Medical Insurance for Certificate of Entry Application

[diglat]

I am about to start the process of applying for a Certificate of Entry (CoE) from the RTE, London and I have a couple of questions about the medical insurance requirement etc. Here is my situation. I have a Non-immigrant O (retirement) visa with extension of stay valid until March 2021, and a valid re-entry permit. I flew to England in March this year with British Airways (BA) and have the return leg of the ticket on hold. I will be flying back to Thailand with the return part of my BA ticket and my visa extension is due for renewal in early March. I hope to fly early January.  Do I need to buy a medical / travel insurance that covers COVID-19 for a year or can I buy a 3 or 6 month policy. In theory, if I arrive in early January my current visa extension will be valid until the first week in March, two months. I'm just not sure ahead of applying for the CoE whether a 3 month policy will be ok, as it would cover the duration of my current visa extension, or I would need to buy a longer insurance policy. I will be flying back on the return leg of the journey and so will not have a flight booked to return to the UK. I'm not sure how the RTE will view this and as you need to have an insurance policy in place to apply for the CoE I am not sure which way I should go. 

 

British Airways are not on the list of airlines able to fly into Thailand at the moment. I have been trying to find out if that is likely to change anytime soon as I would much prefer to fly back from one airport, on one aeroplane and with one group of people, rather than two of everything. BA have direct flights available on their website from 10th January 2021. I am not sure if they have permission to fly from that date or whether they are hoping to secure the permission for then. They currently code share with Qatar and so if BA are not able to fly into Thailand at that time I could possibly fly with Qatar via Doha. I would then have the two airport / aeroplane situation and I'm not sure if the COVID-19 RT-PCR test and Fit to Fly certificate would present a problem boarding the second flight, Doha to Bangkok. Does the 72 hours count from boarding in London or what could be 7 or 8 hours lather in Doha? 

 

What is the best advice on this? Has anyone had a similar situation? 

 

1. Would a 3 month COVID-19 medical / travel insurance be acceptable to the Royal Thai Embassy? 

 

2. Does the 72 hours count from when you board the first flight or the second, when you fly via another country?

 

3. Does anyone know whether British Airways will be granted permission to fly into Thailand?

 

As always any thoughts and advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you to all.

[ubonjoe]

1. Yes You only need the insurance to be valid to the day you will be stamped into the country.

2. For the first flight you board for the trip to here.

3. I don't have a clue if they will be allowed to fly to here or if they will want to.

[Jumbo1968]

British Airways have been listing flights every month but are always cancelled, I believe they don’t fly currently to Bangkok.

[ronaldo0]

British airways have been advertising flights since May and cancelling them. I think March / April before they resume . Eva one way economy £700 direct and emirates around £520 one way with short Dubai stop . 

[CMBob]

12 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

.....2. For the first flight you board for the trip to here.

As OP apparently will start an international flight in London, the 72-hour time period would be calculated backwards from the moment that international flight starts; however, for those who might be starting their flights domestically [i.e., taking a flight from a domestic airport to another domestic airport where the international flight(s) would begin], the 72-hour time period cannot be calculated from the time that first domestic flight takes off.  [Info from direct call with a Thai Consulate in the USA]

[pe747]

On 12/5/2020 at 1:54 AM, ubonjoe said:

1. Yes You only need the insurance to be valid to the day you will be stamped into the country.

 

@ubonjoe

I plan to fly to Thailand January 1st. My extension of stay and reentry visa (retirement and Non O) are valid until January 30th. So would insurance until end of January be sufficient? 

Is there still no insurance for renewing extension of stay based on Non O necessary?

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, pe747 said:

I plan to fly to Thailand January 1st. My extension of stay and reentry visa (retirement and Non O) are valid until January 30th. So would insurance until end of January be sufficient? 

Is there still no insurance for renewing extension of stay based on Non O necessary?

Thirty days should be accepted to apply for the certificate of entry. But if was me I think I would get 60 days to be on the safeside.

No insurance is required to apply for your extension of stay.

[SEAsia Traveler]

I want to apply for a NEW non-immigrant O visa  (retirement) and COE from the Thai DC embassy website, which is now an option apparently. It requires 100k Covid and 40/400. https://thaiembdc.org/2020/11/17/nonoretirement/

 

What is the best way to meet these insurance requirements? I only need 90 days of coverage for the COE, right? Age early 50s.

 

Safety Wing is a good choice for the $100k Covid, but what about the 40/400? LMG application states "Long-Stay Visa O-A" and is for one year of coverage. I guess I could buy the 40/400 for one year if it would be easier. What is the turnaround time from LMG? I want to request my COE on Wednesday morning US time. And Monday is a holiday in Thailand. Yes, a bit of a last minute decision.

 

Many thanks.

[pe747]

9 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Thirty days should be accepted to apply for the certificate of entry. But if was me I think I would get 60 days to be on the safeside.

No insurance is required to apply for your extension of stay.

Many thanks, ubonjoe

[HerewardtheWake]

The airlines situation described by the OP is probably faced by others too.Who determines which airlines is on the approved semi-commercial airlines list, and what is the difference between ordinary and semi-commercial flights?

[HerewardtheWake]

Traveler, LMG insurance is prompt and efficient. It is a straight forward inexpensive policy without a medical exam, but has a relatively high deductible for each medical event. It is an efficient and convenient way of satisfying the 40k/400K insurance requirement for the O-A visa.

[diglat]

Many thanks to everyone for the input, thoughts and advice. I now feel better about selecting a 3 month insurance plan and the 72 hour before departure Covid-19 test. 

Thanks again