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HEALTH

Ameli: How to create your online French social security account

The French online platform Ameli is a gateway to access information and crucial health documents.

Published: 6 May 2021 17:23 CEST
Updated: 12 December 2022 11:45 CET
Ameli: How to create your online French social security account
The homepage of Ameli.fr. Photo: Marion BERARD / AFP

What is Ameli?

We’re not talking about the classic French film starring Audrey Tautou (that’s Amélie or Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain if you’re in France).

Ameli – an acronym for assurance maladie en ligne (health insurance online) – is the online platform of the French social security scheme, Assurance Maladie.

Everyone living in France should register with the French health system to get the card that gives you access to refunded healthcare, carte vitale.

READ ALSO How to get a carte vitale and why you need one

If you have a carte vitale, you can create an Ameli personal account. Not everyone does, it is voluntary and you can get around it, but it will give you easy access to health related services and documents.

Why do I need it?

Ameli is generally helpful because speeds up the process of all health insurance-related procedures and makes it possible to keep track of medical expenses and refunds.

It’s also a place to access useful documents, as well as vaccination certificates, if you ever need to prove your right to healthcare in France, you can head to Ameli to download an attestation des droits which outlines that you are entitled to healthcare in France.

You can also do practical things like order a new carte vitale if yours has been lost or stolen or register a change in your personal details such as a new address or bank account.

How to register

Go to www.ameli.fr. Click on “je crée mon compte” (I’m creating my account). If you can’t find it, click HERE.

Fill out your name, social security number (the one on your carte vitale), date of birth and post code.

Screenshot of Ameli Website (PC: The Local)

Click “continuer“.

After that, there are two main methods to go on to register.

1. The system knows your details

Firstly, if your carte vitale is activated and Assurance Maladie already has your bank details registered, things are quite easy.

Simply fill in the missing the seven last digits of your Iban bank number, the one Assurance Maladie uses to reimburse your medical expenses. The first digits will be there already, so you can easily double check that you are using the right one.

Then do the same for the missing digits of your carte vitale serial number (not your social security number), which is written next to your photo on the card. If you have a carte vitale without a photo, the number is on the top left corner.

Reader question: Can you get a Covid vaccine in France without a carte vitale?

You will then be asked to accept the general conditions (tick the box for yes) before continuing to the next page, where you get to choose a password (the password criteria are listed on the site).

After that you just need to fill out the remaining information, including your email address (personal, not professional email) – and phone number.

You will then receive an email with a link that you have to click on to validate your account. You have seven days to do this, if you wait longer than that you will have to start over again.

It is important to choose an email address that you frequently check, as Assurance Maladie will send you updates and notify you when new documents are available on your account.

The procedure is explained step by step (in French) in the video below:

Previously, if the system did not know your details, you could have registered using “France connect” where you fill in your social security number and click the France connect button. You would have been able to identify yourself using another French government online service, such as the tax declaration site, Impots.gouv.fr, and providing your numéro fiscale.

However, recently this option has been removed.

If you’re struggling..

If for some reason you are unable to register, there are a few other options. One is to go to see one of the nearest Assurance Maladie offices to get in-person help. You can find a list over the points d’acceuil HERE (remember to select your own area).

If you want to avoid going into one of their offices, you can call the Ameli helpline at 3646 (free service number) from Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 5pm. If you are calling from one of France’s overseas territories the number is the same, but opening hours vary.

There is also a phone line for English speakers: 09 74 75 36 46 (from France). 

There’s also a chatbot called ameliBot on the website where it is possible to ask questions.

More information in English on the Assurance Maladie website, link HERE.

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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

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