Social Security

For a quick overview see Social Security but it is recommended to read through this page

Students with with a research contract signed either by IPGP or University of Paris-Diderot have a general social security cover as for every salaried employee. It is mandatory to register to the social security from the first day of the contract. A Carte Vitale is basically an automated social security card that has your social security number, your medical insurance information, and your next of kin listed in one place.

For information on how to get a social security number, carte vitale and complimentary health insurance please read below

Registering with the CPAM

Make photocopies and bring originals/certified copies of:

• carte de sejour (or recipicée)
• contrat de travail
• bulletin de paye (first pay slip, and usually the last 3)
• RIB (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire, from bank)
• certified act de naissance
  • translated into French by official translators certified in France (~50€), or acquire a multilingual european birth certificate if that exists in the applicant's home country (Vienna convention).
  • a birth certificate from outside the European Union has to be apostilled and then translated (50€ transl. + ~50$ Apostille in the US). Don't translate before getting the Apostille. See below for further information. (apparently this is sometimes even required from within the EU).

Write a short letter explaining that the attached documents are for getting a social security number. Then, mail everything to the central office (though it may be better to just go there or in one of the local offices in each arrondissement in person):

CPAM de Paris, CS 70001, 75948 Paris cedex 19

Within 4 weeks, they should give you a temporary number that can be used with for medical care. The permanent card should arrive 2 to 3 months later.

Alternatively, you might be able to bypass the above procedure by applying directly for supplemental assurance at MGEN.

Important Advice

• The requirements given by CPAM in letters as well as in person are often false and incomplete.
  Example: For the application in person at the CPAM office an English birth certificate is enough. After this application is rejected later, the letter states that it has to be translated. After the translation, it is again rejected stating that the birth certificate should now also be apostilled (which means that the document has to be translated again with the apostille).
  To avoid confusion, try to ask explicitly for the apostilled birth certificate. Often you get through the first layer of administration without all the requirements but you are rejected later.
• Applications are sometimes treated incredibly slow. Response times of 3 months are common.
• If you need to go to the doctor, keep the bills! You can get reimbursed later (at least the part of the non-private insurance).
• How to get an Apostille
  • To legalize an official document like the birth certificate in France, a certified translation is not enough. A document has to be legalized (internationalized) by the country, state, hospital that issued the document via a procedure defined in the Apostille Convention.
  • The idea as explained on Wikipedia: ... a document must first be issued or certified by an officer recognized by the authority that will issue the apostille. For example, in the US state of Vermont, the Secretary of State maintains specimen signatures of all notaries public, so documents that have been notarized are eligible for apostilles.
  • In the case of the United States, this means e.g. that the US embassy can not issue an Apostille. The responsible authority is in this case the US state that issued the birth certificate. To get an Apostilled birth certificate from the USA, you have to therefore contact your birth state and follow their procedure to apply for it.
    Usually this involves:
    1. Apply for a certified copy of your birth certificate (issued by your city of birth). Payment via Money order can be done at La Poste (no Western Union etc...)
    2. Send it together with another application to the state authority that issues the Apostille.

    Even though this procedure sounds crazy just to get one birth certificate, the applications in the state of Connecticut were treated very quickly and it took about a month to get a new birth certificate together with the apostille.

  • The apostille is a simple sheet of paper with a large golden seal on it that is attached to your birth certificate. Congratulations if you have it, the carte vitale is not far.
  • If you are from a country that is not part of the Apostille Convention (among others e.g. Canada). According to Wikipedia, your documents have to be certified by the relevant (foreign) government agencies of the issuing state and also France.

Further information

For more information call: 3646 or 0811 709 075 (must speak French). A special advice line exists for English speakers that might be useful. For further information, see the web site www.ameli.fr.

The social security system in France will refund you part of the money you have paid for the doctor or medicine (about 80%). In order to obtain a full refund, you will need to subscribe to a supplemental medical insurance program, which for us is MGEN.

You can chose from a huge variety of supplementary insurances to complete your health insurance. To get a supplementary plan that covers all basic costs for doctors in the lowest regime, you have to pay ~20€/month

After you receive the Carte Vitale, you need to choose a generaliste. For visits to a specialist (dermatologue, ears...), you have to go to the generaliste first, who will transfer you to the specialist. If you don't do this, you won't be fully reimbursed.

A detailed account in English describing the various steps and problems in obtaining a Carte Vitale can be found here.