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Valid for Spanish student visa applications · study stays of 3–14 months · meets consulate insurance requirements Mi Sanitas
RD 1155/2024, arts. 52, 55 & 59Four different rulebooks, one word: exchangeLast verified 24 August 2026

Erasmus and exchange students in Spain — which insurance rules actually apply to you

"Exchange student" covers four legally different situations, and the insurance answer is different in each. An EU citizen on Erasmus, a non-EU student already enrolled at a European university, an American on a semester abroad and a seventeen-year-old on a school-year programme are reading four different sets of rules — and one of those four has an extension trap written into the regulation that most guidance never mentions.

90 days decides whether you need the long-stay student authorisation at all
School-mobility programmes under art. 52.1(c) cannot be extended in Spain
A stay under three months is outside our plan's range — we say so plainly
Check which rules apply to youThe insurance requirement itself
First, which rulebook you are in

Four kinds of "exchange student", four different legal positions

Before any insurance question can be answered, one sorting question has to be: who are you, and how long are you staying? The long-stay student rules in Real Decreto 1155/2024 apply, under article 52.1, to a person "habilitada a permanecer en España por un periodo superior a noventa días naturales" — authorised to stay for a period exceeding ninety calendar days. Everything shorter, and everyone covered by EU free movement, sits under different law entirely.

EU / EEA / Swiss citizens on ErasmusNot under RD 1155/2024 at all. Free movement applies, there is no visa, and the EHIC is usually the working answer — EU students and the EHIC covers exactly where it satisfies the rules and where it does not. Some readers of that page should not buy anything from us, and it says so
Non-EU nationals staying 90 days or lessThe Schengen short-stay regime, which RD 1155/2024 art. 30 expressly hands to EU law. No Spanish student visa exists for a stay this short — and, said plainly, a stay under three months is also outside the range of the plan we arrange
Non-EU nationals coming for more than 90 daysThe type D long-stay visa and authorisation under arts. 34–36 and 52–57. Which letter of art. 52.1 your programme falls under matters more than most people realise — it decides whether your stay can ever be extended from inside Spain
Non-EU nationals already studying in the EUA separate mobility right under art. 59: a student holding another member state's permit under Directive (EU) 2016/801 can come to Spain for up to 360 days of their programme on a notification, without a Spanish visa — with its own document list, insurance included in one variant

The rest of this page takes the three non-EU situations in turn. If you are an EU citizen, the EU students page is the honest place to start, not this one. And one more boundary: an Erasmus Mundus joint master's is a funded two-year degree, not an exchange semester — its consortium-provided insurance and where it can fail the Spanish test are covered on the scholarship students page.

Under 90 days

Short stays: Schengen rules, not the student-visa rules

A one-term language course, a short summer school, a research visit of a few weeks — if the whole stay fits inside 90 days in any 180-day period, the Spanish student-visa insurance requirement is simply not your requirement. RD 1155/2024 art. 30 says of the short-stay visa that its conditions "serán los establecidos en el derecho de la Unión Europea" — they are set by EU law, not by the Spanish regulation.

That EU law is Regulation (EC) No 810/2009, the Schengen Visa Code. Its article 15 is where the two figures that get wrongly attached to student visas actually live: travel medical insurance of at least €30,000, covering repatriation for medical reasons. We re-checked the consolidated RD 1155/2024 on 24 August 2026: the figure 30.000 appears zero times in the whole text. It is a short-stay Schengen requirement that consulate checklists carried across onto student sheets.

If your nationality needs a Schengen visaYou apply for a short-stay (type C) visa and evidence travel medical insurance under Visa Code art. 15 — a travel policy, not a Spanish health policy
If your nationality is visa-exemptUnder art. 48.2 of RD 1155/2024 you are in "estancia sin visado" — up to 90 days in 180 with no visa at all. No insurance document is checked at a consulate, because there is no consulate stage
If you try to stretch a short stayA visa-free short stay can only be extended in narrow cases; art. 49.2.d) requires for that extension "un seguro de asistencia en viaje con la misma cobertura que el necesario para la solicitud del visado de estancia de corta duración" — again travel insurance, again the Schengen standard. A short stay never converts into a student stay from inside Spain
Product honesty: the Sanitas International Students plan is issued for insured periods of 3 to 14 months. A programme under three months is outside that range, so we have nothing to sell you for it — a travel policy that satisfies Visa Code art. 15 is what a short stay actually needs, and that is not what we arrange. If your programme is 90 days or less, you can stop reading here.
The trap in letter c

