Updated October 2026. Assurance voyage covers what your public health cover does not: cancellation, medical costs abroad, repatriation, baggage and liability abroad. The EHIC/CEAM only covers basic care inside the EU/EEA. Schengen visa applicants need at least €30,000 of medical cover: compliant policies cost from €11 a week (Mutuaide) or €51 for three months (Mondialcare). A Schengen policy never satisfies a long-stay visa, which needs expat-grade health cover.
Key takeaways
- Travel insurance covers annulation, frais médicaux à l'étranger, rapatriement, bagages, and third-party liability cover abroad (responsabilité civile à l'étranger).
- The EHIC (CEAM) covers state healthcare inside the EU/EEA and Switzerland, not private clinics, repatriation, or care outside the EU.
- Bank card cover (Visa Premier, Gold Mastercard) usually applies only when you pay the trip with the card and is often capped.
- Schengen visa applicants need at least €30,000 of medical cover including repatriation; compliant cover costs from €11 a week, and as little as €0.57 a day over 90 days.
- A Schengen travel policy is not valid for a long-stay visitor visa (VLS-TS), which needs expat-grade health cover.
- Insurers are supervised by the ACPR; the sector is represented by France Assureurs.
What Are the Best Travel Insurance Providers for France?
The French market includes specialist travel insurers like Chapka and AVA, large assistance networks like Allianz Travel (Allianz Partners / Mondial Assistance) and Europ Assistance, and the cover built into premium bank cards. Compare the medical and repatriation limits, the cancellation reasons accepted, and the franchise rather than headline price alone.
Chapka Assurances
Chapka (part of the Heymondo group) is a French travel-insurance broker whose current products are underwritten by Zurich Insurance Europe. Cap Schengen costs €18 for 3 days, €22 a week and €92 for three months; Cap Working Holiday France, the de facto standard for working-holiday visas, starts at €47 a month.
Why we recommend it: A specialist travel insurer with Schengen cover from €22 a week, €92 for three months, and the de facto standard working-holiday plan from €47 a month.
Pros
- +€92 covers a full three-month Schengen stay
- +Working-holiday plan accepted by consulates
- +Bilingual French and English service
Cons
- −Emergency and accident scope, not full health cover
- −Not valid as long-stay visitor (VLS-TS) insurance
- Cap Schengen: €18 / 3 days, €22 / week, €92 / 3 months
- Cap Working Holiday France from €47 a month
- Underwritten by Zurich Insurance Europe
AVA Assurance Voyage
AVA is a long-established French travel broker offering cancellation, medical, and Schengen-compliant cover, with both single-trip and annual multi-trip options to match how often you travel.
Why we recommend it: A long-established French travel broker offering cancellation, medical, and Schengen-compliant cover with flexible single-trip and annual options.
Pros
- +Single-trip and annual multi-trip formules
- +Cancellation and medical cover options
- +Schengen-compliant policies available
Cons
- −Broker model spans several underwriters
- −Limits vary by formule, so compare carefully
- Annulation, frais médicaux, and rapatriement cover
- Single-trip and annual options
- Distributed under ACPR-supervised insurers
Allianz Travel
Allianz Travel is the travel brand of Allianz Partners (formerly Mondial Assistance), a large global assistance network offering broad medical, repatriation, and cancellation cover worldwide.
Why we recommend it: Allianz Partners (Mondial Assistance) is a large global assistance network offering broad medical, repatriation, and cancellation cover worldwide.
Pros
- +Global 24/7 assistance network
- +Broad medical and repatriation cover
- +Single-trip and annual formules
Cons
- −Large-insurer processes can feel less personal
- −Cover tiers need comparing for the right limits
- Cancellation, medical, and repatriation cover
- Worldwide assistance via Allianz Partners
- Supervised by the ACPR
Europ Assistance
Europ Assistance, part of the Generali group, is a 24/7 assistance specialist with deep repatriation and emergency-medical experience. Its Schengen visa plan starts at €3 a day with at least €30,000 of medical cover and an instant certificate for the consulate.
Why we recommend it: A Generali-group assistance specialist with Schengen visa cover from €3 a day and extensive repatriation and emergency-medical experience.
