Of course I don’t and that wasn’t the advice I was giving! What Louise seemed to me to be saying was that she was applying for (apparently) a worker’s S1 but it wouldn’t arrive in time, in which case her health care situation will be resolved.
What I was concerned about was that some of us were telling her that she had to have proof of health care in order to get her CdS when the Prefec ture clearly hadn’t asked for it. She definitely needs healthcare, no doubt about it, but I wasn’t happy about telling her that she had to have it when the Prefecture clearly weren’t asking for it. It’s confusing two (both very important, sure) issues
Oh I can assure you that’s the case… I’m seing this on a daily basis (litterally) and I’m also working with the guys from HCB French connections (which are dealing with CdS, VISAs, Carte vitale, etc. on a daily basis too) and they too have confirmed this since early 2021.
Luckily most French public workers at the prefecture are quite flexible with this and won’t bother you too much but with Embassies or consulates that’s a whole different story
Personally, I wouldn’t be fine giving that advise But not for a legal reason, simply because the French system doesn’t cover you in full and you’re very quickly left naked out in the cold for dental cares for example, or hospitalisations (especially in clinics)… But of course I’m selling insurance product so I can’t label my answer as being “conflict of interest” free
To backup my answer I’ll add that in theory they expect you to have full dental implant cover for example. Which is not something that the French SS covers (just an example but important to “mark my point”)
I do not see any place where you can have read that into my comments.
My kneejerk reaction was, this lady appears to not realise the dangers of living in France without health insurance of any kind. The only problem she sees right now is that it might interfere with her CdS being issued, although from what she has said it will not. Once her CdS has been issued she will see no need for health insurance. I found that rather horrifying to be frank.
I had not realised at that stage that economically active people could obtain the S1.
Of course you don’t see that or I suspect you wouldn’t have given that impression! But two people have suggested that that is how it appeared to them so far.
Not that it means anything to me either way. Hopefully the OP will have her appointment, all will be well, she’ll get herself in the health system ASAP, and then can continue enjoying this wonderful country knowing that if she falls off a ladder or gets kicked by a mule she need not worry about her treatment.
Fair enough.
Since we are living through a pandemic I would have been worrying more about catching Covid than being kicked by a mule. But that is because there are very few mules around here.
It’s a different sort of S1 and has been in existence for very many years. It is issued by HMRC rather than DWP and seemed, originally (long pre Brexit) to be used mainly by students studying in another country than their own within the EU but was used by my partner in 2013 when he was working in France on a temporary basis. Some of its qualities/benefits have been retained after Brexit, as far as I understand, and there may well be other people on this forum who have one, but I am by no means up to date on the detail.
Thank you everyone for your replies! Apologies if a lack of info caused red herrings.
What I’m taking from your responses is:
I should be getting health cover independent of my resident status via CDS or Irish passport, and potentially independently of CV (because my SS contributions are in the UK and therefore not transferrable to France if I relied on the Irish passport route rather than CDS). I agree! Worker S1 is on the way - I will investigate health ins policy and thanks for recommending @fabien
If the prefecture wanted to see health ins they would have asked for it, therefore I might not get asked this at the interview (my main concern)
I will take my Irish passport confirmation to the CDS interview as a back up backup (you can get CDS AND be Irish, it’s often recommended to make life simpler)
For anyone wondering why it wasn’t previously sorted, it’s because I was considering closing my UK ltd co, which would have left me with no way to get CV without S1 or French job. Also, I would have already had my Irish passport, but Ireland stopped processing them for 6mo during Covid, so I was in limbo, unsure if that would come through in time or if I would need to do CDS… Not fun.
Excellent, Louise! You certainly deserve to pass this hurdle and not have to worry in future. I know what it’s like to have to close a UK limited company in order to be here as I did it myself relatively recently and it isn’t as easy as it sounds
Were you an Irish citizen when you moved to France? If so I’m not clear any of this applies to you, whether or not you happened to have an Irish passport at the time.
Yes, I assumed so as well. But I suspect there are subtleties.
Normally citizenship would be separate from having a passport - so if Louise had been born in Ireland but for some reason never had an Irish passport she might not need to bother with the WA CdS
if Louise is Northern Irish or British of Irish descent and has applied for an Irish passport under the GFA arrangements I’m not sure at what point her Irish citizenship “materialises” before she can apply for a CdS UE.
(However, being a bit devil’s advocate-ish for a minute, what it did for us was force us to make the decision as to which country we were definitely going to be in, rather than having a foot in both camps. It also killed our company in the UK, which has its pluses as well as the obvious minuses as I would still be working round the clock for little reward otherwise…)
