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Right before the start of the new semester, many foreign students, doctoral students and guest researchers are once again looking for insurance cover for their stay in Germany. It is mandatory for students who come to Germany for study or research to get a health insurance policy that meets a number of requirements. Although they are provided with information on insurance by embassies, consulates and immigration authorities, they have to take care of purchasing an adequate policy themselves. For this purpose, they rely on qualified consultation.

Insuring foreign students and lecturers is the domain of a few specialized insurance brokers. They know that they have to take into account factors such as the students’ residence status, country of origin, duration of stay and many others for the decision between private and compulsory health insurance and provide respective advice to their clients. As one of these experts, Dr. Walter GmbH (with its headquarters in Neunkirchen-Seelscheid, Germany) herein provides some examples of standard situations.

At the start of their full-time studies, most foreign students as well as German students can purchase compulsory health insurance. When you have the chance of being insured through compulsory health insurance, you should always seize the opportunity. For about 75 Euro, it will provide you with a good range of services.

Students cannot yet be insured through compulsory health insurance when their courses have not yet started because they arrived early, for example to find an apartment or to visit language classes required for their studies in Germany. In some cases, foreign students are already partly registered at the university while they visit university preparation courses. Although they already have their student ID card, they usually are not yet able to be insured through compulsory health insurance. Therefore, such future students need to get private insurance cover for this transition period. If they only need to cover a few days, travel health insurance will be sufficient. For a longer period, they need to have so-called language student insurance.

Special provisions apply for students over 30 or students who are already enrolled for more than 14 subject-related semesters at the university. Such students cannot be insured through compulsory health insurance for students and therefore need to get private insurance. Some students come to Germany through international scholarships and exchange programs. Depending on the program, insurance is either directly provided to them and paid for by the university or otherwise needs to be purchased by the students themselves.

Another difficult issue is insurance for doctoral students: some doctoral students have an employment contract as an assistant and are therefore subject to social insurance (contributions); they are insured through university or their respective employer. Other graduates are bound to contracts from their home country and temporarily stay in Germany due to a scholarship or an international agreement. Such doctoral students are usually not subject to social insurance (contributions) and therefore don’t qualify for compulsory health insurance. Different rules also apply for doctoral students from EU and non-EU countries. The question whether compulsory or private insurance is necessary therefore depends on the individual circumstances of each doctoral student.

These examples show the essential need for intensive counseling, ideally prior to travelling to Germany. You can get information from the foreign student department of the respective university as well as from insurance brokers MAWISTA, Care Concept and Dr. Walter that specialize in providing insurance to foreign students.

For more than 50 years, Dr. Walter GmbH has provided counsel and insurance solutions to foreign students, doctoral students and guest researchers. With its product EDUCARE24, Dr. Walter offers private insurance for individuals which meets the requirements of immigration authorities and universities alike. In case of compulsory health insurance, Dr. Walter cooperates with DAK–Gesundheit and provides assistance when applying for membership.