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Will your Travel Insurance pass the Schengen Test?

Will your Travel or Health Insurance pass the Schengen Test?

If not then your visa will be rejected or at best delayed until you buy a policy that does pass the Schengen Test.

If you are travelling to any of the European nations listed below from a country that requires you to have a Visa, the Embassy will demand that you hold a valid travel / health insurance policy to cover your stay which must be acceptable to the Schengen Treaty. If your policy is not acceptable then your Visa application may be rejected or at best delayed until you obtain a policy from an Insurer that is Schengen Friendly.

Schengen Approved Travel Insurance
Once taken out, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
for your free Schengen Letter

What is the Schengen Treaty?

The Schengen Treaty was originated in Luxembourg in 1985 to create an agreement between European States to permit free travel within and to eliminate cross border controls and to create an external border around all European states that signed up to the treaty. The purpose of the Agreement is to eliminate border controls at the shared international borders of these States. Foreign visitors require only one visa for the entire Schengen Area and will be able to move freely between these countries. However, you always have to apply at the Embassy or Consulate of the country, which is your primary destination.

As a visitor to the Schengen area, you will enjoy the many advantages of this unified visa system. Generally speaking with a Schengen visa, you may enter one country and travel freely throughout the Schengen region during the validity of the visa. Internal border controls are now limited with only few stops and checks.

However, the purpose of the visit must be leisure, tourism, or business. Upon issuing of the visa, the visa holder is allowed to enter all member countries and travel freely throughout the Schengen area. It is strongly recommended to plan your journey within the timeframe of the Schengen Visa as extensions will normally be very difficult to obtain, thus forcing you to leave to stay in compliance with the Schengen rules and regulations. A Schengen visa allows the holder to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period.

A Schengen Visa holder is not allowed to live permanently or work in Europe.

Travel insurance including medical cover and repatriation is required when you apply for your Schengen visa (the actual repatriation clause needs to be presented to the Consulate) and it must cover the duration of the requested visa.

Why do the Embassies want a Schengen Friendly Insurance Policy?

Insurance Policies from Schengen-Friendly Insurers from within the European Union have agreed to the Treaty terms of easy settlement of claims and hospitals and providers are assured that their bills will be paid promptly whereas past problems have occurred with hospital bills being long over due and sometimes unpaid by obscure insurance companies in non European countries who do not share the common goals and interest of the Union.

Schengen Approved Travel Insurance
Once taken out, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
for your free Schengen Letter

Important

Under the provisions of the Directive 2004/17/CE of the Council of the European Union 22/12/2003 the Agreement states:

“Applicants must show that they are in possession of adequate and valid individual or group travel insurance to cover any expenses which might arise in connection with repatriation for medical reasons, urgent medical attention and/or emergency hospital treatment.

The insurance must be valid throughout the territory of the Schengen Member States applying in full the provisions of the Schengen acquis and cover the entire period of the person's stay; minimum cover must be €30,000.”

Due to the occasional slight variations in exact requirements, please ensure that you are aware of the precise insurance stipulations as needed by your Schengen Visa country of entry.

If you have any concerns regarding the insurance requirements please contact us immediately.

As we understand it, there is no requirement for an insurer to have an office in the Schengen area.

Source: REGULATION (EC) No 810/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas (Visa Code)

Click Here for full details (PDF)

Schengen Regulations regarding the purchase of Travel Insurance:

The regulations regarding the acquisition of travel medical insurance and what is deemed compliant, for those wishing to apply for a Schengen Visa are laid out in Article 15 of the “REGULATION (EC) No 810/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas (Visa Code)”:

“Article 15 : Travel medical insurance
1. Applicants for a uniform visa for one or two entries shall prove that they are in possession of adequate and valid travel medical insurance to cover any expenses which might arise in connection with repatriation for medical reasons, urgent medical attention and/or emergency hospital treatment or death, during their stay(s) on the territory of the Member States.

2. Applicants for a uniform visa for more than two entries (multiple entries) shall prove that they are in possession of adequate and valid travel medical insurance covering the period of their first intended visit.
In addition, such applicants shall sign the statement, set out in the application form, declaring that they are aware of the need to be in possession of travel medical insurance for subsequent stays.

3. The insurance shall be valid throughout the territory of the Member States and cover the entire period of the person’s intended stay or transit. The minimum coverage shall be EUR 30 000.
When a visa with limited territorial validity covering the territory of more than one Member State is issued, the insurance cover shall be valid at least in the Member States concerned.

4. Applicants shall, in principle, take out insurance in their country of residence. Where this is not possible, they shall seek to obtain insurance in any other country.
When another person takes out insurance in the name of the applicant, the conditions set out in paragraph 3 shall apply.

5. When assessing whether the insurance cover is adequate, consulates shall ascertain whether claims against the insurance company would be recoverable in a Member State.

6. The insurance requirement may be considered to have been met where it is established that an adequate level of insurance may be presumed in the light of the applicant’s professional situation. The exemption from presenting proof of travel medical insurance may concern particular professional groups, such as seafarers, who are already covered by travel medical insurance as a result of their professional activities.

7. Holders of diplomatic passports shall be exempt from the requirement to hold travel medical insurance.”

The following are all Member States of the Schengen Agreement, which came into effect on March 26, 1995:

Austria - Belgium - Denmark - Finland - France - Germany - Greece - Iceland - Italy -

Luxembourg - Norway - Portugal - Spain - Sweden - The Netherlands - Switzerland

For further information on the Schengen Agreement please visit the Website of the European Union.

As of 21st December 2007, the following countries also signed the Schengen agreement:

Czech Republic – Hungary – Estonia – Latvia – Lithuania – Malta – Poland – Slovakia – Slovenia

To obtain a Schengen Visa, an individual must take the following steps... click here