School-mobility programmes cannot be extended from inside Spain

Article 52.1 lists five activities that carry the long-stay study authorisation. Letter c) is "participación en un programa de movilidad de alumnos" — a pupil-mobility programme for compulsory or post-obligatory secondary education, equivalent to ISCED levels 2 or 3: the classic high-school exchange year, managed by a registered school or an officially recognised scientific centre. It is a secondary-school category. A university semester abroad is not letter c), however often agencies describe it that way.

Here is the part competitors routinely get wrong. Article 55.3 opens the in-country extension — the prórroga — during the two months before expiry, but only, verbatim:

"…en los supuestos previstos en las letras a), b), d) y e) del artículo 52.1…" — in the cases of letters a), b), d) and e) of article 52.1. Letter c) is not on the list.

A participant in a pupil-mobility programme therefore cannot apply for a prórroga at all. Article 55.5, which caps extensions at one for volunteering and training and two for higher and post-compulsory secondary education, never mentions letter c) either — there is no count to cap, because the route does not exist. Guidance that tells every student "you can renew from inside Spain" is flattening a category distinction the regulation draws explicitly; the renewal page sets out how the prórroga works for the categories that do have it.

The practical consequence lands before departure, not after: the authorisation and the insurance have to cover the whole programme from the start. Under art. 55.1 the authorisation runs with the programme, capped at a year; under art. 35(i) the policy must be "válido para la duración de la estancia prevista" — valid for the whole intended stay. If the programme is ten months, ask for ten months of cover on day one, because there is no second bite in Spain.

Two adjacent facts for the same reader. First, art. 35(f) ties the age for a mobility-programme visa to whatever education law permits for those studies — most participants are minors, and for a policy that means the tomador/asegurado split for 14–17 year olds: an adult contracts, the student is insured. Second, art. 53.1.c) makes the organisation running the programme "responsable del alumno durante su estancia, en particular en cuanto al coste de sus estudios, así como los gastos de estancia y regreso a su país" — responsible for the pupil, including study, stay and return costs. Responsibility for costs is not an insurance policy, which is the subject of the next section.

"The programme insures you"

Programme and university group insurance — what the tests actually are

Exchange programmes, universities and host organisations very often provide, or require, a group policy — typically an international student or travel plan bought from an insurer in the home country, covering medical costs abroad up to a stated limit. Whether that document works for a Spanish type D student visa is not decided by how generous it is. The statutory test, RD 1155/2024 art. 35(i), reads in full:

"Contar con un seguro de enfermedad, concertado con una entidad aseguradora autorizada para operar en España, con prestaciones similares a las concedidas por la cartera común básica de servicios asistenciales del Sistema Nacional de Salud, válido para la duración de la estancia prevista."

Four parts: a health insurance policy, from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, with benefits similar to the SNS basic common portfolio, valid for the whole intended stay. A home-country group plan usually fails at the second part regardless of its limits — the insurer is not on the Spanish register. Is my policy valid runs the four conditions as a checklist against whatever document you are holding.

One distinction in the regulation is worth quoting because it is the exact point where programmes and applicants talk past each other. For the financial means requirement, art. 35(h)1.º expressly allows "una declaración de toma a cargo por el centro de enseñanza responsable del programa de intercambio de alumnos" — a declaration by the exchange programme's school that it takes charge of the student counts towards the means test. There is no equivalent substitution for the insurance letter. The programme's sponsorship can evidence letter h); nothing in art. 35 lets it stand in for letter i). (The one substitution that does exist, art. 57.5, is for students registered with Spanish Social Security through work — a different situation entirely.)

