Retiring in New Caledonia: Local Pension, Mainland French Pension, Taxation and Access to Healthcare

New Caledonia is part of the Republic: the notion of a retiree visa does not apply to a French citizen. The State services specify that entry is subject to a border police check at La Tontouta or the port of Nouméa and that the rules differ from those of mainland France; the documents requested from a French citizen are not detailed on the page read, and are confirmed with the High Commission. What really changes is social cover and taxation, which fall to the territory. The page on living in New Caledonia describes the move, and the guide to retiring abroad the general principles.

As for budget, the ISEE (the local statistics institute) measures a price level on average of the order of 30% higher than in mainland France; inflation is generally moderate. The Fonds social de l’habitat (the social housing fund) extends its housing aid to retirees who live in an approved retirement home.

Private-sector employees come under the CAFAT old-age insurance, supplemented by the Agirc-Arrco supplementary pension schemes since 1 January 1995, while territorial civil servants come under the local pension fund (DASS). For workers who have contributed in the territory, the CAFAT applies the following rules.

• Statutory age: 62 since 1 January 2026. Retiring at 59 and a half is possible; it gives a full pension with 37 years of insurance, otherwise a permanent reduction of 1.5% per quarter of early retirement, within a limit of 10 quarters.
• Long careers and special cases: 39 years of activity allow retirement before the statutory age with no reduction under conditions; recognised unfitness for work opens retirement from age 50; ten years of arduous full-time work in the territory allow retirement at 57 and 6 months.
• Filing conditions: having contributed for at least 5 years, having ceased all contributory salaried activity, and filing the application at the earliest two months before the end of activity; no pension is granted automatically. The pension starts at the earliest on the first day of the month following filing.
• Calculation: each year’s contributions are converted into points, and the annual pension equals the number of points multiplied by the point value, a value revised each 1 April (for information). An estimate can be requested each year from age 56 (retraite@cafat.nc).

The CAFAT specifies that its scheme is independent of the mainland scheme and that contributions paid locally cannot be transferred to it. Periods completed in each territory are nevertheless totalled to open entitlements, under the 2002 coordination decree (CLEISS, the French centre for international social security links), with a double calculation for the pension.

The solidarity pension supplement (CRS) is aimed at retirees who contributed little or have modest income. It requires being at least 62 and receiving a CAFAT pension, having completed five years of salaried work in the territory with affiliation, showing ten years of continuous residence at the time of the application, keeping a stable and regular residence in the territory and staying under a resource ceiling, revised regularly, which differs for a single person and for a household. The CRS tops up resources to a monthly minimum, revised regularly, and cannot bring them above a monthly ceiling. It is requested from the CAFAT pension department, which does not grant it automatically. A retiree coming from mainland France who has neither five years of local contributions nor ten years of continuous residence therefore has no access to it.

The voluntary pension insurance concerns people who no longer contribute to a compulsory scheme: you must have contributed at least five years to the CAFAT pension and not come under another compulsory scheme such as the Agirc-Arrco. The contribution is 14% of the last salary contributed on (revalued according to the price index) or of the revalued annual contribution ceiling, payable quarterly.

A retiree of the mainland scheme (or of an overseas department) continues to receive their pension from the territory. For health cover, form SE 988-06 is completed in part A by the pension fund and in part B by the CAFAT. For the general scheme, the request goes through the national old-age insurance fund, with a questionnaire on the study of entitlements to care abroad; for retired civil servants and military personnel, the transfer of residence must be reported to the pension management centre before departure. Since 1 January 2023, the High Commission states that the Rennes-Fougères pension management centre handles State retirees’ files (secure ENSAP messaging, retraitesdeletat.gouv.fr website). Dependants who live with the pensioner can be registered at the same time.

Temporary retirement allowance (ITR): State pensioners who live in New Caledonia can claim this pension supplement, set at 75% of the main amount of the pension by decree no. 2009-114 of 30 January 2009 (initial version read on Légifrance). It requires actual residence of more than 183 consecutive days, shown each year with the declaration of absences; cumulative absences of more than three months in the year suspend payment. The text provides an annual ceiling that falls by €800 each year, from €7,200 in 2019 to €800 in 2027, then €0 in 2028, depending on the year of first payment: the allowance decreases for new beneficiaries. The consolidated version of the text and the service conditions are checked with the pension centre.

The New Caledonian tax department states that anyone with tax residence in the territory declares all their pensions locally, including those paid from mainland France, whether they arrive in a New Caledonian or a mainland account, on line PA of the return: they are “exclusively taxable in New Caledonia”. The BOFiP (the French tax doctrine database) links this rule to Article 17 of the 1983 France-New Caledonia tax convention, which reserves taxation of public or private pensions to the territory of residence; it specifies that pensions of mainland origin paid to a resident escape any withholding tax in France. The State pensions service confirms that State pensioners living in New Caledonia come under local taxation.

The CLEISS adds that, if tax residence is no longer in France, the CSG, CRDS and Casa (French social levies) are not deducted from the pension; a health insurance contribution may, however, be withheld if the retiree still comes under a French scheme, for example for their entitlements during stays in France. The New Caledonian income tax scale appears in Article 136 I of the local tax code.

In the territory, the retiree registered with SE 988-06 receives care through the CAFAT. The CLEISS specifies that they can receive it by virtue of their pension provided they have no entitlements under the New Caledonian scheme, and that to be fully covered you must register with the CAFAT. A retiree who has also worked on site comes under the RUAMM (the unified health and maternity insurance scheme) as a local insured person; a retired self-employed person of the territory keeps their entitlements if they are removed from the business licence register (patentes), are 62 and have five years of activity on site. The CAFAT form states that the mainland long-term condition system does not apply: long-term illness is requested from the CAFAT medical control. Medical evacuations are organised by the CAFAT on the opinion of a medical committee.

During a stay in mainland France, care is reimbursed by the fund that pays the pension, on presentation of the pension certificate, and a hospitalisation of more than a month requires prior agreement. The non-pensioned spouse is not covered in France: insurance is advisable. CFE members who live in the territory send their claims for care received in France to the CPAM (local health insurance office) of Seine-et-Marne, according to the Assurance Maladie (French public health insurance) and the CLEISS; a resident’s eligibility for the CFE (Caisse des Français de l’Étranger, the voluntary health insurance scheme for French people abroad) is confirmed with the fund. See also a retiree’s health insurance abroad and the page on healthcare reimbursement in New Caledonia.

Greater Nouméa (Nouméa, Mont-Dore, Dumbéa, Païta) concentrates services: the territorial hospital centre occupies the Médipôle de Koutio, in Dumbéa-sur-Mer, with emergency, intensive care and operating theatres, and the emergency number is 15. The North and Islands provinces are further from this technical platform, which matters for someone on regular treatment. The census counts nearly 265,000 inhabitants, with about three in four residents in the South province.

For a retirement budget, the SMG, of the order of CFP 169,000 gross a month, gives a benchmark for the level of basic pay in the territory, and the Pacific franc’s fixed parity with the euro makes it easy to convert a pension paid in euros. The DASS urges protection against dengue during the rainy season. Finally, a retiree planning to return to mainland France requests their social security number from the CAFAT before leaving, and reports their permanent departure to the bodies concerned. The guide to retirement insurance abroad complements these benchmarks; Expavy offers a situation check to compare supplementary insurance options.