Visa-ready plans from $721 per adult, billed annually · see your exact price by age.
The rule in writing
“US and UK domestic health plans are generally not structured to cover treatment abroad for residents and are not accepted for long-stay visa applications in France or Italy.”
Based on: Consulate guidance & documented applicant reports — Last verified:
The rule in writing
“Consulates commonly refuse policies with a deductible (excess) on the core cover. Applicants report rejections over deductible clauses; the certificate should show cover without a disqualifying deductible.”
Based on: Consulate application guidance & documented applicant reports — Last verified:
Will your certificate pass?
What a consulate officer actually looks for on the page.
Passes when it shows
- Private health cover — not travel or Schengen
- Medical + hospitalisation cover valid in France
- Covers your full visa period (up to a year)
- No disqualifying deductible on the core cover
Refused when it’s
- A travel or Schengen “trip” policy
- A deductible / excess on core cover
- Cover that ends before your visa does
Private and public hospitals in Lyon
Public hospital care in Lyon runs through the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), an institution created in 1802 and one of the largest hospital groups in France. It operates a network of hospitals spread across the Lyon area rather than a single campus.
The sites you are most likely to meet are Édouard Herriot in the 3rd arrondissement, which runs an adult emergency department open around the clock and is a main emergency reception point for the metropolitan area; Croix-Rousse in the 4th; Lyon Sud at Pierre-Bénite to the south; and the Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant at Bron on the eastern edge, which brings together obstetrics, neonatology and paediatric medicine and surgery, and is the metropolitan area's permanent paediatric emergency centre. Cancer care runs through the Centre Léon Bérard in the 8th arrondissement, part of the Unicancer network.
Private hospitals sit alongside the public network: the Hôpital Privé Jean Mermoz in the 8th, Médipôle Lyon-Villeurbanne at Villeurbanne, and the Infirmerie Protestante at Caluire-et-Cuire. For how the public system itself works — PUMa, CPAM, the carte vitale and the mutuelle — see our French healthcare system page.
Where new arrivals settle
Lyon carries a larger international population than its size suggests — Interpol's General Secretariat has been based here since 1989, and the city has a substantial research and pharmaceutical sector — and arrivals tend to sort themselves by school.
The 6th arrondissement, around the Parc de la Tête d'Or and avenue Foch, is the long-standing residential choice: quiet, central and well connected. Croix-Rousse in the 4th, on the hill above the Presqu'île, draws families who want a village feel inside the city. The Presqu'île itself suits people who intend to walk everywhere. Montchat in the 3rd is the quieter, more suburban version of the same idea.
Two school decisions pull people outward. Families using the Cité Scolaire Internationale — the public school in Gerland in the 7th that runs nine international sections, including an anglophone one — generally live central or south. Families using the International School of Lyon, which teaches in English at Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, tend west: into Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon itself, Écully, Tassin-la-Demi-Lune or Caluire-et-Cuire.
What it costs
Lyon is the reason people compare French cities at all. It has the teaching hospitals, the international schools and the employers of a capital, at a housing cost that is not Paris. Rent is the line where that difference actually shows up in your budget.
Insurance is the line where it does not. Regency prices by rate region and the whole of France sits in a single EU region, so the figure is the same in Lyon as it is in Paris: a 40 year old on the recommended Comprehensive plan is $2,475 a year, billed annually, on Regency's 2026 EU-region rate card. If you have been budgeting a saving on cover by choosing Lyon over Paris, there is not one.
Run your age and household through the pricing calculator, or read the full rate table on the France cost page.
What your policy needs to cover here
Assume you will cross the metropolitan area. HCL distributes its specialties by site: paediatric and maternity work at Bron, oncology at the Centre Léon Bérard in the 8th, general acute care at Édouard Herriot and Croix-Rousse in the city, and a further range at Lyon Sud in Pierre-Bénite. A referral is as likely to send you across the conurbation as down the road. If you have settled west for the schools, the paediatric emergency centre is on the far side of the city — better known now than worked out on the day.
Your home plan will not travel with you. US and UK domestic health plans are generally not structured to cover treatment abroad for residents and are not accepted for French long-stay visa applications — the requirement below states this. It catches people who assume an employer plan follows them across the Atlantic. Check the policy's territory, not its brand.
Watch the deductible. Consulates commonly refuse French files where the policy carries a deductible or excess on the core cover. It is the most avoidable rejection there is, and it has nothing to do with which French city you pick — see the requirement below and our rejection reasons guide.
Read the outpatient section, not the headline limit. Hospital admission is the rare event in anyone's year. GP visits, specialist consultations, prescriptions and lab tests are the routine one, and in a city where specialties are spread across sites you will be moving between clinics for exactly that kind of care. A hospital-only plan leaves all of it with you.
Which visa route fits
Lyon skews towards people arriving for work, so the talent passport — for employees, founders and researchers — is a common route here. The VLS-TS remains the standard first-year route for most relocations, and the visitor visa covers people who will not be working in France.
If you are coming from the States or the UK, the nationality pages are the faster read: health insurance for Americans in France and the same for UK citizens, plus the VLS-TS timeline for the order things happen in. Cover and pricing start at long-stay visa insurance.
Honest limits: Cover is worldwide but excludes treatment in the United States. Pre-existing conditions are excluded, including conditions you did not know about. We disclose this before you request a quote. Consulates keep discretion, and requirements can change. We show the published rule and its source; the final decision is the consulate’s.