You have adequate health insurance coverage if you are insured under the German statutory health insurance system.

You can find a list of statutory health insurance providers here. Please contact your preferred insurance provider in good time to find out whether you are eligible for coverage. Your employer, university, or vocational training provider may be able to assist you with this process. If you will be covered by statutory health insurance, your chosen provider can issue a provisional confirmation of coverage, which you can then submit as part of your visa application.

Coverage under the statutory health insurance system generally does not begin immediately upon entry into Germany. To ensure that you are insured from your very first day in Germany, you will therefore also need travel health insurance or incoming health insurance. You must submit proof of this insurance as part of your visa application as well. The policy must provide at least the level of coverage required for Schengen travel health insurance. As a general rule, the policy should be valid for three months. Please ensure that this travel or incoming health insurance remains valid despite your intended long-term stay in Germany (i.e. the policy must not exclude benefits on the grounds that you intend to establish residence in Germany).

Private health insurance must, as a general rule, provide the same level of coverage as statutory health insurance. This means that the policy must not contain extensive exclusions of benefits or restrictions on reimbursement in the event of illness. As a rule, it must also not contain clauses providing for the termination of coverage upon reaching a certain age, termination of employment, a change in the purpose of stay, or loss of residence status, if this would result in the loss of your health insurance coverage.

However, for certain temporary purposes of stay, such as attending a language course or holding an Opportunity Card (Chancenkarte), insurance is generally taken out for a specific period, but at least for the validity period of the visa applied for. Insurance policies for these purposes of stay are usually referred to as „incoming“ or „expat“ insurance. The policy must cover at least the costs of outpatient and inpatient medical treatment and must not be limited to emergencies. Travel health insurance is therefore generally insufficient. Please ensure that any chronic or pre-existing conditions, as well as pregnancy-related benefits, where applicable, are also covered.

If you are granted a visa for university studies or another form of education or training, for seeking a place in a vocational training programme or at a university, or for an Opportunity Card (Chancenkarte), you may be permitted to work to a certain extent. You must ensure that you also have adequate health insurance coverage for incidents arising in connection with such employment.

In principle, only insurance companies supervised by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin), as well as insurance companies based in other European countries that have been notified there as so-called EEA service providers, are eligible to provide adequate private health insurance. You can obtain the relevant information from the insurance company. Exceptions may be possible in individual cases.

Subject to these conditions, you are free to choose your insurance company. The Federal Foreign Office is not permitted to recommend insurance companies.