UK private health insurance is sold to people who live in the UK, and each insurer checks residence in its own way: a legal right to live here, a minimum number of days here each year and, for some, six months of residence and GP registration before cover starts. Someone living abroad will not meet those tests on the wording quoted here, so international or visitor cover is the usual route for non-UK residents. If you have just arrived, are on a visa or may leave again, note your move-in, visa and GP registration dates, because the form on this page asks little beyond how to reach you. Those dates are what an FCA-authorised broker will match against each insurer's conditions on the free call-back that follows.
Health insurance for UK residents: three tests in the insurers' wording
UK private medical insurance is built around treatment in the UK, so insurers want to know the policyholder lives here for most of the year, and each words that in its own way. Three insurers' own documents show the range of what is asked:
| Insurer and document | What it asks of you |
|---|---|
| The Exeter, Health+ (Insurance Product Information Document MKTG770, June 2026, page 1; a regulatory summary, not the full policy) | The legal right to reside in the UK, and 183 days or more of each policy year physically spent in the country. |
| Vitality, Personal Healthcare (Membership Guide, print code VHTCR0002 08/2024, PDF page 41; a copy hosted by the broker site mytribeinsurance.co.uk, read 21 October 2026) | 180 or more days a plan year spent in the UK, and at least six months of UK residence and UK GP registration before cover starts. |
| WPA, personal and family health insurance brochure (dated 1 October 2026 on its cover, "Who can buy this policy", printed page 3) | To join, six months' UK residence plus NHS GP registration; to remain a member, six months or more of every year spent living in the UK, with the GP registration kept up. |
Put side by side, the wording breaks into three separate tests. One is an address test: a home in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. One is a days test, counted across a policy or plan year, which is why a long trip or a half-year abroad can matter. And one is a history test, where the insurer wants to see time already spent here, shown by a GP registration. A person born in Leeds who has lived there all their life passes all three without thinking. Someone who landed in September may meet the first today and the third only next spring.
Each is one insurer's condition for one product, and such conditions change between editions, so read the terms sent with a quote. For how the same wording is read for people who are not British, private health insurance for non-UK nationals goes through it clause by clause.
If you move abroad: what happens to a UK policy
Residence is tested when you join, and it can be tested again afterwards. Two insurers' documents show how plainly some of them say so.
WPA's personal and family health insurance brochure (the same brochure as in the table above, printed page 28) lists the circumstances in which a policy is void or terminated and no claims paid. One of them is that "You leave the UK to live elsewhere for over six months or you live outside the UK for more than six months in any year."
National Friendly's My PMI Policy Conditions (print reference PMI PC 08.26, clause 4.26, PDF page 19) list the circumstances in which a policy and cover could end, among them: "You cease to live in the UK and we close your policy".
Both concern the policyholder's home, not a holiday. The practical lesson is to tell your insurer before an overseas move rather than discover the rule at the point of a claim. It is also worth asking the insurer what a long stay abroad does to any waiting-period or claims history you have built up, and whether there is a route back to UK cover if you return, since the answer depends on the insurer. For trips rather than moves, see cover while travelling.
New to the UK: how long before you can buy?
For most arrivals the practical question is timing. The history test above means an insurer that asks for six months' residence and GP registration will not look at an application from week two, and one that asks only for an address and a right to live here may. The two orders of events are not the same thing, so it helps to line up your own dates: when your visa or right to live here starts, when you moved into an address, and when you registered with a GP.
Registering with a GP is within your control and costs nothing, and as it starts the clock for the insurers that ask for it, doing it early is worth the small effort. Beyond that, the insurer sets the pace. Which of them would accept someone with three months' residence, or someone who has not yet moved here, is exactly the kind of question a broker can answer on a call-back, since the wording differs and the broker can compare several insurers' conditions in one conversation.
On a visa: the surcharge is not a residence test
If your visa application included the immigration health surcharge, that payment is for NHS care, and GOV.UK's guidance on it says holding private medical insurance does not excuse you from it. It buys no private treatment, and it does not change what an insurer asks: a visa holder faces the same address, days and GP tests as anyone else, and whether a particular visa satisfies a right-to-reside condition such as The Exeter's is for that insurer to confirm. What the surcharge covers, what it costs and who is exempt are set out on health insurance on a UK visa, and the checks at an extension on visa renewal.
Health insurance for non-UK residents: when a UK policy is the wrong fit
UK residence-based policies are built for treatment in Britain by people living here. International health insurance is built the other way round: for people who live, or spend much of the year, outside their home country. If you are only visiting, visitor cover is the usual fit. If you are leaving to live overseas, or you are an expat posted here for a limited time and not settling, the international route may suit better, and expat health insurance is where the choice of policy is worked through.
The borderline case is the person who will split the year between the UK and elsewhere. Meeting the day counts above could be hard, and on WPA's brochure wording, living outside the UK for more than six months in a year ends the policy, so this is the situation to describe plainly on the call-back and let the broker say which type of cover is worth quoting.
Residence questions people ask before they buy
I am British and moving back after years abroad. Do the same tests apply?
Yes. The conditions quoted on this page are about where you live and for how long, not nationality, so the six months of UK residence and GP registration that WPA and Vitality ask for before cover starts apply to a returning citizen as much as to a new arrival. Registering with a GP soon after you move back starts the GP part of that count.
Do I have to stay registered with a GP once the policy starts?
On WPA's brochure, yes: remaining a member needs an NHS GP registration kept in place, alongside six months or more of each year lived in the UK. Other insurers set their own conditions, so check the terms that come with your quote.
Can I keep my UK policy if I retire abroad?
Not on the wording above: WPA ends a policy if you live outside the UK for more than six months in a year, and National Friendly may close one when you cease to live here. A policy built for people living abroad is the other route, and the broker can talk through what applies to yours when they phone.
Which insurer will accept me soonest after I arrive?
That varies, as the three tests show. Have your arrival date and GP registration date ready for the call-back requested here, and the broker can set several insurers' treatment of a recent arrival side by side. The call costs nothing.