in as immigrant or otherwise, or you will have to wait until next "open enrollment" window to be allowed to make such change. While getting married is a qualifying event there might be a time limit to add him outside of "enrollment" window. 5540 asks about insurance within 30 days, if I recall, so make sure you are not claiming something that might not be possible to happen.

 

in my opinion health insurance is very small part of the equation. Current income, assets, education, skills, ability to work etc are main determining factors that should be focused on the most.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Punisher

[NMHayek 56]

15 minutes ago, Punisher said:

You are posting in I-130 processing section while you are clearly past that stage.

 

regarding insurance from your employer, make sure the plan allows adding spouse coming in as immigrant or otherwise, or you will have to wait until next "open enrollment" window to be allowed to make such change. While getting married is a qualifying event there might be a time limit to add him outside of "enrollment" window. 5540 asks about insurance within 30 days, if I recall, so make sure you are not claiming something that might not be possible to happen.

 

in my opinion health insurance is very small part of the equation. Current income, assets, education, skills, ability to work etc are main determining factors that should be focused on the most.

Ah I am sorry! Ill see if i can move it. Total accident on my part!

Unfortunately I few factors are against me:

1. I am not located in USA so no employee health insurance

2. Unfortunately, due to COVID closure we no longer have income! His entire industry has closed here in Egypt (tourism/ Scuba Dive). He has past income but not currently since March. We have used all our assets here in Egypt to support ourselves during COVID, the assets we have in the USA are to support his Affidavit of Support. We are originally from Dubai but came to Egypt to await the final steps of immigration so we could pursue a few goals we had (getting advance scuba dive training in Sharm El Sheikh, working in the dive industry for experience for future business in the USA). He has excellent work experience from Dubai, bachelor's degree and Occupational Certificates. I am just worried about the income and assets portion so I am trying to check all the boxes I can on this form. It is really giving me a lot of anxiety (I just found out about this form yesterday).

 

We are making my mom a joint sponsor so we can have that form ready if they ask for one in the interview. Do you think it would be benificial to transfer a couple thousand dollars from the USA to beef up his bank account in Egypt?

 

I am so worried. Maybe unnecessarily. 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by NMHayek

[Punisher 40]

in my opinion having health insurance is very small part of the ds5540 equation. Current income, assets, education, skills, ability to work etc are main determining factors that should be focused on the most. If you can't meet these criteria then I'm afraid having health insurance will do you no good.

 

after all, you need job and/or assets to be able to pay health insurance and even if you lose all of that you still need to get sick for it to become financial burden.
 

depending on whether you are already DQ at NVC or not, you should post either at NVC or Embassy sections.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Punisher

[NMHayek 56]

Just now, Punisher said:

in my opinion hving health insurance is very small part of the ds5540 equation. Current income, assets, education, skills, ability to work etc are main determining factors that should be focused on the most. If you can't meet these criteria then I'm afraid having health insurance will do you no good.

 

after all, you need job and/or assets to be able to pay health insurance and even if you lose all of that you still need to get sick for it to become financial burden.
 

depending on whether you are already DQ at NVC or not, you should post either at NVC or Embassy sections.

Ok thank you. 

[Punisher 40]

3 minutes ago, NMHayek said:

Ok thank you. 

Ds5540 is part of the bigger picture that ties up wih your I-864. You have to look holisticaly, thats what the adjudicator is going to do

[NMHayek 56]

I am sponsoring my husband for the IR1 Visa and we are both living in Egypt. I am preparing my husbands DS-5540 Public Charge form before our interview at the consulate in Egypt.  I would like to have a insurance quote with the document. Has anyone researched insurance plans that a new arrival to the USA can purchase? All the information I have found online seem to indicate that all he can get is short term travel insurance. Anyone purchased insurance yet or gotten any quotes for insurance regarding this?  And which insurance provider did you use?

Since I am located in Egypt, do not have access to employer health insurance in the USA.

 

I have a few reasons I would like to do this and maybe someone can give me additional advice:

 

Unfortunately, due to COVID closure we no longer have income here in Egypt! Our entire industry has closed here in Egypt (tourism/ Scuba Dive). He has past income but not currently since March. We have used all our assets here in Egypt to support ourselves during COVID, the assets we have in the USA are to support his Affidavit of Support. We are originally from Dubai but came to Egypt to await the final steps of immigration so we could pursue a few goals we had (getting advance scuba dive training in Sharm El Sheikh, working in the dive industry for experience for future business in the USA). He has excellent work experience from Dubai, bachelor's degree and Occupational Certificates. I am just worried about the income and assets portion so I am trying to check all the boxes I can on this form.

 

We are making my mom a joint sponsor so we can have that form ready if they ask for one in the interview. Does anyone think it would be beneficial to transfer a couple thousand dollars from the USA to beef up his bank account in Egypt?

 

This form is really giving me a lot of anxiety, I just found out about this form yesterday because all our documents were submitted and approved before this form was implemented. 

 

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

*** moving from  CR-1 to Moving Here forum as question is about health insurance *****

[NMHayek 56]

1 minute ago, Punisher said:

Ds5540 is part of the bigger picture that ties up wih your I-864. You have to look holisticaly, thats what the adjudicator is going to do

Ok thats good news at least, we are adding my mom as Joint sponsor and she has significant assets. So hopefully there will be no real issue and they can see with my husbands work experience, degrees, occupational certificates he will have no problem getting work and supporting himself in the USA. 

[Just Paul 4,595]

1 hour ago, NMHayek said:

Has anyone researched insurance plans that a new arrival to the USA can purchase?

You can go online and find an independent insurance representative in the area that you intend to live and they can provide multiple quotes for policies.   You can also look at the exchange pricing at healthcare.gov.  

1 hour ago, NMHayek said:

We are making my mom a joint sponsor so we can have that form ready if they ask for one in the interview.

That is a good backup

1 hour ago, NMHayek said:

Does anyone think it would be beneficial to transfer a couple thousand dollars from the USA to beef up his bank account in Egypt?

Only if it from your account in the US.  But it doesn't really help you in the process.

 

[NMHayek 56]

Just now, Paul & Mary said:

You can go online and find an independent insurance representative in the area that you intend to live and they can provide multiple quotes for policies.   You can also look at the exchange pricing at healthcare.gov.  

That is a good backup

Only if it from your account in the US.  But it doesn't really help you in the process.

 

Great thank you, this is very helpful

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

1 hour ago, NMHayek said:

Sorry I wasn't clear, I am located in Egypt with my husband. I do not live in the USA at the moment, so employee insurance is not available to me. I will amend my post. Could I get insurance from Healthcare.gov while living abroad? And how would that benefit him? Sorry so confusing

Hi- I am unsure if you can pick a "start date"  for when you intend to immigrate. healthcare.gov will transfer you to your states marketplace and you can play around with it. I can tell you for my state, Connecticut I can plug in basic info (age, income etc) and it will bring up plans that I qualify for and their monthly premium. I would think it is possible that you could say "yes" to will you be covered by health insurance and where you have to identify the plan you can put the one you intend to chose and write "intend to enroll upon entry to the United States". You can include the print out of the coverage that shows you researched it and have one in mind. 

I know you didn't ask but wanted to make sure you knew your moms assets must be able to be convertible to cash within a year and the net worth must be 5x the poverty guidelines for household.