Social security number – a key for compliant payroll in France
If you are recruiting a new employee, he or she must provide you with a temporary or permanent social security number. If your new employee doesn’t already have one, he or she must apply for it. This is often the case for expatriate employees, or for foreigners starting to work in France.
The social security number is needed for setting up private health insurance (mutuelle) and life/accident insurance (prévoyance) and also for you as an employer to receive the correct withholding tax rate (taux PAS) from French tax authorities (DGFIP).
How to apply for social security number as an employee?
It is always up to the employee to obtain their NIR (Numéro de sécurité sociale en France). You as the employer, must inform them about this and make a declaration of employment (DPAE) to the URSSAF (French social security authority).
Your employer obligations are the following:
- You make a Declaration Prior to Hiring (DPAE) to the union for the Collection of Social Security Contributions (URSSAF). At Internago we do this for our customers. We take care of all administrative work related to employment and payroll.
- You ask the employee to approach the primary health insurance fund (CPAM) of his place of residence to request the obtaining of his social security number.
The supporting documents needed for the employee when applying for a social security number at the CPAM are stated below:
– A copy of a passport.
– For citizens of countries that are not within the European Union, the European Economic Area or Switzerland: a document attesting to the legality of their stay (residence permit, long-stay visa equating to a residence permit, etc.).
– Birth certificate and a certified translation.
– Marriage certificate, if applicable.
– Statement of bank details (RIB file, i.e. IBAN + BIC).
– Proof of address.
– For employees: a photocopy of a payslip or your employment contract
What happens after the application?
Once the local CPAM office has processed the request, it assigns a temporary social security number to the applicant. This temporary social security number grants the beneficiary the same access to healthcare as a permanent social security number. Once a permanent number has been assigned, a health insurance card (carte vitale) can be issued
For more information regarding this, visit URSSAF.
