Hi. Have been living here for 4 months or so and have just received my S1 form from the UK. On this form it states that I should take it to my local sickness insurance office. I have done a little research and now know this is called CSPAM. The problem I have is that there are three of these CSPAM's in my nearest city (Beziers) How do I know which one to go to?? At present my French is not good enough to explain my problem over the telephone. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
I took my S1 form to my local CPAM office in Sete, at the end of February, and was sent to the newsagents in a nearby hospital to photocopy my birth certificate, passport and letter from Newcastle, which they seemed to accept as proof of French address. They also took my EHIC card and looked me up on their computer using that. I wasn't asked to translate anything or for utility bills. I was then told that I should receive my card within a month. I'm now a bit worried as everyone else talks about translating; is this mandatory or is it up to the CPAM office you go to?
Whatever you do please keep copies of everything you supply them with (and I mean keep them for ever). There is a debacle going on at the moment with regards to taxation for 2012 and with a certain CPAM office not doing their job properly - luckily not in your area.
Thanks Carly and Dave. That cuts out a little bit more hassle.I did not know about the translations!
I have recently sent mine off to Montpellier CPAM having been told to do that by Ameli's English telephone service. Typical that I could have gone to Beziers instead in person. They also only told me to only send the S1 forms with a certified translation of our family's birth certificates and English originals which we had translated by the Hobson Centre in Beziers. I hope that I do not end up with a list of things I was supposed to put in there after all that!! They charged 30 euros per certificate to translate, if you have not found someone else to do this for you yet.
Hi
I went to the Beziers one also last September and got it sorted BUT I had to have the birth certificates and marriage certificate translated into French. Just a heads up
LOL thanks Steven, sounds like the ubiquitous dossier you need for everything in France!
Thanks Alan.Went there today. My wife has not got her s1 yet so they would not register me prior to her S1 arriving. To avoid you having a wasted trip.Here is a list of the documents they wanted. Marriage certificate, two utility bills, passport and french bank account details.Bon chance!!
Very odd. It does seem to have a mind of its own at the moment. I put in my post code and got the right answer. But now it won't let me search for anywhere else!
Steven, we just received our S1s too by a weird coincidence and will be going to the CPAM on Monday, in Beziers. We went initially to the one in Charles de Gaulle square (where the bus station is) before I knew I was getting an S1. Happy to help if you want to try to come along at same time.
Thanks Terry. Unfortunately this link comes up with Montpellier and says (I think for postal correspondence) I have been told by a couple of expats that it will almost certainly be Beziers.
This should work, Steven http://www.ameli.fr/assures/votre-caisse/index.php
Just enter your post code and it should tell you where to go.
This and other info/links can be found on the Useful Links page http://www.survivefrance.com/page/useful-links which has a lot of information on health issues and many other things.