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I am an Australian citizen, currently living in Singapore and I want to travel through Europe and the USA over the next six months. I will be leaving Singapore permanently and my intent is to ultimately land back in Australia, at least for a while, but this may not happen.

From whom can I buy travel insurance? Most consumer travel insurance plans which offer the type of cover I want (Covermore et al) assume you have a "country of residence". Effectively, I don't and that would invalidate my policy.

As a bonus, I'd prefer if I could specify I'll only be in the USA for three weeks and only pay the extra premium for that time, rather than it doubling the cost for the whole six months.

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  • Yeah, insurance requiring a country of residence is really annoying. Especially when they define it as 6 months in a year.
    – Ray
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 7:28

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Oh I know this pain.

As a citizen you can presumably count as a permanent resident (as you've not officially emigrated to any other country) of Australia, meaning that you could look at the policies of World Nomads Travel Insurance. I used them during a similar period in my life (Kiwi here).

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  • As far as the Australian Tax Office is concerned, I don't intend to return :-) (if anyone from the ATO is reading this I really don't, I've no idea where I'm going to end up.) Thanks for the tip, I'll check them out.
    – Robert Atkins
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 4:17
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    In all seriousness, I haven't lived in Australia for two and a half years and I don't know when I next will, does Australia still count as my "country of residence"? That's really the crux of the question.
    – Robert Atkins
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 4:23
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    If you have a passport (right of residence) and a residential address you can borrow, that's all you need to qualify as far as the insurance company is concerned. The ATO has nothing to do with it.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 4:36
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    Their FAQ addresses this. Your country of residence is effectively where you want them to ship your incapacitated (or worse) corporeal self in the event of misadventure; somewhere for which you have absolute right of return, see: worldnomads.com/travel-insurance/… worldnomads.com/travel-insurance/… worldnomads.com/travel-insurance/…
    – Robert Atkins
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 13:24
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    @JonathanReez they ask specifically for the country of your permanent address just to access the helpdesk and to contact them if you have no idea. Could be that they suggest you a product that is not travel insurance. Usually such products are more expensive and include fewer things (e.g. no claims for lost baggage, no sports cover etc.)
    – life-on-mars
    Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 19:37

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