Does your travel insurance meet the Schengen visa requirement?

What this tool does

Consulates refuse Schengen applications over insurance more often than applicants expect: a policy that ends the day before the return flight, one valid only in Italy, one with USD 25,000 cover, or one without a certificate naming the Schengen territory. This checker tests a policy you already have, or one you are about to buy, against Article 15 of the EU Visa Code. It is for anyone from Pakistan preparing a Schengen visa file, whether the policy came from TravelConcern or elsewhere.

How to use it

1. Enter the trip: the day you enter the Schengen area and the day you leave it, and whether you are requesting a single or multiple-entry visa.
2. Enter the policy dates from the schedule, the medical cover amount and its currency. If the cover is in USD or GBP, enter today’s EUR rate for one unit (for example 0.90 EUR per USD) so the amount can be compared with EUR 30,000.
3. Say where the policy is valid, and tick the benefits the schedule lists: emergency medical and hospital treatment, medical repatriation, repatriation of remains, and whether the insurer issues a visa certificate.
4. Press Check my policy. Each requirement is marked pass, fail or verify, with what to fix.

The rule being checked

Visa Code Article 15 requires travel medical insurance that (1) covers emergency medical attention, emergency hospital treatment and repatriation for medical reasons, including in the event of death; (2) has a minimum cover of EUR 30,000; (3) is valid throughout the territory of the Schengen states; and (4) covers the entire period of the intended stay or transit. For a multiple-entry visa the insurance must cover the first intended visit and the applicant signs a declaration about later visits. The checker marks cover within 10% of EUR 30,000 as verify rather than pass, because an exchange-rate move before the appointment could put a converted amount under the limit; it marks a missing rate as verify, never as a fail. The insurer’s certificate is not in the Code but is what consulates and visa centres actually look at, so it is checked too.

Example

An applicant from Lahore enters a trip of 1–15 December and a policy valid 1–10 December with USD 50,000 cover at 0.90 EUR per USD, valid in all Schengen states, with all three benefits and a certificate. The result is “Does not meet the requirement”: cover (≈ EUR 45,000), territory and benefits pass, but the policy ends five days before the trip. Extending the policy to 15 December turns the result to “Meets the requirement”. A policy with USD 25,000 cover would fail on the amount instead, and one bought for Italy only would fail on territory.