K-1 Travel Insurance Options

[Sha-Lee88 26]

Greetings,

 

My fiancee is arriving this month.  I would like to purchase travel insurance for her so she will be covered up until marriage (she will be added to my employer's insurance afterward).  What companies are the best?  I have done some research and cannot seem to find a consensus for people traveling to the US.  I want something that will handle any medical issues that may arise, even if it is pricey.  Does anyone have any advice?  Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share publicly.  Thanks.

[Boiler 45,443]

Travel insurance is something you buy in your home country but she is immigrating

 

There is pretty ####### medical insurance for new immigrants

 

Best bet is to marry asap and get her added to yours

[Lemonslice 4,831]

2 hours ago, Sha-Lee88 said:

Greetings,

 

My fiancee is arriving this month.  I would like to purchase travel insurance for her so she will be covered up until marriage (she will be added to my employer's insurance afterward).  What companies are the best?  I have done some research and cannot seem to find a consensus for people traveling to the US.  I want something that will handle any medical issues that may arise, even if it is pricey.  Does anyone have any advice?  Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share publicly.  Thanks.

You can call your insurance and ask for a quote for a short-term plan to cover your spouse-to-be.  Then you can call Blue Cross, Aetna, United, etc. and compare the quotes.  It won't be cheap, but you might only need it for a few days until you get married/add your spouse to your plan.  

[yuna628 9,671]

Travel insurance is not really useful for a person immigrating to a new country. Basically any plan you get will be null and void 24-48hrs after landing, because you are not visiting, you are immigrating. The only useful part is if you are concerned with loss of baggage or life in the event of a crash during the trip or if there is something valuable like electronics to cover (which is usually a separate policy). Temporary part time medical insurances or temporary short term medical insurances marketed towards new immigrants are also not particularly useful. Their coverage is not ACA compliant and do not expect it to provide anything remotely near what your employer's plan would provide.

 

The best plan would be to obtain an SSN for the fiancee shortly after arriving, marry as soon as possible, and then add your new spouse to your work plan.

Edited August 4, 2023 by yuna628

[Sha-Lee88 26]

Our plan is not to marry right away upon entry.  Our marriage date is closer to the 90-day mark.  Therefore, for the first 80+ days, she will not be on my insurance.  In the meantime, we need options for insurance.  A K-1 is a Non-Immigrant Visa, technically.  So, how would travel insurance not work to cover my fiancée's needs until the marriage date?  Other non-immigrant visas can cover a traveler to the US for 90 days.  Why is this non-immigrant visa any different?

[Boiler 45,443]

Just now, Sha-Lee88 said:

Our plan is not to marry right away upon entry.  Our marriage date is closer to the 90-day mark.  Therefore, for the first 80+ days, she will not be on my insurance.  In the meantime, we need options for insurance.  A K-1 is a Non-Immigrant Visa, technically.  So, how would travel insurance not work to cover my fiancée's needs until the marriage date?  Other non-immigrant visas can cover a traveler to the US for 90 days.  Why is this non-immigrant visa any different?

 

Your plan has major issues But sticking with the Travel Insurance aspect. Travel Insurance is for people who are travelling and returning to their home country. Let us say you have a serious issue in the US, the first thing they will be looking at is to get you home, Air Ambulance for example, even an Air Ambulance will be cheaper than US Hospital costs of any consequence.

 

Just because you are on a Non Immigrant visa does not mean you do not live in the US, I can think of people who have been in the US for decades as a non immigrant legally, they live here.

 

There is new immigrant insurance as has been mentioned, it will not compare well to your regular insurance.

[Sha-Lee88 26]

19 minutes ago, Boiler said:

 

Your plan has major issues But sticking with the Travel Insurance aspect. Travel Insurance is for people who are travelling and returning to their home country. Let us say you have a serious issue in the US, the first thing they will be looking at is to get you home, Air Ambulance for example, even an Air Ambulance will be cheaper than US Hospital costs of any consequence.

 

Just because you are on a Non Immigrant visa does not mean you do not live in the US, I can think of people who have been in the US for decades as a non immigrant legally, they live here.

 

There is new immigrant insurance as has been mentioned, it will not compare well to your regular insurance.

Please, enlighten me on the major issues to "our plan".

We have a set date.  Venue.  Guests.  Etc.  We aren't going to change that.

