Understand The Housing & Other Benefits In France

Moving to a new place is always exciting for students. The excitement of new people, culture, land or opportunities. But this excitement also comes with little nervousness about getting settled down to a new home. Finding good accommodation is a challenging task. To make it a little bit simple and guide you about the housing & other benefits in France, Ms. Shivani Chavda has come with an amazing blog for you.

Enjoy the blog by Ms. Shivani. She is our Admission Process Executive who has been working with top French universities for a long time.

Studying abroad for many is a dream come true situation.

Did you get accepted from the French university or school?

Do you have your visa approved?

Well if yes then that is a very happy moment and you are excited about a whole new life as you are leaving your home for your better future. There is a lot of excitement within the family, with that joy and excitement there is also tension for the parents and students about where are the students going to live? How will the residence place be? Is it a safe place? Is it a nice place?

Millions of questions run through the mind within seconds. Whenever a student plans to go abroad for further studies the biggest concern is housing and health care and how the students are going to survive in a strange country when there is no one known around.

It is the parent’s biggest concern for their children as they are going to live far away from them and they won’t be able to help. They worry about security and safety. Most of the parents don’t agree to let their child’s decision of going away across the country because of this reason only. And even the students feel chills when it comes to staying alone. They worry that being alone, will they be able to make new friends and find a nice place to live which is safe? What are the students going to do if they fall sick?

I know it’s a lot but how about we dig into this matter and tell you some interesting facts about the housing and healthcare system in France.

There are a few points I would like to put in high focus here which is going to help you clear your head and decrease your concern to an extent about the whole studying abroad idea in France.

DIFFERENT HOUSING OPTION

There are Different housing options in France which you can choose upon your convenience.

a) Individual Studio or Apartment:
There is a wide choice of furnished (or unfurnished) rental apartments in Paris. Depending on standing, size, and location, the approximate cost will be 600 Euros and 1,000 Euros per month for a furnished studio apartment within the city of Paris.

b) Shared Accommodation
1. Student Residence Hall
2. Homestay

HOUSING SUBSIDIES

The international students can also get the benefit of the subsidy from the French government. The French government offers nice support to students by giving them the benefit by CAF. CAF i.e. Caisses d’Allocations Familiales, is a type of housing benefit which represents a great form of financial support in France. It is an amount of money allocated to the student to help them pay their rent. Approximately you can get the 100 or 200 euro of benefit as the amount can vary according to the accommodation you get. As long as the student is eligible he/she from any country can get CAF Benefit. There is a very streamlined procedure to avail this benefit and for this, you will also need a few documents and French bank account details to start the application for CAF.

OFII Procedure

Apart from that you also have heard the word OFII a lot if you have applied for a study visa in France. Basically, OFII stands for Office for Immigration and Integration also known as an immigration office. When you are staying in France for more than 3 months you need to get this procedure done upon reaching the French territory. The whole OFII procedure is very important as it will give you the permit for your stay in France lined up by all sorts of benefits provided by the French government to the students. So once you reach the French territory with a student visa, you must register for OFII as you will be able to travel back and forth into France after 3 months as well as during the duration of your Visa. Also, it is a step to convert your visa into a student residence permit. Primarily, you had to get your OFII stamp mandatorily in your passport within the first three months of your arrival in France but now the process has changed and you just need to register to OFII online and will have a proof immediately after your registration. If not then you will no longer have the right to travel and come back to France.

Once you arrive in France, you need to do this procedure and send to the OFII office the following information:

• The OFII certificate application form, filled with the information missing (You visa Number, Date of arrival in France or Schengen area and your address in France)
• Copy of your passport
• Copy of your visa
• Copy of the entry stamp in France or the Schengen area

Once the OFII receive these documents, they will send you:

• A letter to notify that they have received the documents
• A congregation for a medical visit, in order to validate the visa.
• A letter-stamp asking you to buy a stamp.

On the day of the medical visit, you need to carry the following Documents:

Your passport including the visa
Proof of address

• A photo ID
• The letter-stamp and the stamp according to the amount told in the letter-stamp

And the medical examination will include:

• A general clinical examination
• A chest x-ray
• A check of your vaccines

You will also receive advice and addresses of care centres whenever required. At the end of the visit, an individual will receive a medical certificate, which contains no indication of your state of health but is absolutely necessary to obtain your residence permit.

HEALTHCARE SECURITY

The very important thing to keep in mind while you are staying alone and far away from family is health. You cannot assume that you are not going to get sick on your stay. There might be a chance that you need to rush to the hospital or need an emergency facility at any time and being an international student, the cost can be very high. But the French government offers the health care programme to their international students and you should complete this before your arrival. Because all international students are required to have health insurance either public or private depending on various factors like age, country of origin, duration of your course etc. There are some criteria you have to meet the criteria to get the public health insurance and if you do not meet the criteria you have to take the private health insurance plan.

Social Security system

The social security system is the organization helping the students to reimburse a part of their health care costs. To get this service you need to register yourself with an authorized higher education institution and to be a legally resident in France.

Overall if we take a look at the first part where everybody was tensed for their stay and health and security now they have something to feed their mind with and ask their anxiety of living in a different country go away. Isn’t it great that the French Government offers such benefits to the students and gives them all this benefit? So when you think of studying in France do keep this thing in mind which will be fruitful for your own benefits.

We hope you like the blog by Ms. Shivani. Edugo Abroad is the leading overseas education consultant for foreign education. With our long experience in foreign education consultancy and strong network to the European universities, we help students for their overseas dream education. Dedication of our team and the trust of students leads to success.