Disclaimer: You should check the insurance requirements for your specific visa to be sure, but our general rule is that expat health insurance is almost always accepted for short stays and first visas that are valid for less than 5 years. Here is the official visa handbook (only available in German) (2021 update) used by the government to determine visa eligibility and legal obligations.

Depending on the type of visa you’re applying for, expat health insurance may or may not offer the coverage you need for your application. There is information available online to help you determine if your visa will accept expat health insurance or not.

We recommend checking the official German Foreigner’s Office website in the city you’re applying in, which includes the list of requirements for your specific visa type. This is generally located at the bottom of the webpage, but some smaller cities don't have this document, which means expat is almost always accepted for new visas (depending on the visa type and duration). If your visa does have this document listed, you’ll need to download it (generally called “adequate health insurance”) and double-check that the expat health insurance covers what is listed in this section.

Expat health insurance does fulfill the minimum legal requirements to live in Germany. A minimum coverage amount of €30,000 is guaranteed. If you qualify for full public or private health insurance, we recommend signing up for one of those options rather than expat health insurance because these insurances are sufficient for all visa applications. Find out if you are eligible by using our health insurance tool.

Here are some examples of (first time) visas that expat health is suitable for:

Because of the variety of requirements per city and per visa, we can only give general guidelines on which visas accept expat health insurance or not.

If you would like to learn more about expat health insurance or would like to sign up, you can do so here.