[yuna628 9,671]

15 minutes ago, Sha-Lee88 said:

Our plan is not to marry right away upon entry.  Our marriage date is closer to the 90-day mark.  Therefore, for the first 80+ days, she will not be on my insurance.  In the meantime, we need options for insurance.  A K-1 is a Non-Immigrant Visa, technically.  So, how would travel insurance not work to cover my fiancée's needs until the marriage date?  Other non-immigrant visas can cover a traveler to the US for 90 days.  Why is this non-immigrant visa any different?

Well as someone that talked extensively to insurance companies about this subject back in the day, again I can assure you travel insurance will only cover someone that is visiting a country and returning home. You can feel free to waste your money on it for the purposes of covering the flight and luggage, but once the fiance lands the coverage is null 24-48hrs after. A K-1 is a non-immigrant visa but it offers dual intent. It exists in both worlds per say because it allows you to stay and immigrate, it allows you to (once married) adjust status and reside in the US, and does not require you to return home. These type of insurances offer no coverage to a K1 in the way a visitor would be offered, because the intent is immigration, residing, living here, and not visiting. Afterall, the sponsor does sign a document saying they will be financially responsible. The insurance company is in the interest of covering someone that is not intending on living in the US.

 

Marrying late will almost certainly throw up challenges in obtaining proper health insurance, if that is an important factor to the both of you. That being said there is no longer a health insurance penalty, so going without insurance will all just be in how much you two want to risk. And if you don't want to risk anything, then my suggestion is to rethink a late marriage plan. Oh I know, you've got a venue and all that stuff set most likely. Well none of that stops a courthouse appointment, and celebrating everything else later on. In my honest opinion, temporary insurances which directly marketed to new immigrants like K1s especially, is another form of risk. You pay for supposed peace of mind, but what you get is really nothing as it is not ACA compliant.

 

FWIW, when I brought my husband here, our wedding date was within a month of his arrival, so there was a brief time without coverage. We were careful, but acknowledged if there was an illness, it would be paid out of pocket because the ''options'' out there are really dumb. I made sure to get the SSN sorted, and then when married called my insurance company and added him to my plan. Could we have hopped over to the courthouse and kept the big thing the same so that I could have added him ASAP? Sure. But we were willing to take the risk, as we didn't wait very long. A longer time to wait and in this age of COVID, no way we would have waited. Over the years there have been many stories of people that ran into great problems not having insurance, and I really feel for them. You have to make the best decision for what's going on in your lives.

 

It is perfectly reasonable though to purchase ''one way'' insurance for the flight just in case something goes wrong there. It's something we also did.

 

 

[Boiler 45,443]

7 minutes ago, Sha-Lee88 said:

Please, enlighten me on the major issues to "our plan".

We have a set date.  Venue.  Guests.  Etc.  We aren't going to change that.

This is an Immigration Forum and inevitably we concentrate on the Immigration aspects. That includes Insurance and of course delaying means everything else Immigration related gets kicked down the road 3 months.

 

From an Immigration etc perspective best to have a quick legal marriage to get the ball rolling and the celebration later.

 

You obviously do you, but there are consequences.

 

Back to topic, here is one source of new immigrant insurance.

 

https://www.***removed***.com/new-immigrant-insurance/

[Boiler 45,443]

5 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Well as someone that talked extensively to insurance companies about this subject back in the day, again I can assure you travel insurance will only cover someone that is visiting a country and returning home. You can feel free to waste your money on it for the purposes of covering the flight and luggage, but once the fiance lands the coverage is null 24-48hrs after. A K-1 is a non-immigrant visa but it offers dual intent. It exists in both worlds per say because it allows you to stay and immigrate, it allows you to (once married) adjust status and reside in the US, and does not require you to return home. These type of insurances offer no coverage to a K1 in the way a visitor would be offered, because the intent is immigration, residing, living here, and not visiting. Afterall, the sponsor does sign a document saying they will be financially responsible. The insurance company is in the interest of covering someone that is not intending on living in the US.

 

Marrying late will almost certainly throw up challenges in obtaining proper health insurance, if that is an important factor to the both of you. That being said there is no longer a health insurance penalty, so going without insurance will all just be in how much you two want to risk. And if you don't want to risk anything, then my suggestion is to rethink a late marriage plan. Oh I know, you've got a venue and all that stuff set most likely. Well none of that stops a courthouse appointment, and celebrating everything else later on. In my honest opinion, temporary insurances which directly marketed to new immigrants like K1s especially, is another form of risk. You pay for supposed peace of mind, but what you get is really nothing as it is not ACA compliant.

