What happens if you buy an iPhone in one country, and want to use AppleCare+ in another country?

This would be a situation that I would be in because I live in the US and bought an iPhone from Saudi Arabia, and I wanted to know once and for all what would happen if I broke my iPhone.

I bought a phone from Saudi Arabia because I needed an iPhone with a physical SIM slot. My plan doesn’t support e-SIM yet, and I don’t think they will anytime soon since their plans are generally catered to older folks who don’t really use their phones that much.

At least that is what I think because who else offers unlimited data, talk, and text on Verizon’s network for only $10/month?!

Anyway, I went to Canada just a few weeks ago, and I went to an Apple Store to finally put the question to rest:

If I break my iPhone in the US, will Apple replace it with a US phone (without the SIM slot) or would I get the exact same phone that I purchased with the SIM slot?

The nice lady was helping out other customers, but she eventually made her way to the back and asked a specialist (or a genius?) about the situation.

She came back with the answer that I wanted to hear:

“So if you break your iPhone, Apple will replace it with the exact same iPhone. It might take an extra day or two to get it to you since it will probably come from somewhere else, but it will be the same iPhone with the SIM slot.”

That is good to hear, both for me right now, and when I inevitably sell my iPhone 15 Pro Max to buy the 16 Pro Max. I got another international trip lined up so let’s see if I can snag that come October.