COVID-19 Insurance for B2 Visa Holders

The good news is you don’t have to worry about overstaying your welcome. You can extend your B2 visitor’s visa by following the steps on this page. 

As for what happens if you get sick, the answer will depend on whether you have travel insurance and, if you do, who your insurance provider is.  

Can You Purchase Travel Insurance After Arriving in the U.S.?

If you’ve originally chosen to travel without insurance (or you simply forgot to get the right cover), you don’t have to worry. It is possible to purchase travel insurance after you arrive in the U.S. Some policies might just have a few restrictions that apply, especially in light of the changing coronavirus circumstances.

You can get comprehensive details on the travel insurance options available to you here. We also list some of the top travel insurance providers below.

COVID-19 Options by Insurer

To make your choice easier, we’ve summarized the most important aspects of coronavirus coverage for a few of the biggest travel insurance providers. Let’s take a look.  

IMG 

IMG is one of the big players in the travel and trip insurance games. They offer a wide range of travel insurance plans that generally covers the cost of illness, injury, or medical evacuation.

Most of the IMG travel medical plans provide for situations like the COVID-19 pandemic and coronavirus care. This applies to long term and short-term plans. 

The requirement to be covered by IMG, however, is you must have purchased the plan and entered your destination country before either:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued Warning Level 3 for your destination country (warning Level 3 included “avoid nonessential travel”), or
• A similar government agency in your home country published or issued a travel warning regarding your destination country. 

You will not be covered by your IMG travel insurance if you hadn’t departed your home country or entered your destination country before these warnings were issued.

If you have purchased IMG travel insurance and are unsure of whether you are covered, you can check out IMG’s main coronavirus page here.  

Seven Corners

Seven Corners is another core provider of visitor travel insurance. Not only does Seven Corners cover you for COVID-19 related medical claims, but it also provides trip cancellation coverage. This can be very useful if you haven’t yet purchased a travel insurance plan and are concerned about whether you will be prevented from traveling due to the coronavirus travel bans.

Trip cancellation coverage provides the following benefits:

• You are covered in the case of travel delays if your trip is delayed to something like quarantine or delays caused by your airline.
• If your trip gets interrupted by something like quarantine, you will also be covered. 
• You could get an airline reissue fee benefit, which provides coverage if your travel supplier cancels your trip. Seven Corners will pay up to a maximum of $75 for the reissue fee your airline charges for your tickets.
• You could be covered in cases where you cancel your trip due to fear of traveling. This would fall under the “cancel for any reason” benefit.

If you’ve already purchased a Seven Corners plan, the following useful coverage will apply: 

• Coverage for non-refundable trip expenses in case your trip gets canceled. This would be any fees your airline, hotel, or other travel provider is not willing to refund you themselves. 
• If you have to cancel your trip due to quarantine or missing a connecting flight due to airline delays.

You may also be covered for the following medical expenses:

• Emergency medical evacuation or repatriation due to COVID-19
• Medical expenses relating to seeing a doctor or going to the hospital due to becoming ill with the coronavirus.

You can read more about Seven Corners coronavirus coverage here. 

Tokio Marine HCC

Tokio Marine HCC mainly provides evacuation options to its visitor insurance plan holders. 

Visitors on the following Tokio Marine HCC plans will be able to activate their political evacuation benefit due to COVID-19:

• Atlas Travel
• Atlas Premium
• Atlas MultiTrip
• Atlas Group.

This benefit will, however, only activate if your current location hasn’t been under Level 3 or higher advisory prior to your arrival or for longer than ten days. 

It is important to keep this timeline in mind as, once the CDC has issued a Level 3 Travel Warning for the location you are currently traveling, you will only be covered for coronavirus related expenses for ten days after the warning has been issued. After ten days, you won’t be covered for coronavirus related expenses, but you will still be covered for other eligible expenses.

If you haven’t purchased one of the above-listed policies, but you want to travel home, you can try contacting your airline. Many airlines are waiving change fees to help travelers return home when needed.

To get more details on Tokio Marine HCC coronavirus coverage, visit the Tokio Marine HCC’s main coronavirus page here. 

Trawick International

Trawick International’s coronavirus coverage is quite simple. Their plans will function as normal, regardless of the threat level or any other advisory or warning in place. 

If you want to confirm your coverage in more detail, you can contact Trawick International directly. 

Types of Travel Insurance

When considering which travel insurance plan to go with, it’s important to understand the difference between a fixed plan and comprehensive travel insurance. This makes a big difference to the cost you’ll incur if you have to claim. 

This page contains a detailed breakdown of the difference between fixed plan and comprehensive coverage, but we’ve summarized the main points below. 

Fixed Plan Travel Insurance

With fixed coverage (also known as limited coverage), your coverage is predefined for every type of claim. Basically, this just means there is a specific amount your policy provider will pay for each specific type of procedure or claim you have. 

Some of the benefits of fixed coverage are its lower costs and the fact that you can generally go to any doctor or hospital. Unfortunately, the downside is your cover is limited, so you will have out of pocket expenses to cover the shortfall. This limited coverage is often not enough for serious claims. 

Comprehensive Plan Travel Insurance

Comprehensive coverage is more expensive than fixed coverage, but as the name suggests, its coverage is much more comprehensive. More coverage means more protection, and this is why many people would recommend taking comprehensive travel insurance. 

The specifics of comprehensive coverage will depend on your chosen plan. To find out about the details of your plan, you can read your policy or contact your insurance provider.

Conclusion

Being adequately covered in your travels has probably never been as important as in the current pandemic. If you’re stuck in the U.S. on a visitor visa, or you’ve changed status from H1B to B2, and you’re not sure whether you’re covered medically, contact your insurance provider. It’s important to understand what you are covered for and what limitations or deadlines apply. If you haven’t purchased travel insurance yet, now would be a good time to read up and get the necessary cover in place. 

Frank Gogol

I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

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