 

FWIW, when I brought my husband here, our wedding date was within a month of his arrival, so there was a brief time without coverage. We were careful, but acknowledged if there was an illness, it would be paid out of pocket because the ''options'' out there are really dumb. I made sure to get the SSN sorted, and then when married called my insurance company and added him to my plan. Could we have hopped over to the courthouse and kept the big thing the same so that I could have added him ASAP? Sure. But we were willing to take the risk, as we didn't wait very long. A longer time to wait and in this age of COVID, no way we would have waited. Over the years there have been many stories of people that ran into great problems not having insurance, and I really feel for them. You have to make the best decision for what's going on in your lives.

 

It is perfectly reasonable though to purchase ''one way'' insurance for the flight just in case something goes wrong there. It's something we also did.

 

 

I am trying to remember what it was my Brother signed up for? It was something weird cost him 400 quid a year but came with Travel Insurance which has saved him a bundle. A phone plan or something, need to ask him.

 

I have seen people use per say a lot recently, now I only did one year of Latin and I was 11 but could have sworn it is per se. 

 

One way Travel Insurance is unusual, it used to be unknown, generally Travel Insurance works on the basis the person is resident in that Country. So you are looking for something specialised. And of course there are certain commonalities but it does vary by Country.

[Sha-Lee88 26]

44 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Well as someone that talked extensively to insurance companies about this subject back in the day, again I can assure you travel insurance will only cover someone that is visiting a country and returning home. You can feel free to waste your money on it for the purposes of covering the flight and luggage, but once the fiance lands the coverage is null 24-48hrs after. A K-1 is a non-immigrant visa but it offers dual intent. It exists in both worlds per say because it allows you to stay and immigrate, it allows you to (once married) adjust status and reside in the US, and does not require you to return home. These type of insurances offer no coverage to a K1 in the way a visitor would be offered, because the intent is immigration, residing, living here, and not visiting. Afterall, the sponsor does sign a document saying they will be financially responsible. The insurance company is in the interest of covering someone that is not intending on living in the US.

 

Marrying late will almost certainly throw up challenges in obtaining proper health insurance, if that is an important factor to the both of you. That being said there is no longer a health insurance penalty, so going without insurance will all just be in how much you two want to risk. And if you don't want to risk anything, then my suggestion is to rethink a late marriage plan. Oh I know, you've got a venue and all that stuff set most likely. Well none of that stops a courthouse appointment, and celebrating everything else later on. In my honest opinion, temporary insurances which directly marketed to new immigrants like K1s especially, is another form of risk. You pay for supposed peace of mind, but what you get is really nothing as it is not ACA compliant.

 

FWIW, when I brought my husband here, our wedding date was within a month of his arrival, so there was a brief time without coverage. We were careful, but acknowledged if there was an illness, it would be paid out of pocket because the ''options'' out there are really dumb. I made sure to get the SSN sorted, and then when married called my insurance company and added him to my plan. Could we have hopped over to the courthouse and kept the big thing the same so that I could have added him ASAP? Sure. But we were willing to take the risk, as we didn't wait very long. A longer time to wait and in this age of COVID, no way we would have waited. Over the years there have been many stories of people that ran into great problems not having insurance, and I really feel for them. You have to make the best decision for what's going on in your lives.

 

It is perfectly reasonable though to purchase ''one way'' insurance for the flight just in case something goes wrong there. It's something we also did.

 

 

Excellent answer.  Thank you for the thoughtful response.

[TBoneTX 45,248]

2 hours ago, yuna628 said:

none of that stops a courthouse appointment, and celebrating everything else later on

Following this advice can prevent a whole lot of negative stuff.

[yuna628 9,671]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

 

I am trying to remember what it was my Brother signed up for? It was something weird cost him 400 quid a year but came with Travel Insurance which has saved him a bundle. A phone plan or something, need to ask him.

 

I have seen people use per say a lot recently, now I only did one year of Latin and I was 11 but could have sworn it is per se. 

 

One way Travel Insurance is unusual, it used to be unknown, generally Travel Insurance works on the basis the person is resident in that Country. So you are looking for something specialised. And of course there are certain commonalities but it does vary by Country.

Hey sometimes I have dumb blonde moments, where my brain breaks and I think.. "wait that spelling isn't right is it?" 😉

 

I remember he had to call and speak to his travel insurance broker to get it, as it wasn't something they offered online. I think it's not a terrible idea, especially if you're moving a lot of household stuff with you on the plane for your final trip like he was.

[TBoneTX 45,248]

4 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

blonde

Photos of blonde Y ma'am now or it didn't happen.