Pros
- +Extensive repatriation experience
- +24/7 multilingual assistance
- +Medical and cancellation cover options
Cons
- −Visa-refusal refund rules stricter than AXA's
- −Schengen plan covers emergencies only
- Schengen visa plan from €3 a day, €30,000+ medical
- 24/7 emergency assistance abroad
- Supervised by the ACPR
Providers listed for comparison as of October 2026. Chapka and Europ Assistance prices were accessed on 13 October 2026; we have no verified October 2026 price for AVA or Allianz Travel, whose cost depends on destination, trip length, age, and cover limits. Confirm current cover and pricing on each insurer's official site.
What Travel Insurance Do You Need for a French Visa Application?
If you are applying for a Schengen visa, you must show travel medical insurance that meets the Schengen minimums. The standard requirement is at least €30,000 of medical cover, including emergency hospital treatment and repatriation, covering the entire Schengen area for the full duration of your stay. You submit the attestation d'assurance with your France-Visas application at the consulate.
- Step 1: Confirm your travel dates and the full Schengen itinerary.
- Step 2: Choose a policy that meets the €30,000 medical minimum with repatriation, covering the whole Schengen area.
- Step 3: Buy from a provider that issues a Schengen-compliant attestation (e.g. AXA Schengen, Chapka, Mondialcare, Europ Assistance).
- Step 4: Check the certificate names the Schengen area and your exact dates, for the full stay.
- Step 5: Attach the attestation d'assurance to your France-Visas application submitted at the consulate.
EU/EEA visitors do not need a visa and instead carry the EHIC/CEAM (carte européenne d'assurance maladie), which gives access to state healthcare across the EU/EEA and Switzerland but does not cover private care, cancellation, or repatriation.
Sources: france-visas.gouv.fr, service-public.fr, ameli.fr (CEAM / Carte Européenne d'Assurance Maladie), ACPR, and France Assureurs, October 2026. Verify current visa rules and cover with your chosen insurer and consulate.
How Much Does Schengen Visa Insurance Cost?
Schengen visa insurance costs from €11 a week in October 2026, and the cost per day falls as the policy gets longer. Mutuaide (Groupama group) charges €11 for 7 days on its Basic Lite plan. Mondialcare charges €17 a week, €51 for three months and €352 for a year, with €35,000 of medical cover, above the €30,000 minimum set for Schengen visas on France-Visas. Chapka charges €22 a week and €92 for three months.
AXA Schengen starts at €4.90 a day, charges €22 for 5 to 8 days and €349.95 for an annual multi-trip plan, and refunds the premium if your visa is refused. Europ Assistance starts at €3 a day. Every policy here is emergency-only: pre-existing conditions are excluded except for a sudden acute episode, and AXA adds age surcharges from 70. For a full 90-day stay, Mondialcare works out at about €0.57 a day, against €1.02 for Chapka. The table divides each published price by the days it covers, so you can compare plans of different lengths directly.
| Insurer and plan | Price | Days covered | Cost per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mondialcare, 3 months (€35,000 cover) | €51 | 90 | €0.57 |
| AXA Schengen, annual multi-trip | €349.95 | 365 | €0.96 |
| Mondialcare, 12 months | €352 | 365 | €0.96 |
| Chapka Cap Schengen, 3 months | €92 | 90 | €1.02 |
| AXA Schengen, long stay | €189 | 105 to 180 | €1.05 to €1.80 |
| Mutuaide Basic Lite, 1 week | €11 | 7 | €1.57 |
| Mondialcare, 1 week | €17 | 7 | €2.43 |
| AXA Schengen Low Cost | €22 | 5 to 8 | €2.75 to €4.40 |
| Europ Assistance Schengen | From €3 a day | Per day | From €3.00 |
| Chapka Cap Schengen, 1 week | €22 | 7 | €3.14 |
| AXA Schengen Europe Travel | €33 | 7 | €4.71 |
| Chapka Cap Schengen, 3 days | €18 | 3 | €6.00 |
Our calculation: published price divided by days covered, with three months counted as 90 days. Prices from each insurer's site, accessed 13 October 2026. All plans meet the €30,000 Schengen minimum.
Which Visa Insurance Fits Your Length of Stay?
The length and purpose of your stay decide which policy a consulate accepts. A Schengen travel policy works for visits of up to 90 days. A long-stay visitor visa (VLS-TS visiteur) is different: it needs health insurance covering the whole stay in France, including hospitalisation and repatriation, and emergency-only travel paper fails it. Chapka's Schengen plans, for example, are not valid for a VLS-TS visiteur.