What consulates then do with group plans is practice, and practice is not uniform. One post we re-read on 24 August 2026, the Consulate General in San Francisco, publishes an insurance section requiring a certificate "issued by an Insurance Company operating in Spain" and states flatly: "Travel insurance is not accepted" and "An Insurance card will NOT be accepted as proof of coverage." Other posts publish other wording — some stricter, some silent — and we have not re-verified every post's treatment of group plans on that date. Check your own consulate's current checklist against the by-consulate variance table; US study-abroad plans specifically are taken apart on the US students page.

None of this means the programme's group policy is worthless — it may be exactly what covers you on the flight, in third countries, or for liability. It means the group policy and the visa policy answer different questions, and the consulate is only asking one of them.

Students already in the EU

The art. 59 mobility route: a semester in Spain without a Spanish visa

If you are a non-EU national already holding a student residence permit from another member state under Directive (EU) 2016/801 — say, enrolled at a university in France or Germany — and your Erasmus or inter-university agreement sends you to Spain for a semester, RD 1155/2024 art. 59.2 gives you a genuine shortcut: the right to enter and stay for up to 360 days to complete part of your studies at a Spanish higher-education institution, on a comunicación filed with the provincial immigration office rather than a visa application. The notification is made by the Spanish institution, before entry or at latest within a month, and must include your travel document, the first state's permit covering the whole mobility period, and proof of the programme and of acceptance. The immigration office has 30 days to object on listed grounds.

Note what art. 59.2's document list does not name: an insurance certificate. The neighbouring route does. Art. 59.3, for students admitted in another member state outside a mobility programme or inter-university agreement, requires an application evidencing, among other things, "los establecidos en el artículo 35.h), i) y j)" — the means, the art. 35(i) insurance, and the criminal-record condition. Two students crossing the same border for the same semester can face different insurance paperwork depending on which subsection carries them; which one carries you is a question for your home institution's mobility office and the Spanish receiving institution, not for an insurance page to guess at.

Either way, the paperwork question and the coverage question are separate. Whatever satisfies the file, you will still be a person living in Spain for months — what actually pays for a doctor during the stay is worth settling deliberately rather than by default.

Where our plan fits — and where it does not

Exchange stays of 3 to 14 months, students aged 14 to 35

For the exchange situations that do need art. 35(i)-compliant cover — a type D semester or year abroad, a school-mobility programme over 90 days — the Sanitas International Students plan is built for exactly that shape of stay, and its boundaries are worth stating as plainly as the law's:

Insured periods of 3 to 14 monthsA single semester of four or five teaching months, an academic year, a full exchange year — all inside the range. Under three months is outside it, full stop
Ages 14 to 35, one student per policyMinors of 14–17 are insured with an adult — parent, legal guardian or grandparent — as the contracting tomador; the student is the asegurado. Under 14 is not possible
Proof of studies requiredThe exchange placement, matriculation or enrolment document with start and end dates — the same document your visa file is built on
Policies start on the 1st of a monthContractable up to six months ahead — and remember the authorisation itself runs from a month before the programme to fifteen days after it (art. 55.2), so pick the start date deliberately
Zero copayments, no waiting periodsWith dental included, Blua 24/7 video consultations in English, and worldwide emergency assistance of €12,000 per person per year — which follows you on semester-break trips outside Spain

Pricing starts from €42.71/month payable for the youngest band in the lowest-priced provinces — the calculator returns the exact figure for your age, province and number of months, which is more reliable than any figure printed on a page. One honest limitation: durations of 4, 5 and 7 months are not currently selectable in the calculator pending confirmation from Sanitas, and a single semester can land exactly there. If yours does, ask us before you plan around it rather than forcing the stay into a different number.

Eligibility, premium and policy terms are confirmed before the policy is issued. We arrange insurance; the decision on any visa or mobility notification rests with the Spanish authorities, and nothing on this page promises an outcome.

Price the cover for your exchange months

Date of birth, province, number of months — the calculator returns the exact monthly premium and the total for the insured period, built from the official Sanitas rate tables. If your stay is under three months, it will tell you honestly that the plan is not for you.

