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Dear all,

I am an eea citizen and my wife is chinese.
She is here on a post study work visa and is employed full-time. I am in The UK as a PhD student.
We did our EEA2 visa application and it got refused using the following reason:

as your husband is exercising treaty rights as a student then you are required to provide evidence that both you and your husband hold comprehensive medical insurance for the duration of your stay in the uk.

They referred me to some guidance notes about this and these notes state that we need to provide for:
a school, college or university letter confirming enrolment and the completion date of the course, a statement from the student confirming that the student has sufficient resources during the period of study to support him or herself and any family members during the period of study, along with supporting evidence such as a bank statement or evidence of a grant or scholarship.
So nothing about any medical insurance.

When I called the UKBA they simply said that we do need a comprehensive medical insurance as she is my dependent (even though she works). When asking about what exactly should be covered I only got the answer to chose the cheapest option.

When I said that my wife works and pays national insurance that that didn't matter and we still needed to get insurance.

So does anyone have a suggestion on what to do now?
thanks

Unfortunately, that's correct. You wil have to take out such an insurance for the both of you.

so what should this comprehensive medical insurance cover? They are not very clear on what exactly coverage should be.

Search through this forum. This problem has been discussed on several occasions esp. in connection with self-sufficiency.

This is pretty bad, especially since none of the other European countries I have lived in with my wife (I was in exactly the same situation as the OP, but in Germany) have this sort of consideration.

Dear all,
Thank you for your response and I have indeed found insurance suggestions that I think they will accept.

I would like to mention on here that I have been able to receive advice from The AIRE Centre, this is an advice centre for individual rights of EU citizens in the EU, and I would like to post a short summary of their response to our problem.
In principle it boils down to this;

Their point of view is that, NHS care offers a comprehensive coverage. A big argument according to them is that the UK has never enacted a law which specifies what a comprehensive medical insurance is.

Also my wife has been here for 4 years and me as well (on and off) in which time we have never made any benefit claims, making us self-sufficient according to them.

My wife is even independently covered by the NHS because she is employed by a business having its principal place in the UK.

In their view the UKBA has in this matter enacted policy instructions that are unlawfull. And they are actually eager to put our case in front of a judge free of charge.

However with any legal cases there is a chance to lose which for now we are not willing to take. What I will do though is redo the application (with medical insurance) and enclose a letter explaining that because the UKBA does not have a clear definition (by law even) what a comprehensive medical is that if they refuse the application again based on this that I am forced to take legal action (specifically a judicial review) for which I already have legal representation.

I would also like to point out that the visa guide does not state anywhere that we even need this insurance. And also speaking with the help centre twice did not help in giving us a clear answer. Fact is that we got 2 completely different answers.

If anymore couples have problems and have time for a court or appeal case (not 1 month before your current visa expires for instance). They are very willing to take up a case like this.

AIRE centre is right, but your case will be a test case. However, under EU law, you are not supposed to have a comprehensive sickness if you are exercising treaty rights as a student. YourEU medical insurance covers you for that purpose. Provided you are in receipt of it obviously