Health/Accident Insurance for Retirees

[jaiyenyen]

Three questions.

 

1.   When applying for Non Imm 'O' Retirement visa, in the UK. Do you need to prove health insurance cover?

2.  Does the cover need to be with a Thai insurance company? Or is it okay to use a large UK company (AXA)

3.  Are either, accident or health insurance acceptable?

[UKresonant]

8 hours ago, jaiyenyen said:

Three questions.

 

1.   When applying for Non Imm 'O' Retirement visa, in the UK. Do you need to prove health insurance cover?

2.  Does the cover need to be with a Thai insurance company? Or is it okay to use a large UK company (AXA)

3.  Are either, accident or health insurance acceptable?

 

A. 1. not for the non-O, 90 day Single entry visa, based on retirement.

(the one year ME Non O-A visa does require it).

 

A. 2.  The Health cover for the O-A visa practically is probably going to be a Thai Insurance provider as the certificate they require to be signed by a home country / overseas provider, it may be   a little difficult to achieve.  Quite likely you may find a clause deep in the Thai providers T&Cs, that says cover is not effective until you have been in 6 months (out of 12) in Thailand.

Therefore there may a practical difference between actually gaining cover for your benefit and having a policy to meet a O-A visa requirement. (unless anything has recently changed). "They used to say the links to TGIA companies was sometimes note as "courtesy links. 

https://longstay.tgia.org 

https://longstay.tgia.org/document/foreign_insurance_certificate.pdf

 

The certificate does seem to be improved slightly from the last time I looked at it some time ago, it used to say cert i.a.w Thai Cabinet Resolution , blah blah, and overseas company were not keen to sign it!

It now has "...the insured person is insured by health insurance in accordance with the law and regulations for foreigners who apply for the Non-Immigrant Visa Type O-A (period 1 year).." so maybe just as difficult, as the non-Thai provider will have no knowledge of that, so can't actually sign. 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by UKresonant
Cert link added

[DrJack54]

37 minutes ago, UKresonant said:

not for the non-O, 90 day Single entry visa, based on retirement.

That is also my understanding (could be wrong) 

Certainly with eVisa the insurance for non O retirement was required during covid.

 

Folk were advising to obtain insurance for 90 days

Thinking the embassy website for UK still incorrectly listed it as a requirement.

 

 

[jaiyenyen]

Thanks to both of you for your advice. I'll pass it on to my friend.

It sounds to me that he might find the 90 day retirement visa more useful as he intends going back to the UK for a short stay, every few months.

Would there be any problem with him doing this? I know immigration frowns upon 'Back to Back' visas.

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, jaiyenyen said:

I know immigration frowns upon 'Back to Back' visas

As you correctly point out it's all about "back to back visas" 

The time spent out of Thailand between visits that the io also looks at.

[jaiyenyen]

I would guess that he'll probably want to do 90 days and 30+ days UK.

In your opinion, is that an acceptable split?

Edited December 30, 2023 by jaiyenyen

[DrJack54]

Just one person's opinion...

Thinking month out would make it workable plan.

 

If the friend is looking for ongoing stays in Thailand then a non O retirement and subsequent extensions. Would be better option.

Be would need to meet the financials and purchase reentry permit. 

Does he have a Thai bank account in his name only?

 

[jaiyenyen]

He's 73 and plans to retire in a few months time. 

Money is not a problem for him, but he's concerned that he wouldn't get health insurance cover at his age.

As I said before, he's got good health insurance with AXA, in the UK. So it seems to me that his best option would be to get them to extend cover to Thailand.

I'm not sure about the Thai bank account.