Do all EEA national students need comprehensive sickness insurance? Are there any exceptions? How can I prove I had it when applying for permanent residence?

By 1st 4Immigration - #1 UK Immigration Experts -
Most EEA nationals, who come in the UK to study, are not aware about the fact they are supposed to have comprehensive sickness insurance. It doesn’t affect their day-to-day life here until they apply for permanent residence (has been a popular immigration application since the Brexit vote in June 2016).

Who is exempt?

The one and only exemption is for the EEA citizens who were issued with a Registration Certificate to confirm their status as a student before 20 June 2011. It could have been a standard certificate based on the fact one was studying. It could have been a Yellow Card for Romanian/Bulgarian students. The date of 20 June 2011 is significant because this is when this rule (of having sickness insurance) was implemented for EEA students. Controversially, and many would say unfairly, it was applied retrospectively to all EEA students even for the time they spent in the UK, studying, before 20 June 2011 when insurance was not even required. So, those who did apply and had their student’s status confirmed before 20 June 2011 can now claim exemption when applying for permanent residence under European / EEA law. This is a simplified way of explaining it, for an individual advice please contact us for a formal consultation.

How to prove you had insurance?

The 2 most common ways are:

European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) issued by your EEA country, which was valid during the time of your studies.  

Private health insurance covering you for medical treatment in the UK, so you would not become a burden on the NHS. This can be from a UK-based insurance company, such as BUPA or AXA, or can be from a foreign company as long as it is valid for private treatment in the UK. Important! Travel insurance (ie holiday insurance) is NOT acceptable for this purpose.

For an individual advice or to make an application please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com  or visit our website www.1st4immigration.com , or read testimonials on  http://www.1st4immigration.com/testimonials.php
 
If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website: www.1st4immigration.com/training We have a weekend OISC Level 1 course as well as a Points-Based System course and we also have online training courses, including Online OISC Level 1 course and courses focusing on Spouse/Partner visas. All our training courses are CPD-accredited with CPD credit accepted by  OISC. 

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