We came to France in the end of November, 2017. At that time, I was already more than four months pregnant. We worried about getting health insurance in France, because the work contract is only six months. But we came anyway.
One of the first things we did after arriving at Grenoble was making an appointment with the insurance company on campus. For whatever reason (could be a mistake?), they approved our application! That lady gave us a list of documents to be prepared, and asked us to go back in two weeks. One of the requested documents is the birth certificate. Of course, it has to be in French. Therefore, my husband needed to have his family book translated by a court translator. Other documents are easy to prepare. After two weeks, we submitted all the documents to that lady. Things seemed going well.
Another week went by. One day, we received letters from that insurance company. Each of us got a carte d’adherente, which contains the temporary social security number and the mutuelle number.
At some point, the insurance company requested the birth certificate again. And this time, in addition to my husband’s birth certificate, I also submitted mine, which is prepared in China (translated and legalized).
The insurance company mailed us a few time – about my pregnancy. They introduced all kinds of benefits we have. They kept us well informed! They have our bank account number, but we did not see any charge – until about two months after getting the carte d’adherente, we received the bill. It turns out that the first three months is free, and they will start to charge in March. In the same letter, they also included the payment that they made to the hospital and the laboratory from where I received service. Not a penny from our own pocket ~
Ten days after the bill, my husband got a letter, which says he has been assigned a new social security number. So not a temporary number any more. A few days later, another letter came in to request a photo for making the Carte Vitale (the so called green card). We mailed out the photo as soon as we can. Last Saturday (2~3 weeks after mailing out the photo), we got the card! However, I have not been assigned a new social security number, yet.
So, for my husband, it took like three months to finally get the Carte Vitale. I guess it is fast?
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