Get your carte Vitale, and check the baby is on it
The carte Vitale is what makes reimbursement automatic: it attests your registration and your rights, and it works anywhere in metropolitan France and the overseas departments and regions (Drom). Checked against ameli.fr on 23 September 2026.
- Who it applies to
- Everyone having a baby in France
- On your timeline
- Paperbump schedules this between 7 days and 6 weeks after the birth
- Official source
- ameli.fr
- Last checked
- 23 September 2026
What else to know
To get one you need a social security number — that is, to be attached to the Assurance Maladie with rights open — so it follows your registration rather than replacing it. A temporary number is not enough: ameli says that while you are on a numéro d'identification d'attente (NIA) you cannot yet have a carte Vitale, and the permanent number takes 9 months to come through. If you have just arrived in France, that registration is the step to do first, and this one waits on it. The card is free, and a first one is ordered from your compte ameli on the web, from the Compte ameli phone app, or by post using the request form the Assurance Maladie sends you. Your baby is added to it by declaring the birth to the Assurance Maladie, which is its own step.
Work out your own dates — free, nothing is sent to us