Travelers occasionally experience visa problems including: being denied entry into a country – with or without a visa – or being refused a visa for some reason. Many travelers ask how travel insurance covers visa problems such as these.
Essentially, if you have been refused a visa or your visa is denied at the border, there’s nothing travel insurance can do to help you.
The way the travel insurance companies see it, it’s up to the traveler to verify that their visa requirements have been met. Much like it’s up to the traveler to determine that their passport requirements have been met.
A travel insurance workaround to the visa problem
There is, however, a travel insurance workaround to visa problems and one way travelers can be sure they can cancel their trip before they leave and get a refund – even if they can’t get a visa or they find out that their visa will be used to deny entry into their destination.
It’s called ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage.
It’s important to understand that you won’t be able to make a cancellation claim after you leave on your trip, but you can make a claim and get a refund if you find out you won’t be allowed into the country you originally wanted to visit.
‘Cancel for any reason’ requires that a traveler cancel prior to their trip – sometimes at least two days prior to your scheduled departure date, so be sure you read your plan carefully and understand the rules.
If you buy your travel insurance plan soon after you make your initial trip purchase, you can often get ‘cancel for any reason’ at no extra cost.