annettehol5561

Hi everyone I'm looking for some advice on Extended trip insurance. My daughter already has an annual travel insurance but will be going to France in the summer to stay with friends there. after that she will be working as a language assistant in a school until the end of April. Clearly her existing travel insurance will only cover trips of up to 30/31 days so we will need to get her an extended trip insurance. I know she will be able to use her GHIC but I think she neds extended travel insurance to comply with Visa requirements. The last time she did a year abroad as part of her degree her university provided this free of charge but now she has graduated.I have been on a price comparison site but the prices were expensive and a google search comes up with a lot of Backpacker policies which are very expensive but obviously not what she needs. Any advice would be much appreciated.

dfourh

The first question is whether you are interested in actual "travel" insurance (trip interruption, cancellation, lost baggage) vs. medical insurance, which is actually "expat" insurance (medical emergencies, medical situations involving extended care).

annettehol5561

Good point and I'm not sure. I guess travel insurance for when she goes and comes back for Christmas and Easter and she will need adequate medical insurance for when she is there. I will look into ex pat insurance.

annettehol5561

So I decided to look on France Visa webpage and found this

Accepted Travel Insurance Policies for a Long-Stay Visa/VLS-TS

For a Long-Stay Visa Equivalent to a Residence Permit (visa de long séjour valant titre de séjourorVLS-TS), a standard travel insurance policy will not suffice. As this visa entitles you to live in France for up to a year and serves as the first step to seeking permanent residency, you must have full private healthcare insurance that covers all medical care (including emergency and ongoing treatment) and repatriation costs.

We have heard many reports of visa applications being refused due to insufficient medical policies, so it is essential to choose the right kind of insurance policy. We’ll go into more detail about exactly what it should cover in a moment, but here are a few general points to note:

1. Health insurance policies for long-stay visas must meet national requirements, not Schengen requirements – therefore, a standard Schengen travel insurance policy or Schengen private medical insurance will not suffice.
2. The rules for French visas are very specific and don’t always correspond with typical private health insurance policies, even those that may be accepted by other EU countries. Therefore, we advise you to choose an insurance company that has experience providing private health insurance for French residents and discuss your needs with them prior to purchase. Some companies that FrenchEntrée recommends include Cigna, ASTTRAL, and Fab.
3. You should always opt for an insurance policy that allows for complete cancellation in the event that it does not meet the requirements for your visa.
4. You should also opt for an insurance policy that can be cancelled at any time throughout the duration of the contract – if you are living in France, you may register for the state healthcare system after three months and may then wish to cancel your private health insurance (more on this below).

Official Guidelines for Private Health Insurance Policies

While there are clearly very specific requirements for visa-compliant private health insurance policies, part of the problem is that the French authorities have not provided definitive official guidelines that set out exactly which policies will and will not be accepted.

The following list of guidelines has been compiled through official advice from the embassies and past experience of readers who have successfully applied for long-stay visas.

Your insurance policy:

• Should be an international Private Health Insurance Policy, NOT a travel insurance policy.
• Should cover the entire validity of the visa (i.e. one year), regardless of how long you intend to stay in France and/or should clearly mention that the policy will be automatically renewed.
• Should cover both medical expenses and hospitalisation.
• Should have a minimum medical coverage of €30,000
• Should not mention any medical exclusions (pre-existing conditions must be covered by your medical policy)
• Should cover repatriation.

ah

dfourh

This is my situation too: an insurance policy must meet the clearly defined requirements for stay in the European Union determined by Schengen regulations (here: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/sch...isa-insurance/ ). In Germany where I am Feather does this slam dunk, though it costs about 250 Euro/month. There is very likely an equivalent, easy, insurer that meets that standard in France. And for a visa you need to be insured by a policy that meets the Schengen requrement.

Just one aside: I am 68 years old and after a couple years have never filed a claim. I had an X-ray recently on my foot and that cost 29 Euro - - and the deductible is 100 Euro. Medical costs here are so piddling that they never get over the 100 deductible for me, though anybody's mileage may vary.

annettehol5561

Thanks for the info