lenswipe

I came to the USA on a fiance via and I'm trying to get health insurance sorted out. Right now I don't have a job because I'm waiting for my visa to come through and I'm the process of getting married.

I found some interim health insurance online but it requires an end date for coverage which I don't currently have because I don't nesecarily know how long it will take for the visa to process and for me to get a job...

Wondered what you all suggest?

Sorry if this seems a bit like a stream of consciousness, but I'm a bit mixed up about this

Noorah101

You entered on a K-1 fiancé visa. You are inside the USA, waiting to get married. What "visa" are you waiting to come through? There are no more visas for you to get. Did you by any chance file an I-765 and pay a fee to obtain an EAD? (I hope not, because that will pretty much be worthless...it won't arrive for 90 days, and by that time it will have expired because that first EAD you apply for, the one with a fee involved, is only valid your first 90 days in the USA.) When you get married and then file AOS, there is another I-765 form for you to complete, with no fee, that goes along with the AOS package...that one also takes 90 days to arrive.

Again, you mention a visa....what exactly are you referring to? The EAD?

Do you know when you'll be getting married? Your spouse can add you to his/her insurance immediately after marriage, so I'd put the wedding date (or maybe 30 days after that, just in case) as an end date...assuming you'll get on your spouse's insurance once married.

I suggest getting married ASAP and get onto your spouse's insurance. Does your spouse have insurance?

Rene

mrken30

The two companies that I have worked for in Oregon allow people to add "partners" to their insurance. There is some criteria to meet, but it included boy/girl friend. I think it was done this way to allow gay partners to be added.

SanDiegogirl

- Have you thought about getting yourself onto your fiance's insurance?
- since you don't know when you are going to be obtaining a job and whether the job will have health insurance or when it would start why not take out interim insurance and put a date of 12 months on it?

At least you will have something to cover you.

Rete

Why the delay in having the marriage ceremony. You are here in the US, get married asap and have your then wife place you on her healthcare insurance. Then, again, your fiancée might not be working and have healthcare insurance offered by an employer. Sorry but I haven't gone back to review your past posts to understand your situation.

Pulaski

Same here - I think most employers now allow unmarried domestic partners to be added to their employees' health insurance.

And yes, I believe your reasoning is correct, it was done in the few years ahead of the wave of changes to state laws same sex marriage, but wasn't reversed after the law changed to allow same sex marriage.

Giantaxe

Typically you have to have a registered domestic partnership. And in some states, that is limited to same sex couples or there are restrictions on opposite sex couples registering. For example, in California opposite sex couples may only be in a domestic partnership if at least one is over 62.

Pulaski

That may be true, but that wasn't how it was presented by my employer, though it didn't impact me so I didn't need the details, but AFAIK there isn't and never has been and mechanism for "registering" domestic partnerships in NC or other nearby states.

Giantaxe

Ok, I can see in states that don't allow registration of domestic partnerships, companies that operate across states would have to have some other way of getting people to vouch for their being domestic partners.

I see only 11 states allow some form of registered domestic partnerships. Some discussion here about other mechanisms too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domest..._United_States

lenswipe

Okay.

So to all the people who were asking what I meant when I was referring a "visa" I guess I was just referring to the visa paperwork processing and adjustment of status and stuff. Perhaps I got my terminology confused.

As to just going on to my fiancee's health insurance, I can probably do that but she has an individual plan just now. I'm not sure how easy it is to change that - I'll talk to her.

Thanks to all for the advice - it's been very helpful

mrken30

From memory, he criteria for domestic partner that I have seen is basically the same as listed on this website. The 6 month thing may be a show stopper for you. However your partner could speak to benefits / HR.

Health insurance benefits for domestic partners

Pulaski

Annual health insurance specifies certain lifetime events that permit a mid year change - you or your spouse getting a job, birth/adoption of a child, marriage, divorce, death of a spouse or child, etc.

So all you need to do, if possible, is to match something in your life to one of the permitted life events for you to be permitted to change your insurance mid year. Even if having a significant other "move in" doesn't trigger a lifetime event, maybe having a fiancé move in does or at least that it what I'd try to argue.