# Carte Vitale Expired, What to Do



## CFrance

We spend half the year in France, half in the US. While stuck in the US during the Covid EU border closing, our carte vitales (as well as our renewed visas) expired. The pharmacy in our village told us we have to start from scratch on the carte vitales.

Because we are only on a 6-month tourist visa (we did not want to buy health insurance for a year so applied for a 6-month visa), we do not have to do an OFII.

My questions are, will we be able to renew our carte vitales somehow, or must we really start over? And if starting over, will we need the OFII?


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## BackinFrance

CFrance said:


> We spend half the year in France, half in the US. While stuck in the US during the Covid EU border closing, our carte vitales (as well as our renewed visas) expired. The pharmacy in our village told us we have to start from scratch on the carte vitales.
> 
> Because we are only on a 6-month tourist visa (we did not want to buy health insurance for a year so applied for a 6-month visa), we do not have to do an OFII.
> 
> My questions are, will we be able to renew our carte vitales somehow, or must we really start over? And if starting over, will we need the OFII?


I think you will not be able to apply for French health cover until you have been here 6 months. OFii is not a requirement.

Unfortunately it is unlikely that your application would be processed before you return to the US and next time you visit you will be in the same situation.


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## CFrance

Has the residency time period for qualifying for a carte vitale changed? When we first were approved several years ago, the time period for staying in France was three months. We own a house here; we had planned on re-applying three months from our arrival date of June 22. We have friends who check our mail and house when we are gone. They are the ones who took our cartes vitales to the pharmacy and learned they had expired.


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## BackinFrance

Sorry, that was an error. It's definitely 3 months, but then you have to allow for processi'g time, which is by all accounts currently lengthy, though already having ss numbers might speed that up slightly.


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## CFrance

I guess my other question is, do we have to start from scratch, or is there a way to renew an expired carte vitale?


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## EuroTrash

The only significant thing about the carte vitale is the information in the microchip.
That information is taken from your computer records with CPAM. 
If your computer records indicate that your rights have been suspended or terminated, your carte vitale won't work. Once your rights have been reinstated, the card will work again.
I think the first thing to do is to look at your ameli account to see what the status of your rights currently is. Until you know what the situation is, you won't know how to resolve it.
If you haven't checked your account recently, you may well find a message there asking you to provide certain documents by a certain date in order to continue your cover. CPAM don't usually stop your healthcare without giving you due warning.


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## jweihl

Before you do start from scratch, check your Ameli account and see if it's possible to order a new card online. It generally won't let you if you already have a card, but if yours is expired, perhaps it will.


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## EuroTrash

Carte vitales don't expire though. It's your rights that expire.
The pharmacist may have said words to the effect of "your card has expired" but he didn't mean it literally. Your card will still be still linked to your sécu number and your CPAM records, but when he sticks it in his machine it will show that you are currently not eligible. Even supposing you claimed to have lost your card and ordered a new one and they issued one, the new card would still show the same information as the current one, it can't show you as covered if according to CPAM you are not.


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## Bevdeforges

CFrance said:


> My questions are, will we be able to renew our carte vitales somehow, or must we really start over? And if starting over, will we need the OFII?


What I suspect you may find out here is that you won't be able to "renew" your CPAM eligibility because you aren't actually "resident" in France. The first time you were there on a 6 month visa, then technically you were resident. But doing the six month splits on separate six month visitor visas means that you may not have the residency necessary to retain your coverage under the French system. I think they will be looking for your tax filings, which is what they would base your annual charges on if you were on a titre de séjour (i.e. residence permit) which is renewable. 

You could set up an appointment at your local CPAM and at least ask the question.


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