Please help - Applying for a child’s EHIC/GHIC card.

[SweetBlues]

Hello, my 12 yo is going on a school trip to Spain next year and needs a EHIC/GHIC. I’ve looked online but can’t see how to order one for her only? (I don’t have a card). Can anyone recommend now to do this, prices and turn around times?

Apply on the government website

services.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/cra/start

it is free

takes about a week

apply for anyone who needs one in the same family, I did all of us in one go online and they arrived about a week later

It doesn’t take about a week. I applied in June and am still waiting , this was 2x teens and 2x adults

There is zero cost, so please don't apply via anywhere but the NHS site: www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/

A quick Google shows you would need to apply for the card for them, and would need the following:

Full name, including any middle names
Date of birth
Address, including postcode
National Insurance number – children under 16 won’t have a NI number, so the person filling in the application on their behalf should add theirs instead.
NHS number or CHI number (Scotland) – this number will appear on hospital or medical correspondence, but is only needed if the applicant can’t provide a NI number.

I assume the school also have comprehensive insurance OP - the ehic only provides the same level of free healthcare a local would be entitled to. Won't provide transport home etc.

It’s totally free. Only do it through the govt site. Might as well just get them for the whole family at the same time - I am not sure if you can easily just get a child one (maybe you can but I know it’s harder work to get just a child one if you’ve already got your adult one). It’s dead easy to get the child ones at the same time you get an adult one. Ours came within a week as well, and an email pretty much straight away saying it was all under way.

That sounds odd - been really quick for us. Have you chased up? Maybe something went wrong?

Yeah I actually reapplied recently as thought I had dreamed it up, but the application wouldn’t complete , said I already had one (or 4!) pending

Thanks everyone - much appreciated

We applied for ours in June and they came in about 10 days.

Hiya - can I ask how long is the GHIC valid for? One year or two years? I have just applied for mine but curious to know if it is valid for longer than one year. Thank you