Every German visa asks for health insurance, but not the same kind. A short-stay Schengen visa needs travel medical insurance with at least €30,000 of cover. A national visa to work, study or join family needs cover at the level of German public insurance, and several German missions state plainly that travel insurance isn't enough for it. Once you start a job here below the income threshold, or enrol at a university, public insurance usually takes over by law. The Ausländerbehörde checks your cover again when it issues your residence permit.
1. Why the visa asks about health cover
A residence title is, as a rule, only granted if your living costs are covered without public money (§ 5(1) no. 1 AufenthG), and the law counts "adequate health insurance" as part of those living costs (§ 2(3) AufenthG). That is why the embassy or consulate asks for proof of cover before it issues a visa, and why the Ausländerbehörde (the local foreigners' office) asks again when it turns the visa into a residence permit.
The law gives one safe answer: if you're insured in German public insurance, your cover is adequate, full stop (§ 2(3) sentence 3 AufenthG). Private cover can be adequate too, but the authority looks at it case by case, against the purpose and length of your stay. Separately, once you live here, German law requires everyone to hold health insurance: public, or a private policy from an insurer licensed in Germany covering at least outpatient and hospital treatment, with a deductible of no more than €5,000 a year (§ 193(3) VVG).
2. Short stays: the Schengen visa
For a visit of up to 90 days (a Schengen or "C" visa), the rule is European and simple. You need travel medical insurance that:
- Covers emergencies. Urgent medical treatment, emergency hospital care and repatriation for medical reasons, or in case of death.
- Pays at least €30,000. That is the minimum cover the regulation sets.
- Works everywhere in Schengen. Valid in every Schengen state, for the whole of your stay.
These requirements come from Article 15 of the EU Visa Code (Regulation 810/2009). They apply to short stays only. A visa for a longer stay is a national visa, under German law.
3. National visas: cover at the public level
For a national ("D") visa, to work, study, look for work or join family, Germany's missions set out what they accept on their own websites, and the details differ from one to the next. The common line on the official pages we checked: cover must match what German public insurance pays for (the benefits in § 11 SGB V), and the German missions in the UK and in Japan both say ordinary travel insurance is not enough for a D visa. Some missions accept so-called incoming insurance for the time before German public cover starts. Others want a policy that meets the public standard from the start.
So before you buy anything for a D visa:
- Read your own mission's page. The German embassy or consulate where you apply publishes what it accepts, and its rule is the one that decides your visa.
- Mind the gap. If you arrive before your job or your studies start, you need cover for those days too. The UK mission, for example, starts the visa only from the day German cover can be shown.
- Think past the visa. The Ausländerbehörde checks again for the residence permit, and a short bridge policy runs out. What matters is the cover you'll have once you live here, which the next sections set out.
4. Coming to work
Employees in Germany are insured in public insurance by law as soon as their paid job begins (§ 5(1) no. 1 SGB V), and the employer registers them with the public fund (Krankenkasse) they choose. On a work visa or an EU Blue Card, that is usually the answer: the employer's declaration for the visa often states that you'll be publicly insured, and the mission then mainly asks how you're covered until day one. The Blue Card has no health rule of its own; the general one above applies.
The exception is pay above the income threshold (Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze), €77,400 a year in 2026 (§ 2(1) SVBezGrV 2026; § 6(1) no. 1 SGB V). Above it you aren't insured automatically, and you have a choice:
- Public, voluntarily. Someone taking up their first job in Germany with pay above the threshold may join a public fund voluntarily, if they tell the fund within three months of starting work (§ 9(1) no. 3 and (2) no. 3 SGB V), so it pays to decide early. Contributions follow your income up to a ceiling, and family members with little income can be covered free.
- Private. A private policy, priced by your age, health and the cover you choose, often with broader benefits. It must meet the public standard to count for the visa, and each family member needs a policy of their own.
Researchers on a § 18d permit have a similar three-month window to join a public fund voluntarily, counted from taking up residence (§ 9(1) no. 6 SGB V). How the two systems compare: German health insurance explained.
5. Coming to study
Students enrolled at a state or state-recognised university are insured in public insurance by law, up to the age of 30 (§ 5(1) no. 9 SGB V). Beyond 30, they stay in only where the kind of course or family or personal reasons justify it.
You can opt out, if you hold private cover instead, by applying to a public fund within three months of enrolment. The opt-out can't be withdrawn: it holds for the rest of your studies (§ 8(1) no. 5 and (2) SGB V), so weigh a private student policy against the public one before you sign: there is no way back as a student.
Language courses and preparatory courses before a degree are a different matter. The law doesn't list them among the groups insured as students, so a participant usually needs cover of their own, as the German mission in Japan, for one, points out. Check how your mission treats a Studienkolleg place before you apply.
6. Looking for work, or working for yourself
On the Opportunity Card (Chancenkarte, § 20a AufenthG) or another job-search permit, there is no job yet, so nothing makes you publicly insured. Your living costs must still be covered, health insurance included, which in practice means a private policy that meets the public standard. The Opportunity Card allows work of up to 20 hours a week on average. A regular paid job, other than a minijob, brings public insurance with it; a minijob alone doesn't (§ 7 SGB V).
Freelancers and the self-employed arriving from abroad are in the same position: without earlier public insurance, joining a public fund is generally closed to them, which leaves private cover. Private insurers must accept anyone living here who isn't publicly insured and has no private policy in their basic tariff (Basistarif), whose premium can't exceed the public maximum (§ 152 VAG). More in health insurance for freelancers.
There is also a public fallback insurance for people with no cover at all (§ 5(1) no. 13 SGB V), but for citizens of countries outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland it applies only to a settlement permit, or a permit of more than twelve months granted without the requirement to cover your living costs (§ 5(11) SGB V). Most visas come with that requirement, so the fallback isn't a plan for a newcomer.
7. Joining family, and EU citizens
Joining a spouse or parent. The family reunion rules bring the same requirement: living costs covered, health insurance included (§ 29 AufenthG with § 5(1) no. 1). Even where the income test is waived, for instance for the family of a Blue Card holder moving on from another EU state, the health insurance requirement stays. If the family member here is publicly insured, a spouse or child living in Germany with little or no income of their own can be covered free through them (§ 10 SGB V), from the time they live here; see family insurance in Germany. If the family member is privately insured, each person needs a policy of their own.
EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need no visa. During a temporary stay, the European Health Insurance Card from home covers the treatment that becomes medically necessary (Article 19, Regulation 883/2004). Once you work in Germany, German rules apply to you (Article 11(3)(a)), so a job here brings German public insurance with it, as for anyone else.
8. When an insurance expert can help
The visa is the first hurdle, and the cover you hold for it shapes what comes next: a private policy taken out for the visa can be the one you keep, and the choice between public and private is easier to make before you start work than to change later. An insurance expert who works in English can go through your visa type, your start date, your pay and your family with you, and show what each option gives you and what it costs. Have your mission's requirements, your contract or admission letter and your planned arrival date ready. Insurance experts are paid commission by the insurer when you take out a policy. Ask for an insurance expert who works in English.
Primary sources checked on 4 November 2026: the statutes, regulations and official pages linked above.