You just arrived in France and you want to be covered for your health expenses? Perfect! In this article, we will see how to get a French social security number. Let’s go!
🔢 How to Get a French Social Security Number
In France, when you see a doctor, your medical expenses can get reimbursed partially by the French Healthcare system called “Sécurité Sociale” or “Assurance Maladie”. In order to qualify for reimbursements of your medical expenses, you must be affiliated with the general French social security system. You will get then a French Social Security number.
🇪🇺 If you are a citizen of the European Union, you can get covered with the European Health Insurance Card during a temporary stay in a foreign country inside the European Union.
Now, you will need to answer a few questions in order to see the process to get a French Social Security number.
Retrieve your French Social Security number
If you have already been affiliated with the French social security system in the past, or if you were born in France, there are two ways you can retrieve your social security number with the CPAM (“Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie”):
- 🏢 Go to your CPAM local branch with an ID document (ID card, passport)
- 📞 Call the 3646
🎓 Create your French Social Security number as a student
As a student, you will need to follow the different steps:
- Go to the website etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr (available in French, English, and Spanish)
etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr website
- Fill in the different information required on the home page
- You will see a list of the documents you will need later in the process. Some are mandatory, and some can be provided later.
- Fill in your personal information. You will need to fill in a French address
- Upload the mandatory documents:
- 🎓 Certificate of school enrolment
- 🪪 ID document (ID card, passport)
- 💮 Student visa (“visa étudiant”)
- Validate your data to create your customer portal on etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr
- Download your provisional certificate of affiliation to the French Social Security system.
You will get a provisional French Social Security number.
From now on, you will be eligible for reimbursement of your medical expenses by the French healthcare system.
The provisional certificate of affiliation will enable you to finalize the registration with your school.
⚠️ During this whole waiting period, make sure to save the receipts and papers from doctors (“feuille de soins”) and pharmacy visits.
Feuille de soins
As soon as you get your final French Social Security number, you can send the “feuille de soins” and other receipts to your local CPAM branch for retroactive reimbursements.
- Later, finalize your registration in the customer portal at etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr, by uploading these documents:
- 👶 Authenticated birth certificate (with potentially a translation if you were not born inside the European Union)
- 🏦 EU IBAN (“RIB” in French)
🛑 If you don’t have an 🇪🇺 EU IBAN, you won’t be able to be reimbursed for your health expenses.
To open a bank account in France, you can read this article:
- ⏳ After a few weeks/months, you will receive your official certificate of affiliation to the French Social Security system. Your account on etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr will be closed and your information details will be transferred to your local CPAM branch.
- 🎉 Congratulations! You finally got your French social security number (13 digits, it starts with a 1 or 2).
Here is a video (in French with English subtitles) showing you exactly the different steps I described:
Create your French Social Security number
You will need to follow the different steps:
- Download the application form “Demande d’ouverture des droits à l’Assurance Maladie” here
French Social Security application form
- Fill in your personal details in section A:
- Last name and first name
- French Social Security number (if you have one)
- CAF number (if you have one)
- Birth date
- Place of birth
- Nationality
- Address (street, postal code, city)
- Phone number
- Email address
- If you don’t have a personal address, fill in the address of the association
- Fill in your professional situation in section B
- Fill in section C:
- The city you wrote the document (ex: Paris)
- The date in the format DD/MM/YYYY
- Your signature
- Print the document
- Print the following documents:
- 🪪 Photocopy of an ID document (ID card, passport)
- 💮 Photocopy of your residence permit
- 👶 Authenticated birth certificate (with potentially a translation if you were not born inside the European Union)
- 📜 Work contract (if you are an employee in France)
- 🧾 Photocopy of your last payslip (if you are an employee in France)
- 🏠 Proof that you will be living in France for more than 3 months. Here are a few examples:
- Photocopy of the lease agreement
- Photocopy of the home internet/electricity bills for the last 3 months
- Accommodation certificate
+ photocopy of the electricity bill for the last 3 months
- 🏦 EU IBAN (“RIB” in French)
🛑 If you don’t have an 🇪🇺 EU IBAN, you won’t be able to be reimbursed for your health expenses.
To open a bank account in France, you can read this article:
- Send all the documents by post to the “Assurance Maladie” of your home in France. You can find the addresses of the different CPAM local branch. If you live in Paris, you can send it to this address: Assurance Maladie de Paris
75948 PARIS CEDEX 19
You can also go to one of the CPAM local branches yourself and hand them the letter with your documents, so you are sure that it arrived.
⚠️ During this whole waiting period, make sure to save the receipts and papers from doctors (“feuille de soins”) and pharmacy visits.
Feuille de soins
As soon as you get your final French Social Security number, you can send the “feuille de soins” and other receipts to your local CPAM branch for retroactive reimbursements.
- ⏳ After a few weeks/months, you will receive your official certificate of affiliation to the French Social Security system. Your information details will be transferred to your local CPAM branch.
- 🎉 Congratulations! You finally got your French social security number (13 digits, it starts with a 1 or 2).
Conclusion
You have now your French social security number. The next step will be to set up your French Healthcare account online:
To see the guide about healthcare in France, you can check this article:
