Carte Vitale needed

Anyone had experience recently of submitting their S1’s for a Carte Vitale at their local CPAM office… for me it would be Sarlat? just plucked up all my courage to take the 40 min drive there only to find it’s appointments only. The door notice says do it online but to do it online you need a number that I don’t have. So frustrating. No answer on English Speaking helpline either. Been here for 5 months now so it’s a tick in a box that is urgently required. Any help or advice would be appreciated. thank you.

Sorry can’t help, it was so long ago, but if it is any consolation I seem to remember having had to go through the same angst, was convinced that I hadn’t done it right when then, as if by magic the cards suddenly appeared.

Someone will be more use than me though, any moment now. :wink: :smiley:

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thank you David. Just managed to get through to heaven knows who and everyone just seems very angry on the phone. I finally was put through to somebody only to find out it was the outpatient dept at Sarlat hospital. I want to say ‘I give up’ but that’s not an option. I think this may be a case of paying somebody to help me through this process but I am convinced if I could just make an appointment I would be fine. dossier complete etc. thanks again.

I agree it’s very catch-22 in that it appears you can’t make an appointment without an account on Ameli and you can’t create an account without a social security number, which you obviously don’t have.

When I did this, I “just” marched into the offices and asked the nearest person if I could make a RDV. If desperate, you could try this but a better approach is probably to use the newly created France Service facilities where you talk to a real person about things like this (or tax or whatever) and they contact the relevant service for you. I don’t know your area at all but there has to be a France Service option in your local town? Have you asked at the mairie?

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Yes Angela has it spot on. Book an appointment with France Services, and after you can probably do the rest by post.

If you haven’t yet started the process of applying to join the Health Service this may well take some time. So make sure you hang on to any brown “feuille de soins” forms and pharmacy factures.

They are also in local branches of LaPoste to help people out. Other than that, maybe get the local mairie to try and get through and make an rdv, worked loads of times over the years when we had trouble with miserable foncs in offices once the mairie said who they were and also your local Assistante Sociale who is under the mairie umbrella, they are invaluable in many cases to sort out stuff.

Thank you all. Just been on the France Services website and it has brought up a town that services my area but there are no contact details (phone, opening hours, website etc) so do I phone (attempt) the central number on the main website for an appointment? How ‘idiot’ friendly are they… Sitting here with a broken wrist courtesy of wild, new adopted dog and brain addled with post operative painkillers is not a good combination!! Thanks

Somewhere you should be able to find the contact details - depends what’s used locally there are a few info-commune apps. Even perhaps on your marie’s website

And in my experience France Services are super helpful, and patient.

But they may not have a clue what an s1 is so take the info in French with you. Your first step is in shorthand “ ouvrir droits CPAM “

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Go to emergency at the nearest hospital operating one for broken wrist

Your mairie is where to turn to if France Service contact detail is not obvious

She says she has been operated on

Have you tried this link?

[

English pages | ameli.fr | Assuré

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Assurance Maladie
https://www.ameli.fr › assure › engl…

Jul 17, 2020 — For all further information, please contact us on 09 76 77 36 46 (Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.). You …
I have found the ladies very good

Hi Janewalker,
When we applied for ours in June last year I had the same issues. I googled our regional Ameli office to find the address, and posted the S1’s and a covering letter, and declaration de choix du medicin traitant (keep a photocopy) by recorded delivery. It worked for us.
Hope it’s helpful…

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Thanks Charles… Think I am going to do the same… Can’t hurt can it……

Many thanks

Jane

You are welcome. I also filled in the demande d’overture des droits form (Demander l'ouverture des droits à l'assurance maladie (Formulaire 15763*02) | Service-public.fr), even though it says you dont need it if applying with S1. I expect they fell off their chairs laughing at my clumsy approach but the form lets you lay out all the necessary info, and on the back it lists all documents to send along with it. Incidentally there is an English version of the from somewhere online but I cannot find it.
Best wishes,
Charles

I think that’s a great idea. It is something that they will recognise, as depending on the experience of that office they may never have seem an S1 written in English before. Ours hadn’t.

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Thanks Charles (and Jane)… I was obviously thinking along the same lines… Have just completed said form and included all they have asked for plus the ‘kitchen sink’ !!! I am posting tomorrow with AV so will let you know how it goes… It just may be the way forward… Many, many thanks…

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I sent our S1s plus passport, birth, marriage certs (I’m piggy backing on my OHs status as he is of UK state pension age) registered delivery to the local office, they wrote back wanting evidence of address and evidence that we had validated our visas, which we sent in the same way. They then emailed to say his dosier (me included) was nearly complete but they couldn’t make out his mother’s nom de jeune fille from the birth certificate and we supplied this detail back via email. They then sent the attestation des droits and said carte vitale following after admin process. It took two months from start to finish. I had heard so much about french bureaucracy and functionaire inefficiency but this has not at all been our experience in any french admin. Maybe we have just been fortunate but it has all been super impressive to date.

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Ps sent only copies of all documents…obvs!

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Thank you so much… That is reassuring… We are sending ours off this morning… only difference is that we are sending it to the Perigeux Office (Admin Centre) rather than local. Do you think that would be detrimental? Again, thanks for taking the time to answer.