Expat insurance - help needed!! Thanks

[Selks]

Advice needed please...

My son (24) is moving to live in Brunei (next to Malaysia) to be with his lovely girlfriend who lives there. We're hurriedly getting things sorted as he is off in three weeks.

My parting gift to him is to sort his insurance. I've been told that he needs 'expat insurance' rather than travel insurance as he will be living there for a minimum of two years.

Can anyone tell me what I should be looking for in a good expat insurance policy - the minimum things that it should cover, and if anyone can recommend some good insurance companies that offer good expat policies, or if anyone has any other comments or experience of this to share I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in advance

No, none of the above. How can he have any of those if he is wanting to stay for four years.

Good point about the expat insurance not looking good on entry with a tourist visa though.

Precisely.

When someone presents themselves at immigration with a three month visa, they are expected to have evidence on onward/return travel.

If a young man is staying with his girlfriend (instead of hotel/youth hostel), it is going to raise a lot of questions.

If his luggage has evidence of more than a holiday, this is the nail in the coffin.

I take it that you're basing it on what happens in UK immigration. You do raise an important point and I'm very grateful for that, but it might be different in Brunei. His girlfriend is very clued up and sorted the visa for him so I can't imagine that this hasn't been thought through. But I will talk to them both about it.

Several countries, all very consistent.

I'm finding it quite difficult to find information on obtaining an immigrant visa for Brunei. For residency in Brunei, the immigrant has to lodge the application in person at the High Commission in their home country (ie London).

For visiting, a British citizen can go visa free for 30 days, or with a visa for a maximum of 3 months. A work visa is also for a maximum of 3 months and requires a letter of invitation from the business in Brunei. Each of these visas needs a return or onward air ticket.

I couldn't find any info about a working holidaymaker visa. There are lots of sites for Gap Years but I could really get any concrete information from them.

Illegal immigration (working without a permit, overstaying visa) has very severe penalties in Brunei.

Your son needs to understand the nature of his visa, its restrictions and expiry, before he goes.

The FCO website gives useful info about Brunei, as well as info about travel insurance.

He will not be illegal, don't worry about that. He has a visa and if he finds that he cannot extend it then he will have to come home. He has not gone into this blind. As I said above, I'm not totally clued up on his visa, I need to speak to him. His grilfriend who is Bruneian and who is in a senior governemental position has sorted this visa out for him.

sorry for typos

Let us know how it works out for him.

Thanks. Will do. Thanks for your help.

Just to let you know Mindthegap; have spoken to my son and he has a return flight booked for before his visa runs out which he says he is not planning to use (is aiming to sort work and a longer visa in that time) but can do if needed.
Also I think I'm going to go with 12 month backpackers insurance (will check that it will 100% cover him) as it seems the best option if he only has a temp visa atm and he can upgrade to expat insurance if/when he gets a job and a longer-term visa. He can upgrade the 3 month visa by going over the border to Malaysia and returning, as well. So it all seems in order - phew!!!

That sounds like a good plan.

The main thing is to know the system and not have any surprises.

Thanks for your post Mirai. I think you can get backpackers cheaper than that if you shop around. Where are you going?

If I find a cheaper quote I'll come back on here and let you know. (Unless insurance for Japan is dearer?? Can't think why though)

Japan - fantastic!