FAQ - Registration - Social security number (2024)

A NIR (national membership registry number), commonly referred to as a social security number, is a unique 15-digit identification number. INSEE (France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) automatically assigns one to each person born in metropolitan France and in France’s overseas departments (DOM).

This number appears on the French health insurance card (“Carte Vitale”) and expedites the holder’s access to Social Security and medical services.

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If you come to France to work for the first time, your employer will register you for membership in the French social security system. Your registration must be complete before you are assigned a number.

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If you have previously worked in France, your social security number will appear on your employment history statement (“relevé de carrière”), which you can request from the last old-age insurance fund (CNAV, MSA, etc.) to which you paid contributions in France. It might also appear on your pay slips ("bulletins de salaire").

N.B.: Cleiss is not authorized to give you your social security number.

Registration for membership is the administrative process that consists of assigning a person a single identification number national membership registry of insured persons (the “NIR”): this is commonly referred to as a “social security number.”

Registration for membership for individuals born in France

Individuals born in France are registered for membership at birth. INSEE (France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) assigns them a social security number based on the birth registration information it receives from France’s town halls (“mairies”). However, individuals born in France only learn their social security number at age 16, when they receive their own French health insurance card (“carte Vitale”).

Registration for membership for individuals not born in France

The membership registration process can be completed either by the person him/herself or, where applicable, by their employer (see questions 5 and 6).

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All individuals with legal residency and employment in France are required to join the French social security system.

If your employee is not a citizen of another EU or EEA state or Switzerland, check that s/he has authorization to live and work in France (a residency permit (“titre de séjour” or a current work permit (“autorisation de travail”)).

Within the 8 days before your employee begins the job, you will need to submit a Declaration Prior to Hiring (DPAE), which is a single form that serves all of the following purposes:

• Declaring a new hire at your place of business,
• Registering an employee for membership in France’s general Social Security scheme,
• Registering an employee for membership in France’s unemployment insurance scheme,
• Registering for membership in an occupational health service,
• Declaring the employee’s hire to the occupational health service so that s/he can undergo the compulsory medical examination.

The Declaration Prior to Hiring (DPAE) must be submitted to your company’s Urssaf office.

You can complete a DPAE:

• Online (mandatory if you submitted over 50 DPAE the previous year) on net-entreprises.fr or on Urssaf.fr
• By mail or fax: fill out and sign the form entitled “Déclaration préalable à l'embauche” (Cerfa form No. 14738*01).

You can also register your foreign employee for membership online on https://immatriculation-travailleurs-etrangers.ameli.fr/login, if one of the following applies:

S/he:

• holds a passeport talent,
• is a model,
• is a foreign-language assistant (assistant de langue),
• or a salaried employee in the Île-de-France region.

Your employer will register you for membership by submitting a Declaration Prior to Hiring (“Déclaration préalable à l’embauche”/ DPAE) [see question 5].

You will have to submit your own application for membership if one of the following situations applies:

• Your employer does not register you for membership,
• You are working for several employers,
• You are working occasionally or on an on-and-off basis for a single employer;
• You are employed by a company with no place of business in France.

If one of the above applies, you will need to submit your application for membership to one of the following, as determined by your line of work:

• The local health insurance fund (“caisse primaire d’assurance maladie”/ CPAM) of your place of residence if you are a salaried worker from the general scheme
• Your agricultural social mutual fund (“Mutualité sociale agricole”/ MSA) fund if you are an agricultural salaried worker
• Your managing organization (“organisme gestionnaire”) if you come under a special scheme (CAVIMAC, CAMIEG, CNRACL,CNIEG, CNMSS, CPR personnel ferroviaire, CRPCEN, CRP RATP, ENIM).

You will need to submit the following documentary evidence:

• PROOF OF IDENTITY AND RESIDENCY:
  • If you have EU/EEA/Swiss citizenship: proof of identity (national identity card or first page of your passport showing your identifying information).
  • If you do not have EU/EEA/Swiss citizenship: proof of identity and residency constituting authorization to work (or a residency permit (“titre de séjour”) and a permit constituting authorization to work)
• PROOF OF CIVIL STATUS:
  A long-copy or short-copy birth certificate showing parents’ information, a multilingual birth certificate, or any other document issued by a consulate (original certificate of birth, individual civil status record, etc.) with a legible stamp as authentication.

  Records drawn up in any of the following languages are accepted: Albanian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.