Buying Schengen travel insurance in India: the checklist that satisfies Article 15
Insurance is the one purchase every applicant makes and the one document with its own refusal ground. Here is how to buy it against the rule rather than the advertisement.
The test the consulate applies
Article 15 of the Visa Code, in full on our insurance guide: cover for repatriation for medical reasons, urgent medical attention, emergency hospital treatment or death; valid throughout the Schengen states; for the entire intended stay; minimum EUR 30,000; recoverable in a Member State. Ground 16 on the refusal form is what happens when a policy misses one of these.
Reading an Indian policy against it
- Sum insured: many Indian plans are priced in US dollars. Convert on the day you buy; a USD 50,000 plan comfortably exceeds EUR 30,000, a USD 30,000 plan may not.
- Geography: the plan must say Schengen, Europe, or worldwide; a single-country plan fails even for a single-country trip.
- Dates: from your entry date to your exit date at least. Consulates commonly ask that cover match the visa dates requested; add a day or two either side.
- Named benefits: emergency medical expenses, hospitalisation, medical evacuation, repatriation of mortal remains. Trip cancellation, baggage and delay cover are extras and do not substitute.
- The certificate: name exactly as in the passport, passport number, policy dates, territory, sum insured, and the insurer's assistance contact. This is what goes in the file.
- Cancellation clause: many insurers refund the premium on proof of visa refusal; check before buying, because that turns a sunk cost into a recoverable one.
Multiple-entry visas
Prove cover for the first trip (Article 15(2)) and understand you must be insured on every later entry; annual multi-trip plans exist for frequent travellers, and border officers may ask.
What this page is not
There are no star ratings, "best insurer" lists or affiliate rankings here. Any commercial link that appears on this page in future will be labelled as such, and the checklist above will not change because of it.