Your visa was refused and you have already paid for cover
The short answer
This is a bad week and the insurance is the smallest part of it — but it is the part with a deadline. Before you cancel anything: find out whether you are still inside the fourteen-day withdrawal window, and ask your insurer whether the start date can be moved instead. If you are reapplying, the policy you hold is an asset rather than a cost. This page sets out what to do, in what order, and what we will check for you.
Do these four things, in this order
One. Do not cancel yet. If there is any chance you will reapply, the policy is an asset rather than a cost, and cancelling first is the decision that closes the cheaper options.
Two. Find the date the policy was concluded. If you are within fourteen calendar days of it, you have a clean statutory way out — see the box below. Outside that window the answer comes from your policy conditions instead, which is a different conversation.
Three. Ask the insurer three specific questions, in writing, with the refusal attached. Is this inside the fourteen-day withdrawal period; if not, what do the conditions provide on cancellation during the policy period; and can the start date be moved, or the policy held, pending a second application. That third question is the one most easily forgotten, and where an insurer can agree to it, it leaves you with cover for the second attempt rather than a refund to re-spend.
Four. Then decide. Cancel, move the date, or keep it — but decide once you know which of the three is actually available to you.
Reapplying? Get a fresh quote →
What we will check for you
If you tell us what you hold and what happened, this is what we look at. Whether the withdrawal window is still open, which is a date question. What your own conditions say about cancellation and refund, which is a document question. Whether the cover can be moved rather than ended. And, if you are going again, whether the policy you had is the one you want for the second attempt — because a refusal is a reason to look again at the cover, not only at the calendar.
What we will not do is tell you what proportion of the premium you will recover. That is set in your insurer’s own conditions, it varies, and any page quoting a figure for it is describing somebody else’s contract.
Tell us what you hold and we will look →
Asking well
“Can I cancel” invites a no. It is a yes-or-no question about the outcome the insurer least wants, and it gets answered as one.
Whether the policy has started changes everything. A policy that has not yet begun is a much easier conversation than one that has been running two months. Establish that before you open the discussion, from the policy itself — it states its duration with a day and an hour.
Lead with the option that costs the insurer least. Moving a start date or holding cover pending a second application keeps both the relationship and the premium, which is why it is worth asking about before anything else. Ask for it explicitly rather than waiting to be offered it.
Keep it in writing and note the dates. Email, keep the thread, attach the refusal.
Refused in March, reapplying in June
An applicant is refused and cancels the policy the same week, recovering less than expected. Three months later they reapply and buy cover again — a new policy, a new start date, and whatever their medical questionnaire now says.
The alternative was to ask whether the start date could be moved, or the policy held, pending a second application. Whether that is available depends on the insurer and the conditions — but it is a question worth putting before the one about cancelling.
The order of the questions changed the outcome more than the policy terms did.
If you are going again
Do not cancel first and think about cover second. The new application will need it, and the useful sequence is to know what you are reapplying with before you dismantle what you have.
Two things are worth settling now rather than in another rush. What your route actually requires of the policy — health insurance on the non-lucrative route sets out art. 61.2.b and, more importantly, what it does not say. And what the office handling your case asks to see, which is its own published practice on a given date and the single most useful thing you can establish before a second attempt.
We cannot tell you why the application was refused, and we cannot tell you whether the insurance was any part of it. What we can do is make sure the cover you take into the next attempt is the right kind of cover, and that you are not paying twice for the same year. If the second attempt is also a chance to get the cover itself right, visa health insurance sets out what your route asks of a policy, and the health plans are organised around the decisions that matter once you are here — Essential Health if the year ahead will be Spanish, International Health if it will not.
If you are not reapplying and simply want the policy properly ended, cancelling health insurance covers doing it so that it is provable — including the notice rule that applies if the policy is running and you are opposing its renewal rather than withdrawing from it.
In this order
- Whether you are inside fourteen calendar days of concluding the contract, or of receiving the conditions if that was later
- Whether the policy has actually started, because that changes what you are asking for
- What your own policy conditions say about cancellation and refund — this is where the answer lives after day fourteen
- That you have the written refusal, because an insurer that considers refusal at all will want to see it
- Whether you intend to reapply, before you cancel anything at all
Reapplying? Get a fresh quote
If you are going again, the cover has to be in place for the new application. Tell us the date you expect to need it and we will arrange it around that rather than around the policy you are cancelling.
What this guide does and does not cover
We arrange and explain private health insurance. We do not advise on visa refusals, appeals or reapplication, and nothing here is a guarantee that an application will be granted or that any premium will be refunded. What an insurer returns beyond the statutory withdrawal period is set in its own policy conditions, which vary — this page describes what to ask for, not what you will receive.
Sources & evidence
- Ley 22/2007, de 11 de julio, sobre comercialización a distancia de servicios financieros destinados a los consumidores (texto consolidado) · Boletín Oficial del Estado
- Ley 50/1980, de 8 de octubre, de Contrato de Seguro (texto consolidado) · Boletín Oficial del Estado
How we source and review claims: sources & review policy. Reviewed 27 September 2026 · next review 27 December 2026.