Residence permit for medical treatment in France: procedure and cost
A seriously ill foreign national who cannot get treatment at home may be granted a private and family life card; the procedure runs through OFII’s medical service.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Medical permit: what you will pay
Payable on issue
€350
| Stamp duty | €50 |
| Regularisation fee | €300 |
The temporary private and family life card "for care" (carte de séjour vie privée et familiale pour soins) is for a non-EU national who lives habitually in France, whose condition needs medical care without which their health would become critical, and who cannot get appropriate treatment in their country of origin. You may apply even if you are in France without valid papers. The application is filed online on ANEF, the government portal; the medical certificate completed by your doctor must then reach the medical service of OFII (the French immigration and integration office) within one month of becoming available, or within three months of registering an asylum claim for asylum seekers. A panel of OFII doctors gives a non-binding opinion to the prefect, who decides. If granted, the card costs €50 in stamp duty, compared with €350 for an ordinary private and family life card; without a long-stay visa on entry, the regularisation fee brings the total to €350. With no answer after four months, the application counts as refused.
The five conditions for the medical card
The Service-Public.fr page lists conditions that must all be met. You must be a non-EU national, live habitually in France, have a condition that needs medical care without which it would become critical, be unable to obtain suitable treatment in your country of origin, and not be a threat to public order. Habitual residence is shown over at least one year with any dated document: visa, receipt (récépissé) for a permit or asylum application, letters from a prefecture, social service or school, bank statements showing activity, statements from people who know you.
The legal basis is the part of the CESEDA (French immigration code) on private and family life cards issued on other grounds, sections L425-1 to L425-10. The prefecture can refuse if you did not comply with an order to leave France, used false documents, committed serious offences or were violent towards public officials.
The procedure, step by step
You apply online on ANEF. The medical certificate then appears in your personal space. Example: for an application filed on 2 November 2026, the completed certificate must reach OFII by 2 December 2026, or by 2 February 2027 for an asylum seeker whose claim was registered that day.
| Step | Who | Deadline set by the official page |
|---|---|---|
| Filing the application | You, on ANEF | None |
| Sending the medical certificate | Your doctor, then you | 1 month (3 months for asylum seekers) |
| Further information asked by the OFII doctor | Your doctor | 15 days |
| Additional tests | You, free of charge | 15 days to send results |
| Opinion of the doctors’ panel | OFII, then the prefecture | Not published |
| Decision | Prefect | 4 months of silence = refusal |
Once the OFII doctor’s report reaches the panel, the prefecture issues a certificate extending the examination of your application (attestation de prolongation d’instruction), downloadable on ANEF: it covers your stay while the file is being reviewed. If you ignore the OFII doctor’s requests, you will not receive it. No official source publishes how long the medical opinion usually takes, so we give no figure.
What OFII actually does
With your consent, the OFII doctor can ask your doctor or any health professional for information, call you in for a free medical examination and order tests you do not pay for. They write a report that the panel of doctors reviews. The panel can in turn ask for more information within fifteen days, hear you or examine you. Its opinion addresses two medical questions: how serious your condition is and whether suitable treatment is really available in your country. It goes to the prefect, who remains free to decide: the official page calls it a simple, non-binding opinion.
What you will pay
The mini-calculator at the top of the page works out the amount depending on whether you entered with a long-stay visa. The medical card carries only the €50 stamp duty, for the first card and for each renewal (€50). Someone who entered without a long-stay visa also pays the €300 regularisation fee, €350 in total; €100 of it is due at filing and is not refunded if you are refused. These amounts follow the fee schedule in force since 1 May 2026 and sections L436-1 to L436-13 of the CESEDA.
| Situation | First card | Renewal |
|---|---|---|
| Entered with a long-stay visa | €50 | €50 |
| Entered without a long-stay visa | €350 | €50 |
| For comparison: ordinary private and family life card | €350 | €250 |
Renewing the medical card
The temporary medical card is renewed for as long as the medical conditions are still met. Each renewal restarts the medical procedure: a new certificate from your doctor, a new report and a new opinion from OFII’s panel. You file the renewal in the usual window, between 4 and 2 months before the card expires, and the renewal timetable gives the exact dates from your expiry date. Filing late adds the €180 late-filing fee on top of the stamp duty, so it is worth starting as soon as the window opens, especially as your doctor needs time to fill in the certificate and any tests requested by OFII must be done within fifteen days.
Refusal and appeal
A refusal can be written or result from silence: with no answer four months after the application, it is implicitly rejected. For an application filed on 2 November 2026, that implicit refusal would arise on 2 March 2027. You can then appeal to the administrative court within 2 months, so until 2 May 2027 in this example. The waiting-time calculator does this sum for other permits.
A parent of a seriously ill minor is a separate case: there is no ANEF filing, and the prefecture issues a temporary residence authorisation, taxed at €100 since May 2026. For the full procedure, see the official page on residence permits for foreign nationals who are ill. This is general information, not legal advice; for a complex medical file, a migrant-support association or a lawyer can help.