Register with the French Sécurité sociale

Having a social security number is not the same as being covered. The two are separate steps, and the gap between them is where newcomers lose time waiting for reimbursements that were never going to come until the second step was done.

Two steps, not one: identification and affiliation

Identification is being entered in the national register and given a personal number — your NIR, also called your numéro de Sécurité sociale. It has 13 digits plus a 2-digit control key.

Affiliation is different: it’s being attached to the actual fund that pays your claims. Which fund depends on your professional situation and where you live. You can be identified — hold a number — without yet being affiliated to anything.

If you were born in France, identification happens at birth. If you were born abroad, you have to request the number yourself, from whichever organisme matches your situation.

Your rights depend on your citizenship and why you’re here

Rights differ depending on whether you’re a citizen of the EU/EEA and Switzerland, of the UK, or of another country — and separately on your status (salaried worker, retiree, student, jobseeker). What follows covers salaried workers moving to France for work; the rules for other statuses are not detailed here.

If you’re an EU/EEA or Swiss worker moving to France as an expatrié, your employer only handles their side of the hiring paperwork (the déclaration préalable à l’embauche, or DPAE). You still have to contact the health insurance fund where you live, to finish your own registration. Family members who live with you in France for more than three months are covered by French Assurance maladie too, including reimbursements for care, treatment and hospital stays.

If you’re an expatrié from a country outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland, you’re no longer insured in your country of origin, so you need to contribute to the French scheme.

Registering as a salaried employee

For a first job in France, you need to give your employer your social security number — or, if you don’t have one yet, your numéro d’identification d’attente (a temporary waiting number), so they can complete their own hiring formalities.

If you were born abroad, you give the CPAM or the MSA (the agricultural scheme) two documents:

• Your identity or residence document — the one that identifies you
• Your état civil document (birth certificate or equivalent) — the one that confirms your identity

If a document is missing

Once your file is in, the organisme issues you a numéro d’identification d’attente while it processes your registration.

If all you were able to provide was your identity or residence document, without the état civil document, that’s still enough to move forward — but you’ll be told you have three months to produce the missing état civil paperwork. Don’t let that window close without acting.

When your rights actually open

Coverage under the protection universelle maladie (Puma) applies to anyone who works or lives in France in a stable and regular way, guaranteeing personal, continuous cover of your health costs throughout your life.

If you qualify through work, on the terms in the table above, cover starts immediately or without delay — there’s no waiting period.

If you qualify through residence rather than work, it’s different: you wait three months after arriving in France before those rights open, and you need to keep living in France for at least six months of the year to keep them open. That three-month wait is itself waived immediately for certain people, though the source doesn’t specify who.

To formally request that your Assurance maladie rights be opened on the basis of residence, the form is Cerfa 15763*02 (also called S1106a). The back of the form lists which supporting documents you need, depending on your situation.

If you need help

For questions about social security when you’re arriving from abroad, the Cleiss (the body that handles cross-border social security cases) can be reached on +33 (0) 1 45 26 33 41.

Before you register

• Work out which row of the table above applies to you — it decides whether you’re covered from your first hour or have to wait.
• If you’re a salaried worker, get your identity/residence document and your état civil document to the CPAM or MSA as early as possible.
• If only one document is ready, register anyway — but diarise the three-month deadline for the other one.
• If your rights depend on residence rather than work, expect a three-month wait, and plan to keep your stay in France to at least six months of the year to keep them open.