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20 Apr 2010 - Health insurance: a requirement for visa
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For European Union members like British citizens, there is of course no need for a specific visa to stay and work in France. For EU citizens, you will still need a health insurance if you are planning to live permanently in France. For non-EU citizens, the French government imposes as a prerequisite to obtain a visa to present a health insurance certificate.

What are the requirements of the insurance to comply with visa procedure ?

The French government imposes that the health insurance plan complies with the following benefits:

• Minimum coverage for health expenses of 30.000 euros
• Assistance & repatriation to your home country. A standard travel insurance covering only assistance & repatriation will not be sufficient as you also need coverage for medical costs.

These requirements also apply for travelling and acquiring a visa for other EU country within the Schengen convention to obtain what is often called the “Visa Schengen”.

You must keep in mind that the benefits required complying with visa delivery are quite low in order to cover properly health expenses. Applying for such insurance plan will guarantee you to comply with visa requirements but not for good reimbursements’ rates.

For example maternity costs, dental or optical care are not included in this type of health plan. Another specific point to France is that usually reimbursements’ rates are presented in terms of percentage of French social security tariffs. Therefore, an insurance plan reimbursing 100% of real costs or an insurance plan reimbursing 100% of social security tariffs offer very different levels of benefits, the one based on social security tariffs offering less coverage.

How long should you take the insurance for ?

If you are applying for a 3-months visa or less, you can easily find an insurance plan complying with expected conditions for 1, 2 or 3 months.

If you are applying for a long-stay visa and plan to stay in France for 6 months, 1 year or more, you want to take an insurance for the period of your stay. You will then have the choice between 2 types of insurance:

• An insurance plan with definite period of coverage. If you are applying for a long-stay visa, we advise you to take at least a 6-months coverage which you can renew.
• An insurance plan renewable annually. It is the best policy for a person who will not benefit from the French social security regarding his situation on the long term.

In both cases, you will need to present to the consulate an insurance certificate. We advise you to take recognized international insurance companies and insurance brokers as we have seen people have their visa refused because they bought a local insurance policy or unrecognized insurance companies unknown to immigration agents of local French consulates.