Register with the Assurance Maladie, and get your number
Send the Cerfa S1106 and a temporary social security number, the NIA, comes back to you by post — and your care is reimbursed on it while you wait. The 9 months the permanent number takes is a waiting time, then, rather than a gap in your cover. Checked against ameli.fr on 23 September 2026.
- Who it applies to
- People who moved to France from another country
- On your timeline
- Paperbump schedules this usually between week 7 and week 12 of the pregnancy
- Official source
- ameli.fr
- Last checked
- 23 September 2026
What else to know
The form is « Demande d'ouverture des droits à l'assurance maladie », it goes to the caisse for where you live, and it needs a copy of your ID or valid residence document and proof of your situation, working or not. Two things the NIA cannot do, and they matter because several steps in this plan assume otherwise: while you are on one you cannot yet have a carte Vitale, and you cannot open a compte ameli. The NIA lasts 9 months, which is also the processing time for the permanent number; for that you send a photocopy of a civil status document that is valid, complete and legible — usually a birth certificate from your home country, often with a certified translation, so start collecting it now rather than when the CPAM asks. All of this sits under the protection universelle maladie, which covers anyone working or living in France on a stable, regular basis: the entitlement is broad, it is the registration that is slow.
Work out your own dates — free, nothing is sent to us