Can anyone out there advise me? I applied for my Carte Vitale 14 months ago. I’m in receipt of my state pension and sent my form S1 with translated birth certificate and all other documentation. Despite at least 6 visits to Toulon CPAM where they assure me the form asking for my photos is on its way, today I had a letter to add to my collection asking for proof of ID, marriage cert, passport etc all of which they’ve had numerous times. My husband received his last May. We are full-time permanent residents. My mutuelle has been really helpful but I feel increasingly angry and frustrated about this. I am completely entitled to a CV and am on my third Attestation. I have to pay for all treatment upfront. Anyone else been in my boat? I know about bureaucracy here but this is insane especially as they smile at me and assure me that it’s all fine!
Thanks as I feel better for writing it down!
I agree it’s our sweet blood they like the nasty little vampires. We nearly set the hedge alight with citronella oil the other night. Now that would have taken some explaining to the pompiers…
It is more your charm of course. They rarely try me, thick skinned Scots are left to their ane wee midgies nae doot ;-)
I was bitten by a fly in our salon the other day. We did for it with a tapette and had to wash the curtain as it was splattered with my blood!
I use Mousti fluid which I get from the pharmacie, but I mainly use it for outside in the evening.
I want to know what it is in my blood and presumably yours, that makes us so attractive?
No chance, some places in Indonesia take the pip but the buggers are almost as big as horses in the Amazon (little bit of an exaggeration) and as soon as one is zapped, four replace it ready to suck your blood. That is a record France will never make.
Need a ‘like’ button! I’m now going for the record number of moustique bites record. Ouch! Oh, I can go to the doctor come to think of it…!
Congratulations. Now let us see if we have a new contender for the record! Not that I am sure anybody would want to be the record holder :-(
GOT IT! Thanks to all who advised & helped. 18 months & I feel like framing it!
It's probably already been said, Miriam, but it's not you, it's the system. I've had to change caisse a couple of times cpam to RSI (auto entrepreneur) then RSI (TNS commerçant) each time it's taken well over a year the last took 18 months and that was an internal change within the RSI! OH is french and some changes have taken two years from the MSA to the RSI and from the MSA to the CAF - c'est trop chiant mais, malheureusement, ça fait partie de la France ! :-O
Thanks Alex as I sometimes feel like screaming especially as my husband got his almost by return of post. If/when I get one I’ll probably keel over from the shock!
Hi Miriam,
I can't give any advice, but for what it is worth, it took me 2 years to get a Carte de Sécurité Sociale (the predecessor to the CV) when I first started salaried employment in Frace back in 1993, despite already having a French social security number (from previous work in France in 1987). When I moved from the Rhone to the Auvergne in 1998, it took the CPAM another 2 years to issue me with a new CarteVitale, for no other reason than some bureaucrat in Tarare refusing to grant access to my dossier to the CPAM in Clermont Ferrand. One of the many vagaries of the system, no doubt, but fear not, such things also happen to the French ! I guess its simply a case of being insistent - it really ought not to happen, but unfortunately does.
Just to update… Still waiting to hear from CPAM. Not a word in (another) 2 months. Who do I turn to next? Paying taxes in France but they won’t acknowledge me for my CV 
No problem. I'll see if I can find the link to save Brian hunting through his paperwork :-)
Even so, as my son found out when he lost his French ID card, fonctionnaires are a law unto themselves. She said he did not have a right to French nationality as his father was British. He pointed out that under French law he could inherit his nationality from his mother. Don't care, she said. In this office, I make the law! I reckon that as soon as something comes up that they're not totally familiar with they can't admit they don't know and have to look up the relevant legislation, so they say the first thing that comes into their head and won't admit they've made a mistake no matter how much proof you produce that you are right and they are wrong. It took us months to sort out my son's problem. He finally tried another office where they gave it to him straight away after one telephone call to the mairie where he used to live to confirm he was legit. Go figure.
I've written myself a note ( to nag Brian!) too as I agree Jane , this should be on the useful links page.
Probably best place. Back to the drudge...
Will do, and all following this thread keep this in mind as well please.
Perhaps we should have them on the useful links thread Brian?
I have them on file and would like to ask you to remind me in a week or so. At present, literally, we are actually trying to complete a contract that will occupy us all week. In fact, it is only tedium making me respond here :-( Anyway, if I start to sift through my several hundred folders which each contain many files... I'll let you guess. So just remind me and I shall oblige.
Have you got the necessary EU regulation to hand Brian?
It would be very useful for us all to have it.
I want a highlighter pen to mark the appropriate bits!
Exactly Jane, as I also said earlier in this thread and have said on others. Just the threat of a folder full of regulations in French being slapped on their desk makes them very perky very quickly and then it can be surprising how quickly you are dealt with so that they can get you out of the door.