Incoming insurance for visitors to Germany and Europe

Whether for private or professional reasons: People travel and often cross national borders. Incoming insurance offers guests in Germany protection against unexpected expenses for medical care. It covers important treatment costs and is designed to ensure that your stay is as carefree as possible.

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Incoming insurance

The most important facts summarized

Incoming insurance is travel health insurance for foreign guests, such as students, business travelers or relatives traveling to Germany.
The tariffs offer comprehensive cover for medical emergencies and cover unplanned treatment costs after entering the country.
Incoming insurance is aimed at people whose primary residence is outside the EU and is required by law if a Schengen visa is required for entry.
It is not a comprehensive health insurance policy, but additional cover for foreign guests.

What is incoming insurance?

What the insurance is for and who can insure themselves

Incoming insurance is a special type of travel insurance. It is aimed almost exclusively at foreign guests who have to apply for a visa to enter the Schengen area. It can also be taken out by residents of the Schengen area who wish to extend the insurance cover of their home country during their trip.

The insurance can be purchased by both the foreign guest and the domestic host. In contrast to other travel insurance policies, incoming insurance is not available as annual cover, but only for the duration of the trip. Long-term incoming insurance can insure the guest for up to 60 months.

As a rule, incoming insurance must be taken out before the start of the trip. In this case, insurance cover begins from the moment you cross the border and ends after the agreed term. Some providers allow you to take out a policy up to two days after entering the destination country.

Decision tree on the need for incoming insurance. The first question is whether the person to be insured lives outside the Schengen area. If not, it is not necessary, but recommended. If the answer is yes, the next question is whether a visa is required for entry. If the answer is yes, incoming insurance is mandatory. If the answer is no, it is also not necessary, but recommended. — Do you or your visitor need incoming insurance?

For travelers whose main place of residence is outside the Schengen area, it is often advisable to take out incoming insurance to protect themselves against high costs due to illness or accidents. If a visa is required to enter Germany from your home country, incoming insurance is even mandatory. This is to ensure that every visitor has adequate health insurance cover.

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Are you interested in incoming insurance for yourself or your visit? My team and I will be happy to help you find the right insurance over the phone.

Juliane Anders, CHECK24 expert for travel insurance

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Incoming insurance benefits

Incoming insurance protects against these costs

Most incoming insurance policies reimburse costs for the following benefits:

Medically necessary treatment, e.g. for dental problems or pregnancy complications
Medicines prescribed by a doctor
Transportation costs to the nearest doctor or hospital
Accommodation, treatment and surgery in hospital, if medically necessary
Repatriation of patients (more information available in German)
Rescue of persons
Repatriation of deceased persons

Not for planned treatments

If the need for medical treatment was already known before the start of the trip, the costs incurred will not be reimbursed by the incoming insurance. For example, for a delivery after the 36th week of pregnancy, as this was already expected.

If you would like to extend your travel health insurance, you can take out a combined package instead. Many insurers offer a combination of incoming and personal liability insurance, for example. There are also packages with accident insurance or baggage insurance benefits.

What you should look out for in an incoming insurance policy

You should pay attention to the following aspects when choosing a suitable incoming insurance policy:

Closing date

Some incoming insurance policies can be taken out until shortly after you arrive in your destination country. Other tariffs, on the other hand, must be taken out when you book your trip. To ensure the widest possible choice of tariffs, it is therefore advisable to consider the topic of "incoming insurance" as early as possible.

Deductible

Deductible means that you have to pay part of the costs yourself in the event of a claim. The higher the excess of a tariff, the cheaper it is to take out. However, as high costs can arise in the event of a claim, we recommend that you choose tariffs with the lowest possible excess.

Included benefits

Make sure that the benefits of the tariff match your wishes and needs as closely as possible. For example, if you also want to insure your luggage, a basic rate of incoming insurance will not be sufficient for you.

Costs

The cost of incoming insurance depends on several factors. These include the duration of the trip, your age and the scope of the insurance cover. You can often save costs by choosing the right tariff for you.

Age

As the risk of illness is generally higher in old age, the prices of some tariffs rise with increasing age. Some tariffs are also only offered up to a certain maximum age. If a maximum age applies to the insurance, this is usually 75 years.

Ratings

Before taking out a tariff, it can be helpful to read ratings and reviews from other customers. If the reviews show that a tariff regularly receives poor ratings, you may want to choose an alternative.

If a visa is required for entry, the incoming insurance must also meet the following criteria:

Validity in all Schengen countries
Validity during the entire period of stay
Sum insured of at least 30,000 euros
Possibility of repatriation to the country of origin

Additional protection for your trip

If you would like even better cover for your trip, it may be worth taking out additional travel cancellation or travel curtailment insurance.

Frequently asked questions

How much does incoming insurance cost?

The cost of incoming insurance can vary greatly depending on the tariff and the length of the stay abroad. Rates for short trips are already available for less than 2 euros per day. Trips lasting 90 days or more can be insured from around 110 euros. For tariffs with additional benefits, the costs can be higher depending on the benefits.
What is the difference between international health insurance and incoming insurance?

Travel health insurance is intended for EU citizens to extend their travel health cover during stays abroad.

Incoming insurance, on the other hand, is mainly for foreign visitors who need insurance for their visa to enter the Schengen area. Whether for longer vacations, business trips, family visits or au pairs.
Can I also take out incoming insurance with pre-existing conditions?

Some incoming insurance tariffs can also be taken out with pre-existing conditions. However, exclusions of benefits, risk surcharges or high deductibles often apply in this case.

In the case of an exclusion of benefits, treatments associated with the pre-existing condition are excluded from the insurance cover.

A risk surcharge, on the other hand, increases the cost of the insurance premium.

In the case of tariffs with a higher deductible, in exceptional cases you have to reckon with enormously high costs that you have to pay out of your own pocket. For example, the excess for treatments related to the pre-existing condition is up to 5.000 euros or more in some tariffs.

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Incoming insurance for visitors to Germany and Europe

Incoming insurance

What is incoming insurance?

Give us a call

Incoming insurance benefits

What you should look out for in an incoming insurance policy

Closing date

Deductible

Included benefits

Costs

Age

Ratings

Frequently asked questions

How much does incoming insurance cost?

What is the difference between international health insurance and incoming insurance?

Can I also take out incoming insurance with pre-existing conditions?

Overview of all services (german versions only)

CHECK24 – Deutschlands größtes Vergleichsportal

Transparent

Kostenlos

Vertrauenswürdig

Erfahren