After applying for Cartes Vitales in November 2009 for myself and my wife we are still waiting. I have tried phoning the CPAM English-speaking helpline who have spoken to the local Drome CPAM but the message was always “it often takes this long for foreigners”. However, after my latest effort I have now received a letter from the Drome CPAM saying that as our E106s only last to 31.12.11 (before our 65th/60th birthdays) it is not permitted to issue a Carte Vitale.
We have temporary social security numbers and attestations de droits and do receive refunds via CPAM and our Mutuelle but it would be useful not to have to pay up front and wait for the refunds. Does anyone know if the message I have received is correct and if so what the logic is? And are the attestations de droits of any practical use? Thanks.
Hi I have been waiting for well over a year for my Social security number and carte vital from RSI, June 2009, after many visits and phone calls I was informed that the reason for the delay was that I needed to send my birth certificate that must be translated into French, which I did and after 3 weeks I went into the office to check process only to find out that nothing had been done so again gave another copy of my birth certificate and was told I will receive a phone call with my number but it can take up to 15 days, so I am only 6 working days into my wait, will it ever happen. It is so frustrating… Hope it has been sorted for you by now Ken !!
yes last time I was told they had received it, but it was not on the computer system yet. They sounded like their systems are from the 80’s or something. Haven’t they heard of receive post & scan??
Ha, they didn’t ASK us. We rang them every 3 months or so and every time they said “oh, we don’t have your birth certificate”… if we hadn’t called the system would have ‘failed silently’, as we say in IT. Getting names of people, sending them in personally addressed to specific staff, etc. didn’t work. Just keep sending until one day someone actually files it instead of using it to rest their coffee on.
oh & if you are through RSI/RAM Paris expect to be asked numerous times for your birth certificate translated…last count we’re on 3 requests for same information. Each time it’s a different person…
Suz
www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas
It took us years to get our carte vitale. Eventually our mairie’s adjunct rang them and we got it within a week of her call
Hahaha, HAHAHAAHAHAHA, HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!
November? Keep waiting.
I applied in April 2009 and I don’t have mine yet. My wife’s arrived a few weeks ago.
Don’t hold your breath. As long as you’re ‘in the system’ it will eventually happen, but it could take 18 months easily.
Us too and they are a complete and utter nightmare!
ah ok so not much help then - sorry! good luck!
Unfortunately we’re through RSI RAM provinces in Paris/Bourges as we’re Auto-Entrepreneur so its not CPAM who deal with our application nor our local RSI in Montpellier 
Have you tried going into your local CPAM bureau to chase it up. Myself and my wife had waited for ages to get ours and we went in to our CPAM for something else and just enquired about how the process was going for our application, the lady asked us to wait, she went away and came back and said it had been in the ‘IN’ tray waiting to be processed! As we had come in and been very polite in asking, she had moved it to the top of the pile, low and behold it came through a couple of weeks later!
We found doing things face to face sometimes helps - not saying it will work in your case but it might be worth a try if your local CPAM is nearby!
I just phoned yesterday about our CV’s after I received a letter asking me to send it back to be updated. I explained I couldn’t send it back as I’ve never received one. The lady looked on the system & said “oh yes, sorry our error. In fact you haven’t been sent the necessary forms to even be in the CV process, I’ll send those out to you now, but I advise a 3m delay at least & then when you send them back & they are checked it will be another 6-8 weeks for the card to be prepared.” So we are looking at not getting our CVs now until 2011!
I’ve just submitted 500 euro worth of feuille de soins for reimbursement! It’s an admin job I could do without but I now know I have it for at least another 6m! Lucky Me!
Suzanne
www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas
You can use your Attestation at the Hospital, Pharmacist & Laboratory without your CV. We too are still waiting for ours - we applied in January this year as we’re registered as a French Company but no sign of the CV yet!
As the French seem to be trying to minimise all their costs, it seems quite a reasonable idea to not issue a permanent card unless it is strictly necessary. As Christa points out, it is the attestation that is important and you frequently have to present it as well as your card, so I wouldn’t worry about it, apart from the fact that you have to pay up front and apply for a refund - which was the norm for everybody until quite recently.