Insured periods of 3 to 14 monthsCertificate issued after acceptance and paymentPolicies start on the 1st of a month, up to six months ahead
Get the price →
How this page is sourced

Last verified 24 August 2026

Exchange and mobility rules cross three bodies of law, which is precisely where secondary guidance goes wrong. Every legal statement above was read in the primary text on the date shown.

Real Decreto 1155/2024Arts. 30, 34–36 (including 35(f), (h) and (i) verbatim), 48.2, 49.2, 52.1 (all five letters), 53.1.c), 55.1–55.5 and 59 — consolidated text read at BOE-A-2024-24099 on 24 August 2026. The art. 55.3 restriction to letters a), b), d) and e) is quoted verbatim because summaries of it are routinely wrong
The €30,000 figureConfirmed absent from RD 1155/2024 on 24 August 2026 — zero occurrences in the consolidated text. It belongs to the Schengen short-stay regime, Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 art. 15, which is EU law that art. 30 of the Spanish regulation points to rather than restates
Consulate practiceThe San Francisco student-visa page was re-read with its insurance section located on 24 August 2026; its "Travel insurance is not accepted" wording is quoted verbatim above. We did not re-verify every post's treatment of programme group insurance on that date, and this page deliberately does not claim a universal rule — the variance table is dated per post
Not resolved hereWhere a university exchange semester that does not lead to a Spanish qualification sits within art. 52.1 for a direct type D application is assessed by the consulate and immigration office on the programme's documents; this page does not assign it a letter. And whether a given host organisation's group policy satisfies a given post is a per-post, per-policy question we refuse to answer in general terms
Frequently asked questions

Erasmus and exchange stays — insurance questions

Mostly no. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are outside RD 1155/2024 entirely — no visa, no art. 35(i) insurance test. The EHIC is usually the working answer for a semester, with real limits on what it buys. Our EU students page covers where it satisfies the registration rules and where it does not, and is candid that many EU readers should not buy anything from us.
Not the student-visa kind. A stay of 90 days or less sits under the Schengen short-stay regime, which RD 1155/2024 art. 30 hands to EU law. If your nationality needs a short-stay visa, Visa Code art. 15 requires travel medical insurance of at least €30,000 including medical repatriation. That is a travel policy — and honestly, our plan starts at three-month insured periods, so a shorter stay is outside what we arrange.
Not from inside Spain, if your authorisation is the pupil-mobility category. Art. 55.3 opens the prórroga only for art. 52.1 letters a), b), d) and e) — letter c), pupil-mobility programmes, is excluded, verbatim: "en los supuestos previstos en las letras a), b), d) y e) del artículo 52.1". The authorisation and the insurance therefore have to cover the whole programme from the start.
The statutory test is art. 35(i): an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, benefits similar to the SNS basic portfolio, valid for the whole stay. Home-country group and travel plans usually fail on the authorised-in-Spain condition regardless of their limits. San Francisco's checklist, re-read 24 August 2026, states "Travel insurance is not accepted". Practice varies by post, so check your own consulate's current wording rather than a general rule.
If your permit was issued under Directive (EU) 2016/801 and your stay is part of an EU or multilateral programme or an agreement between institutions, art. 59.2 lets you come for up to 360 days on a notification filed by the Spanish institution — no Spanish visa. Outside those programmes, art. 59.3 applies instead: an application without a visa, but evidencing the art. 35 h), i) and j) conditions, insurance included. Your mobility office can tell you which subsection carries you.
The plan's insured periods run from 3 to 14 months, so the length itself is inside the range — but durations of 4, 5 and 7 months are not currently selectable in our calculator pending confirmation from Sanitas, and we will not pretend otherwise. Three, six and eight months and up price normally. If your dates land on a blocked length, email us before you plan around it.

This page describes the regulation and how our cover fits around it. Visa and mobility decisions rest with the Spanish authorities.

Related

Your situation

EU students and the EHICUS study-abroad plans, examinedErasmus Mundus & scholarship studentsStudents aged 14–17Medical emergencies as a student

The rules

The prórroga — who can extendRequirements by consulateFamily joining a studentHealth insurance for international students

The whole process

The Spanish student visa, start to finish