For prospects

Student visa - proof of health insurance

When applying for your student visa as a non-EU national, you will have to prove that you have, or will have health insurance as well as sufficient means of subsistence. Having health insurance in Belgium is compulsory, and the responsibility of the student. We would like to emphasize that medical costs in the event of an accident or illness can be very high. Without a health insurance, the student will have to pay all cost themselves.

How to obtain the required proof of health insurance for the visa application as student?

There are following options:

A Proof of health insurance included in your scholarship or a (private) ‘travel medical insurance’, valid till October 1st of the academic year.

With this proof, you ‘ll get a visa type D as student without conditions.

If you receive a scholarship (e.g. Erasmus Mundus), it might include a health insurance. Please check the conditions of the scholarship yourself and ask the program coordinator to sign an extract of the relevant page of your Scholarship award letter. Add this as a separate document to your visa application documents.

If not, you can contact any private insurance (for example Allianz, Axa, AIG Travel guard, GEOBlue, IMG global, Travelex insurance, world Nomads, American Express Travel insurance, … ) or use the UGent insurance. 

Upon arrival you can immediately apply and get your residence permit (A-kaart) for the whole academic year (renewable every year).

But, since a health insurance in Belgium is compulsory, it is the responsibility of the student to sign up with a Belgian health insurance after you got your UGent enrolment certificate. You can contact one of the Health insurances funds (= ‘mutualiteiten’) from the list below.

As PhD student with a UGent scholarship, an affiliation with a Belgian health insurance is obligated after arrival. Through the payslip social security contributions will be deducted.

A proof of affiliation with a health insurance fund will be requested when renewing the residence permit.

A ‘proof of intention’ from a Belgian health care fund that you will sign up for health insurance in Belgium.

In this case you will get a visa D, with code B-43 (contains a condition to proof a health insurance affiliation after arrival).

With this visa you will receive an ‘attest van immatriculatie’ (certificate of provisional registration) for 4 months from the migration office of Ghent city.

Then you contact one of the Health insurers from the list below and sign up with one of them as soon as possible (and not later than 4 weeks).

After providing a proof of affiliation with the health insurance fund to the migration desk (of the city of Ghent) you get your residence permit (A kaart) for the whole academic year (renewable every year).

In case you opt for solution B, what needs to be done before you apply for your visa?

From your home country you contact one of the health insurance funds (‘mutualiteit’) from the list below and ask for a certificate that they will register you as their client after your arrival and as soon as you have provided the UGent enrolment certificate.

The university does have good experiences with Helan and CM, although choosing them is not at all obligatory!

If you would opt for Helan health insurance fund, please send an e-mail to students@healthinsurance.be. Put this in your subject line: “demand for future proof of insurance, your name, student at Universiteit Gent”. Enclose a scan of your international passport and first approval at UGent as student.

After arrival in Belgium, you need to affiliate with a Belgian health insurance fund.

  • Legal contribution for basic insurance
    You have to pay a legal contribution for your health insurance. The contribution is the same for all the health insurance funds and depends on your situation (status and income).
    While you are waiting on your Belgian residence permit, you can register in the category of  'student': you pay a legal contribution of € 74,72  per quarter (2023).
    Once you have an official Belgium residence and a residence permit you can register in the category of 'resident' or 'verblijvende' (‘remaining’) in Belgium: the contribution is depending on your taxable income in Belgium or abroad.
    In most instances, Belgian health insurance reimburses up to 50–75% of the cost. You are then responsible for covering the remaining costs.
  • Membership contribution for top up insurance
    If you join one of the 5 mutual insurance funds (not: the Hulpkas voor Ziekte- en Invaliditeitsverzekering) you have to pay a membership contribution, on top of the legal contribution which you have to pay. The membership contribution depends on your health insurance fund and varies between € 21 and € 25 per quarter (2022).
    For this membership contribution, you get extra services and benefits such as additional benefits for eye care, psychotherapy, speech and language therapy, treatment by osteopaths, extra childbirth and childcare allowances, allowances for sport club membership, travel assistance, and more.
    Since the Hulpkas voor Ziekte- en Invaliditeitsverzekering (HZIV) does not offer any services beyond the compulsory health insurance, membership of the HZIV does not require additional contributions.

You pay a membership contribution on top of the legal contribution. You must pay a contribution, a quarterly payment, which entitles you a coverage from the first day of that quarter. In the category of ‘student’, you pay a contribution of 66,56 EUR/quarter (2022).

This membership entitles you extra services and benefits such as eye care, psychotherapy, treatment by osteopaths, extra childbirth and childcare allowances, allowances for sport club membership, travel assistance, and more.

List of Belgian health insurance funds (‘mutualiteit’)

You have a free choice of health insurance funds:

Or you subscribe with the local service of the Hulpkas voor Ziekte- en Invaliditeitsverzekering (with English information), a government organization. Membership is cheaper, it doesn’t require additional contributions since they don’t offer any services beyond the compulsory health insurance.

An overview where the health insurance funds are located in Ghent city can be found here.

Did you experience some difficulties? You can contact students.visa@UGent.be