CPAM & Ameli Registration in France: Step-by-Step Guide for Expats (Sécurité Sociale 2026)
Any person stably and regularly residing in France for at least 3 months is entitled to French public health insurance under the Protection Universelle Maladie (PUMA), codified in Article L160-1 of the Code de la Sécurité Sociale. That sentence sounds simple — and yet, every single week, expats arriving in Paris, Lyon, Lille or Annemasse get stuck in the same loop: which CPAM should I apply to, which form opens my rights, what counts as a justificatif de domicile, why has my dossier been silent for ten weeks, when does the carte vitale actually arrive? PUMA replaced [CMU](/en/blog/2026-03-28-lamal-vs-cmu-health-insurance-cross-border-worker) in 2016, the student régime étudiant disappeared in 2019, the espace assuré on ameli.fr was redesigned in 2024, and not a single official page is written for someone whose first language isn't French. This guide walks through every stage of the CPAM registration in plain English: who qualifies and through which scheme, the exact list of supporting documents, how to fill form S1106, the carte vitale timeline, the médecin traitant declaration, and the five mistakes that delay coverage by months. By the end, you'll know exactly what to send, where, and what to expect back.
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