cmread

I've been trying to get my Carte Vitale sorted for over two years now and am getting nowhere. The problem: I changed my name, legally in England, as I was entitled to do so. My passport is in that name and has been for some years. CPAM accepts it is my name but they won't issue me a card in that name or any other name.

CPAM keeps saying that I must change my birth certificate. I have told them that this is impossible. I have called the British Embassy for help but they were useless.

At one point, CPAM told me I had to contact INSEE in Nantes and that, after proving to them that I had changed my name, they would issue me a certificate. The problem is that CPAM won't give me the contact details and I can't find them. I don't even know whether what they told me is true. They keep telling me something different every time. I have been very patient, but I seem to be getting nowhere.

Does anyone have any idea of what I should be doing? I can't be the only person who has ever had this problem.

dmu

Hi, French birth certificates mention any changes in your name or marital status, which is why the CPAM said you should get your birth certificate amended (mistakenly thinking that all birth certificates are like French ones).
If you google "INSEE Nantes", you'll get the address to write to, if not a telephone number to ring.
I'm not altogether sure why the French INSEE would be involved in foreigners' name changes, but they'll tell you what documents are needed for them to issue the Certificate.
Hope this helps!

cmread

I have found the INSEE site before, but I can't locate a phone number on it. Maybe I'm going blind, but I just can't seem to find it. Or the address. There is a web form, but it doesn't really fit my situation.

As for why INSEE would be involved, frankly, I don't know if they are. CPAM have said all sorts of things, many of them untrue. They either don't know what they are doing or they just like messing me about.

dmu

http://www.bing.com/local/details.as...r-fr&FORM=LARE

gives the address and telephone number.
It can't do any harm to ring or write, the CPAM might be right!
Good luck!

loy loy

I am also waiting for my carte Vitale.

I don't understand what all these places are, CPAM? I have never heard or been in contact with them.

I am dealing with RAM or RSI. I have sent all the papers off several times, seent two forms with my photo attached, you'd think it was imminent, but alas no.

CIPAV I am meant to be hearing from, I believe they are for the pension, but they have never heard of me.

It's all so confusing, especially when you don't speak French and have no idea what or who all the companies are. URSSAF I ignore it in the hope it will become clear or just send it all to the accountant

cmread

Thank you so very much for that. I don't know why I couldn't find it before, but it had just escaped me.

I will give them a call and see what they say. Maybe this time I will be lucky enough to find someone helpful.

This has been such a mess. At one point, one of the women at CPAM tried to reject my birth certificate because it didn't say 'Acte de naissance". Well, it wouldn't.

cmread

RAM? RSI? I've never heard of them. Well, at least you have got to the send off the photo stage. I'm still stuck in the 'accept my birth certificate' stage. Which is better, I admit, than the stage where CPAM lost all the documents I had sent them and the stage where my birth certificate had become 'detached' from my file and they for reasons that I just can't understand, couldn't attach it again so I had to send it yet another time. Not to mention the problem with them misspelling my name.

Believe me, the language isn't the problem. One of my husband's colleagues told him that CPAM is the most obnoxiously bureaucratic government department. So we are dealing with the worst of the worst.

Ka Ora!

Sounds like you have a particularly difficult CPAM office.

dmu

Hi, the CIPAV is a Pension Fund for "professionals" and AFAIK the RSI is the S.S. organisation for all self-employed persons, so you probably don't have contact with the CPAM which is the usual S.S. organisation that issues the Carte Vitale for salaried employees and every one else. Keep sending reminders to the RSI for your Carte Vitale... Others on the forum have complained how long it takes to arrive, even from the "relatively" simple CPAM...
Don't, whatever you do, ignore anything that comes from the URSSAF (the umbrella organisation that covers healthcare, pensions, family allowances, etc...) If an employer or self-employed is late declaring or paying, they slap a 10% fine on what's due.
But your accountant should be taking care of all your côtisations (and advising on Tax questions) ....
Hope this helps a little.

loy loy

I pay all the cotisations as they come in. Most of them I do as direct debit. Thanks for the heads up though

cjm

Agree with KO. We use CPAM in La Roche sur Yon and have always been treated well and efficiently. Renewing a Carte Vitale can be a few weeks, sending in your new photo, but the GP and Pharmacie understand; I just take in my old card and when the new one arrives things catch themselves up and monies are reinstated into our Mutuelle account.