What Happened at my OFII Medical Visit in Paris

If you are the recipient of a long-stay visa in France, one of the requirements you need to fulfill to validate it is to have a medical examination by OFII. I’d heard horror stories from others who’d undergone the process, and while my experience wasn’t that bad, I wouldn’t exactly call it pleasant.

To help those who have an upcoming appointment with OFII be better prepared, I decided to share details of my visit, which I had to undergo as part of the validation of my salarié visa. 

Convocation from OFII

Upon receiving my visa, I’d been instructed to validate it online and pay a tax within three months of my arrival in France. I dutifully did so, which resulted in my being officially registered on the Etrangers en France website, and having OFII notified of my presence.

Apparently, it used to be that you had to mail in some forms to OFII yourself – this is no longer the case, and I had no direct contact with OFII prior to receive my convocation.

Within a few weeks of validating my visa, I was contacted by OFII by email. The email contained two convocations: one for my mandatory medical visit, and one for my interview and orientation (which I will discuss in a separate blog post).

The dates and times of these visits are fixed. While OFII says you can contact them to change them, apparently this requires you going there in person. And so, while the dates weren’t ideal (and only gave me two weeks to inform my employer of my absence), I decided to keep them to save myself the trouble.

Required Documents for your OFII Medical Exam

In my convocation letter, OFII stated that I was required to bring two essential documents:

• My passport,
• A printed-out copy of my convocation,
• My vaccination records.

I was also told to bring the supporting documents if they were applicable to me:

• Recent X-rays of my lungs,
• Hospital records,
• Glasses/contact lenses,
• Maternity records.

Out of these, the only thing I brought were my glasses and a box of contact lenses. I also brought the results of a recent vision test, as well as prescriptions I’d received in recent months, but the doctors weren’t interested in either of these.

The OFII Medical Visit

My OFII medical exam was at an office in one of the banlieues of Paris. It was slotted for 2:30 PM and I arrived by 2:15, having heard that it isn’t useful to arrive more than 15 minutes early as they won’t let you in until it’s close to your exam time.

There was a large crowd of people outside, which I assumed was the line, but found out that for those with convocations we could precede to the front door and reception. I was quickly checked in and ushered into a waiting room, where I waited for less than 10 minutes before being whisked into the exam room.

The OFII visit consisted of five parts with five different doctors. The first was the initial checkin, where I had to provide basic information such as gender, telephone number, and country of origin, followed by a questionnaire about tuberculosis symptoms (I’d soon find out that TB is the main focus of the examination).

After that, I went to see another doctor where they took my height, weight, performed a vision test, and asked about whether I smoke, drank, exercised, and so on. It all happened very fast and the doctor did not even ask me to remove my contact lenses before completing the eye exam, which I found a bit odd.

The third part was the most uncomfortable: the chest X-ray. For this I was required to strip from the waist up, tie my hair up into a bun, and have a technician do an X-ray of my lungs. I disliked this part for two reasons: 1) the technician was a man, whereas I would have preferred a woman doctor for something this intimate, and 2) the technician had a very strong accent that I could not understand despite being fluent in French, and he frequently got testy with me and raised his voice, and repositioned me as I did not understand how exactly he wanted me to stand. The whole thing made me feel very humilated.

In the fourth part I had my blood pressure taken, and the doctor listened to my heartbeat and monitored my breathing patterns. Much like the second part, I was asked questions about my lifestyle and medical history. After being scolded for not exercising enough, I was given what I came for: my medical certificate, certifying that I was healthy enough to work in France.

The fifth part was optional but highly encouraged by the previous doctors: a test for Hepatisis C, Hepatisis B, and HIV. The informative paper I was given on this stated that the results would have no impact on the obtention of a carte de séjour, and would only be used for research. It involved a short questionnaire, a prick of the finger, and waiting a few minutes for the result.

After this I was free to leave, instructed only to have my medical certificate stamped by the receptionist on my way out.

While the process was uncomfortable at times, overall I didn’t find it as bad as people said it would be. That said, I’m very, very glad that this will be my last time doing this!