Hello my fellow expats.
We need your help. We just moved from beautiful New England, USA, to Salzburg and are encountering problems obtaining a residence card and permit, because the Austrian government will not accept our international health insurance and the visa letter. How did my fellow expats solve this problem?
We retired from the US government and moved to Salzburg, where we own an apartment. We have enough income to sustain us, and my wife, a german citizen, owns an apartment. We did extensive research to find an international health insurance that would cover me for the first year and my wife for the first 6 months until we qualify for the social health insurance. Both insurances provided visa letters.
But the official at the immigration office does not recognize them. He gave us a list of insurance companies, all Austrian, that are officially approved and would give the same coverage as the Austrian social health insurance.
I bought a plan that actually covers more than the social health insurance from Geo Blue, but the insurance refuses to sign the official certification letter required by the Bezirkshauptmannschaft. My wife just bought a basic travel insurance to tie her over until she is covered by the Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung.
Without a health insurance certification I cannot get my residence permit, even though I am married to an EU citizen. And even my wife will have to show a valid health insurance certification according to the government official.
How did you all handle that?
What insurance did you choose?
If you chose private insurance what was the minimum contract term?
What travel insurance did you chose?
Has anybody ehad similar experiences?
I would really appreciate any advice. The health insurance issue is an unwelcome surprise and obstacle.
Thank you
Problems with residence permit due to health insurance coverage letter
How did you solve this? My wife is not UE citizen and she is looking for a recognized health insurance until I can co-insurance her in the public syste. Could you recommend me a company ?
We actually could not solve the issue. We put our request for a residence permit on hold until I am part of the Austrian public health system. I am a EU citizen and registered to be part of the public health system after we found out that the private global insurances we signed up for are not acceptable to get a permanent residence permit. After my 6 month waiting period (where I had to pay for 6 months without getting any services) I will get my e-card and be able to co-insure my husband. At that time we will get out residence permits. We needed the approval of the Bezirkshauptmannschaft to put our application for the residence permit on hold and for my husband to stay more than 3 months without it.
If you are both healthy you could try to get a private health insurance Tariff through an Austrian private insurance (General or UNIQUA). They have insurance plans that meet the qualifications for a residence permit. BUT they usually have a minimum term of at least one year up to 3 years, or they will take only very healthy people. We were both rejected by them when we tried. The cost would have been about 600 Euro per person.
Hi Keith. Welcome to Austria. It is fun isn't it? Were you successful? We tried buying Austrian private insurance through Generali and were rejected due to our health history.
Currently we are waiting until I qualify for the Austrian Public Self Insurance. I have been paying in for about 5 months. Hopefully next month my waiting time is over, I will get my e-card and co-insure my American husband. And then we will get our residence permits.
I had to request an extension and approved hold on our residence permit application, so that we are not staying here illegally. It was granted. But I will feel better once we cleared this hurdle.
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