Brief USA Non-O Application Recap (For Anyone Interested)

On 11/13/2025 at 12:28 PM, SeeAyOh said:

Can I assume that you are an American who had the O-A visa and switched to O?   If so, I've a Q for you.  

 

What do you mean by, "health insurance became burdensome?"    The cost became too much, etc.?    

 

More to the point, out of curiosity what is your plan in a health care emergency or similar?   Neither Medicare nor US private insurers provide coverage here.   Hospitals typically want a guarantee of payment before they administer care.  If a person doesnt have local health insurance, then they are on the hook to pay cash upfront.  Even if health costs are much lower outside the US, they can still be really expensive for advanced care.  

Of course I would not be without health insurance-  I never said I wouldn't want health insurance. How could one afford to be without it? I wrote that the health insurance "dance" became burdensome. I work overseas for an overseas company, and commute to Thailand about every few weeks now.  I am already insured, Globally. However that insurance cannot fairly provide the documentation required, and certainly will not wet sign the foreign Insurance form provided by Thailand authority  so one was forced  to purchase a Thai insurance plan that cost equivalent of several hundred dollars a year with a crazy high deductible for little total cover.  A paperwork exercise. Not the cost but the real hasselley goat-rope is getting another year on a  Thai insurance policy to exactly match the day you wish to re-enter Thailand at the very end of the O-A visa at an airport, juggling the insurance certificates and papers papers like a circus chimp explaining everything to the Airport IO.   Got stamped in for another year but it was this hassle was what really soured me on the O-A.

On 11/13/2025 at 12:28 PM, SeeAyOh said:

Anyway, this might necessitate a new thread, but I read often that a big objection to the O-A visa is the health insurance requirement.   To me though, especially as an American, I don't understand why someone *wouldnt* want to have health insurance.

Sure it will appear again somewhere up soon. The misunderstanding usually  people from England or some other locality that provides Nationalized care only within their own borders. These people also often  suddenly become outraged to learn that I do not subscribe to "Travel Insurance". Unless it was required like the Covid fiasco.  If am ill or injured I am already insured. Redundant travel insurance is a waste of my money.