Your policies stop at the border. Your business doesn’t.
A foreign package picks up where your U.S. policies’ territory ends: liability, auto, employee injury and travel coverage for staff who travel or work overseas, and for operations outside the country.
By Sam Alishahi · CA Insurance License #4348151 · Reviewed October 2026 · How this page is researched
Why your U.S. policy has a map
Every liability policy has a coverage territory. In a 2009 case, a federal appeals court read a general liability policy whose territory was the United States, its territories and possessions, Canada and Puerto Rico. It held that the location of the injury, not some precipitating cause, decides where an event happened, and that the exception for people away on business for a short time most naturally covers a brief, discrete event such as a several-day business trip, not months of operations abroad.
Auto and workers’ comp have their own limits. The State Department warns that your U.S. auto insurance may not cover you when you drive in other countries. California law can give a California-hired employee injured abroad California benefits, and civilian employees working overseas on U.S. military bases or U.S. government contracts fall under the federal Defense Base Act, which requires its own insurance. A foreign package brings these coverages together, built around where your people actually go.
- Foreign general liabilityClaims for injury or damage that happens outside your U.S. policy’s territory.
- Foreign autoLiability for vehicles you own, rent or hire abroad.
- Foreign voluntary compBenefits for employees hurt overseas, including medical evacuation and repatriation.
- Kidnap and travelKidnap, ransom and extortion response, plus travel medical and assistance.
What underwriters will ask
Having these ready means I can go to market on the first call. The quote form asks for the same things, and anything you don’t know yet can wait.
- Countries: where your people go, how often and for how long.
- People: U.S. employees traveling or based abroad, local hires and contractors.
- Operations: offices, property and vehicles outside the U.S.
- Revenue: foreign sales, by country.
- Contracts: U.S. government contracts and any insurance terms set by foreign clients.
- Current policies: U.S. declarations, so I can see each policy’s territory.
International business insurance, answered
Doesn’t my general liability cover a business trip abroad?
It may, for a short trip. A federal appeals court read that exception as most naturally covering a brief, discrete event such as a several-day business trip, and held it couldn’t stretch to operations lasting months or years. Ongoing work overseas needs coverage written for it.
What decides whether an injury happened inside my policy’s territory?
Where the injury happened. In the same case, the court said it’s the location of the injury that controls, not of some precipitating cause, so a decision made at a U.S. headquarters doesn’t bring an injury abroad inside the territory.
Will my auto policy cover a car I rent overseas?
Don’t assume it. The State Department says U.S. auto insurance may not cover you in other countries, that a policy honored abroad may still not meet local requirements, and that you should review a rental company’s coverage carefully. Foreign auto coverage is built for this.
Is an employee hurt abroad covered by workers’ comp?
In California, an employee hired or regularly employed in the state who is injured while working outside it is entitled to California benefits. Getting someone treated, evacuated or brought home from another country is a different problem, and that’s what foreign voluntary comp is built around.
We have a U.S. government contract overseas. What do we need?
The Defense Base Act provides workers’ compensation protection to civilian employees working outside the United States on U.S. military bases or under U.S. government contracts for public works or national defense, and DBA insurance is required. I place it alongside the rest of the foreign package.
Do you offer international business insurance outside California?
Yes. Clients across the country send the same quote form. Sam Alishahi is licensed in 48 states and Washington, DC and places policies there directly. In Florida and Washington, where Sam's licenses are still being issued, a partner agency in your state helps in the meantime. The shopping across carriers works the same way. Rules, minimums and markets differ by state — see insurance requirements by state.
Tell me where your people go. I’ll build the package.
The countries, how many people travel or live there and what you do there are enough to start.
Alishahi Insurance · Saman Alishahi, independent insurance broker, California License #4348151. General information, not a quote or a promise of coverage; coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.
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