Sanitas Residents Visa Plan, for the DNV
The visa version of Sanitas's Residents plan, open to non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals. On the Sanitas Residents Visa Plan, waiting periods are waived under the current policy terms.
Sanitas calls this product Sanitas Residents para visado, which means “for visa purposes”. It is the version sold for visa applications. The standard Sanitas Residents plan is a different product for EU, EEA and Swiss nationals, with 3–10-month waiting periods.
Who Residents Visa Plan is for
It is for non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals applying for Spanish residence, which is what a DNV applicant is, where their circumstances make private cover what the application needs. That qualification is not a formality. Plenty of people arrive on this page who will end up showing Spanish Social Security registration or healthcare cover carried over from home instead, and for them the right thing to buy is nothing.
For everybody else, this is the more widely available of the two Sanitas visa plans. New members can join up to age 75, with no published maximum age for continuing once you are on it. That is the widest joining window of the two, and it is the reason it is the plan for new applicants aged 65 to 75.
Beyond age, it suits people whose healthcare life will be reasonably settled: living in one part of Spain, registering with clinicians there, and using private cover for planned care rather than for a complicated pattern of travel. If that describes you, this is very likely the plan, and choosing it is not settling for less.
Check whether you need a policy before you compare policies, or ask us for a quote and we will check that first.
What Residents Visa Plan gives you
Waiting periods: on the Sanitas Residents Visa Plan, waiting periods are waived under the current policy terms. In plain terms, there is no run-in stretch after the policy starts during which a benefit is not yet usable. That is a fact about timing, and it is a different thing from underwriting, which is about you.
Network: care is delivered through Sanitas's own network of professionals and centres in Spain.
Sanitas Residents Visa Plan may suit applicants who expect to use the Sanitas network in Spain as their main route to planned care. Current policy documents govern the precise scope of every benefit, including any cover outside that network.
Children: children aged 0 to 2 need an insured adult on the policy, and children aged 3 to 18 can be enrolled with an adult policyholder.
How long the policy runs: 12 months, with renewal governed by the current policy terms. Your visa does not set the end date of your insurance, and the two are worth keeping separate in your head.
Your medical history: private health insurance is medically underwritten, and we never suggest cancelling cover you already have before a decision is final. Whether an application is accepted, and on what terms, is the insurer's decision.
Can you take this plan?
Three conditions, and they are quick to check.
- Nationality. The Visa Plan versions are for non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals. If you hold one of those nationalities, the standard Sanitas plans are your side of the catalogue and this page is not about your product.
- Age at joining. New members can join up to 75. Above that, this plan is not the answer and no amount of comparison will make it one.
- Health. Meeting the first two is not the same as being accepted. Sanitas assesses each person's health history and decides.
Two distinctions are worth making explicitly, because they cause most of the confusion we hear.
Joining is not continuing. The age of 75 is about joining. There is no published maximum age for staying on the plan once you are on it, which is a meaningful difference for anybody thinking about the next decade rather than the next year.
Eligibility is not acceptance. Eligibility is a set of conditions you either meet or do not. Acceptance is a decision Sanitas makes about you, on its own timetable, and it is the step worth starting early rather than leaving until the week before you submit your application.
What it means to use a network
If you have only ever had insurance that reimburses you for bills you have already paid, a network plan works differently, and it is worth understanding before you buy rather than at your first appointment.
Sanitas runs its own network of professionals and centres across Spain. With a network plan, you choose from that network for planned care and arrange the appointment through the insurer's own channels. The practical consequences are these:
- Where you live matters. Coverage of a network is not even across a country. Before you commit, look at what is available in the town or province you are actually moving to, not in the city you have heard about.
- Language matters too. If being seen in English is important to you, that is a question to ask about your area specifically, and a reasonable one to ask before you buy.
- Ask about anything specific now. A named consultant, an existing course of care, a particular hospital. These are answerable questions, and they are answered by the current policy documents rather than by a general description.
What a network plan is not is a smaller version of health insurance. For somebody living in one place and using private care in the ordinary way, it is usually the simpler and the better-value arrangement of the two.
If a family is on the policy
A household can be covered on one Residents Visa Plan policy, and the plan's terms are the same for everybody on it. What stays individual is each person's own answer: whether they need cover at all, what the insurer decides about their health history, and the fact that they have to appear on the policy by name.
That is why we work out who should be on the policy before pricing anything, rather than quoting the household by default.
Renewal, and the years after your visa
The policy runs for 12 months and renewal is governed by the current policy terms. Approval of your visa does not itself end the policy, and it does not extend it either: those are two separate arrangements that happen to have started on the same day.
There is no published maximum age for continuing on this plan, which matters most to the people who joined nearest the upper age limit. What can change at renewal are the terms and the premium, in accordance with the policy in force. That is ordinary for health insurance anywhere and is worth expecting rather than being caught by.
The practical habit that helps: keep a note of what you were told and when, in your own file. At renewal, and again at any residence renewal, you will be glad of it.
How Residents compares with Platinum
Platinum's visa version adds benefits beyond treatment within the Sanitas network, and we'll confirm the current reimbursement and cover limits with you before you decide. It accepts new members up to 64 rather than 75. Both Sanitas Visa Plans share the waived waiting periods described above, and neither publishes a maximum age for continuing.
So for anyone under 64 the choice is about how far you want your cover to reach, and nothing else.
The full side-by-side → · How to choose →
Which plan suits you depends on how you work, how you will be covered by Social Security, and how you are applying. The Spanish authorities make the final decision on your application.
Quote Residents Visa Plan for your household
We check your situation before recommending anything, then price the people who need cover. Anyone else who wants it can still have it, as a choice rather than a default.
Common questions
Is this the plan I need for my DNV?
It is one of the two plans to compare, where private cover is what your application needs — and that depends on how you work and how you will be covered by Social Security. Ask for a quote and we'll check before recommending, or check your situation first.
Are waiting periods really waived on Residents Visa Plan?
On the Sanitas Residents Visa Plan, yes, under the current policy terms. It changes when benefits become usable, and nothing about what the insurer decides on your health history.
What does Residents Visa Plan cost?
Age, where you live and who is on the policy set it — how pricing works →, or ask for your personalised quote.
How do I check the network where I'm moving?
Look at the network where you are actually going to live, not where you have read about. Availability is not even across a country, and it is a fair question to ask before you buy rather than after.
Can my children be on the policy?
Yes. Children aged 3 to 18 can be enrolled with an adult policyholder, and children aged 0 to 2 need an insured adult on the policy. Each person is assessed individually and named on the policy.
What about the documents for my application?
What you receive, and how, depends on the current policy documentation and on your completed application. We confirm what Sanitas provides for the accepted policy before you rely on it, and we make no universal promise about how quickly documents arrive.
Can I keep the plan after the visa is granted?
Visa approval does not itself decide when your policy ends. This is a 12-month policy with renewal governed by the current policy terms, and no maximum age for continuing is published. Renewal terms and premiums are set by the policy in force at the time.