For a long stay, consulates favour EU or French-headquartered expat insurers such as April International, MSH International and ACS-AMI, and forum reports describe pushback on US-style copay plans. You then keep that policy until French public cover opens, which takes at least three months for non-working residents under service-public.fr rule F34308, and often a year in practice. Working-holiday (PVT) holders have a dedicated product: Chapka Cap Working Holiday from €47 a month, about €564 for a 12-month stay. EU students on short exchanges rely on the EHIC instead. Our health insurance guide compares the long-stay bridge insurers.
| Your stay | Best pick | Runner-up | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parents visiting for 90 days on a Schengen visa | Mondialcare, €51 for 3 months | AXA Schengen | Cheapest compliant certificate for the full stay |
| One-week visit, visa not yet granted | AXA Schengen, €22 for 5 to 8 days | Mutuaide, €11 for 7 days | Premium refunded if the visa is refused |
| 12-month working holiday (PVT) | Chapka Cap Working Holiday, from €47 a month | ACS-AMI Globe Partner | De facto consular standard, priced monthly |
| EU Erasmus student, 4 months | EHIC from home + cheap travel top-up | Europ Assistance Schengen | The EHIC covers necessary state care; no mutuelle needed |
| Long-stay visitor visa (VLS-TS) | April International, then PUMa | MSH International | Travel policies fail the VLS-TS; expat cover bridges to PUMa |
Scenario picks from insurer terms accessed 13 October 2026. The €564 PVT figure is our calculation (12 × €47).
What people in France report
- + ACS-AMI for the visitor visa: A long-term US retiree in France says an ACS-AMI policy was accepted for the long-stay visitor visa every year from 2017 to 2021, and warns the certificate must name France, the full stay, hospitalisation and repatriation. (expat.com, 2022)
- − Nine to eleven months: A new carte de séjour holder was told to expect nine to eleven months before healthcare activation in their département, and bought private insurance for the first year rather than wait uninsured. (r/Expats_In_France, 2025)
- − A year to the carte Vitale: An early retiree says the carte Vitale took about a year after applying at the three-month residence mark, and advises budgeting private health cover for the whole first year in France. (r/ExpatFIRE, 2025)
Paraphrased from public posts, each dated and linked. A small sample, not a representative survey.
Do Residence Permit Holders in France Need Travel Insurance?
If you hold a residence permit (titre de séjour) and live in France, you are normally covered for healthcare in France by the Sécurité sociale (the public health system), usually topped up by a mutuelle for the part it does not reimburse. For everyday life in France, that combination replaces the need for travel insurance.
Travel insurance still matters for trips outside France. Inside the EU/EEA and Switzerland, your EHIC/CEAM (carte européenne d'assurance maladie) routes you into the local public system, but it does not cover repatriation, cancellation, or care outside the EU. A dedicated assurance voyage fills those gaps for holidays and longer trips abroad. General rules are explained on service-public.fr.
The CEAM is free and complementary
What Should You Look For in Travel Insurance for France?
A standard assurance voyage bundles several guarantees. Compare the cover limits (plafonds), exclusions, and the excess or deductible (franchise) you pay per claim, rather than the headline price alone. Pre-existing conditions, extreme sports, and trips booked against official advice are commonly excluded, so always read the conditions générales before you buy.
Medical Emergency Coverage
Frais médicaux à l'étranger pays for emergency treatment abroad, often advancing the cost so you are not out of pocket. For a French visa this must be at least €30,000, but for non-EU and long-haul travel prioritise the highest medical limits you can, since a hospital bill in the United States or Asia can run into tens of thousands of euros.
Repatriation and Evacuation
Rapatriement organises and pays for medical evacuation and repatriation home after a serious illness or accident. This is mandatory for a Schengen visa and one of the most valuable guarantees on any trip, since arranging a medically supervised return is expensive and hard to organise yourself.
Trip Cancellation and Interruption
Annulation reimburses non-refundable bookings if you have to cancel for a covered reason, and interruption cover helps if you must cut a trip short. Check exactly which cancellation reasons are accepted, since this is where contracts differ most and where card-based cover is often weakest.
Luggage and Personal Belongings
Bagages covers lost, stolen, or delayed luggage, and responsabilité civile à l'étranger covers damage you cause to others while travelling. Limits are usually modest and capped per item, so declare valuables and keep receipts if you are carrying expensive equipment.
Continue your move to France
Related guides from other parts of How to France that newcomers usually need next.