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STEP-BY-STEP guide to moving to France, including information about becoming a legal resident, retirement visa options, the relocation process, and the financial impacts of becoming an American Expat in France.
Long-stay visa (stay of more than 3 months to 1 year)
👉 https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F16162?lang=en
FULL-LENGTH INTERVIEWS WITH THE EXPERTS
Jay Swanson – Visas & Immigration
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8apNAlHQhI
Richard Hammond – Relocation process
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Eszter Simon – Home Rental Expert
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Kristjan Kruuk – Paris Realtor
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Jules & Michael – Fractional Home Ownership
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQpPrKxmXUI
Issac Barchichat – US/French CPA
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tutFKL8eBFo
Connie Myers – Retired American Expat’s Experience
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__KyG3YT0FY
Raina Willick – American Expat with Kids
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZQNxWfgX9s
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====CHAPTERS====
00:00 Introduction
01:05 The Visa Options
03:01 Jay Swanson Interview – Long Stay Visa
06:07 Buying or Renting a Home
06:26 Richard Hammond Interview – Relocation Process
09:35 Renting a Home in France
10:12 Ezster Simon Interview – Renting Expert
12:11 Buying a Home in France
14:11 Open House in Paris – 4 Apartments for Sale
22:08 Fractional Ownership in Paris Interview
24:10 Taxes & Finances in France
27:31 Moving to France on Retirement Income
31:00 Moving to France with Kids
38 Comments
It is NOT 180 days in one year. Its is 90 days in 180. It is very important that you choose the right visa in order to renew in France otherwise you can get into some trouble.
HELP! I have talked to two different Immigrations Lawyer firms and both said I can work remotely for an American company as long as I am not conducting business with anyone in France.I would like to retire in France and I have SS and a pension so I qualify for the extended stay visa but I want to continue to work remotely, so is this possible?
$500,000 for that…? give me the U.S….
Brilliant video. I will be following up for my move from Australia in 2026. Stuart
Thank you for all of this helpful info in one place!
Thank you, Merci, Gracias, Danke schön, Grazie! One of the MOST valuable videos I have ever seen!
I was wondering if you would ever do a collab of some kind with Baguette Bound.
Very informative. You can stay in the Schengen zone 90 days out of every 180. I believe Jay should stated you would need to spend 3 months in London before returning in his example, not 180 days. Also, I think what Jay says is a bit misleading regarding a 12 month renewable visa. The 12 month renewable visa comes with strict requirements like proof of accommodations and income for instance.
Very informative video. Great resource if I decide to move to France.
Bonjour and merci! This was really helpful. we had many questions that you were answering. Love your channel.
Step-by-step guide? LOL! I'm applying for a visa next year and so have been seriously gathering visa info for about 6 months. Remember – Lots of people are trying to make a living as YTers, and may also actually want to help, but are not immigration, communications, or even project coordination experts, so buyer beware!! And even if they are sharing their one experience, though it may be factually correct and helpful, your experience may be different. Even the true French immigration experts acknowledge this, as noted below, because the many different consulate decisionmakers (and later, the prefecture decisionmakers) have great discretion.
The visa names and types they noted at the beginning are incorrect / don't exist. And when she says you can stay up to 90 days without any visa, that is also incorrect. If you're from the US, you must have a not-about-to-expire passport. Check the French and US embassy websites for the passport expiration dates required for different visas. An acceptable passport is where your short-term visa stamp will be stamped when you enter France, and is what gives you the right to visit the France / EU Schengen Zone for up to 90 days.
There is no such thing as a French "retirement visa", nor a "remote work" visa! For people who identify as retired / independently wealthy; and or as a remote worker, you should probably go for the easiest to apply for: "VLS-TS Long-Stay Visa" – "Visitor" type – this is NOT a work visa. If you are actually retired, and will, or are able to live off savings / income / assets already owned, this visa is for you. For “remote workers”, French visa types were invented before there were many digital nomads in existence, so apparently us digital nomads CAN also use the visitor visa, AS LONG AS: we have no French customers, are not selling our work products in France, do not have a French employer, and are not taking a potential job in France from a French job-seeker (got this from several actual French immigration lawyers). This visa application requires you to sign an affidavit that you will not work or try to work in France.
Go to the official French visa website to learn what the actual visa types are and what they are named. And if you're serious, read everything and watch every video you can find about the applications and peoples' experiences, also remembering that YTers who have one experience have a very small sample size. Yes it may be helpful but not comprehensive of all visa types and all consulate decisionmakers… You need to spend tons of hours of triangulating the info you'll need to be successful at acquiring the visa type you need, and throwing out the garbage that are either incorrect, or are not considered as conventionally acceptable by most consulate decisionmakers. If you don't already know this then you haven't watched enough recent YT videos by people whose applications were denied! I recommend checking out the "FrenchEntrée" and "Fab Expat" YT channels and websites. And even these, which I've found to be the best, can be confusing, and sometimes actually good advice from experienced experts isn't a guarantee because consulate decisionmakers have discretionary powers, so for example, one may allow a 1-3 month Airbnb rental as acceptable as a French address, another may deny that and require a formal French 1 year rental lease.
Re: Jay Swanson's experience – I don't consider it typical, so I don't know why they used him as a resource. Oh right, because YTers seek crossovers with other YTers to get more subs. But I believe he has said he got in-country on a (rare) volunteer visa, and or maybe he got a student visa too?, and has since then been able to continue to live in Paris, essentially because a nice French lady gave him a tiny apt to live in for almost free, and despite that he was unemployed, a condition 99.99% of us are not lucky enough to stumble into.
Jay's comments about the 1 year tourist visa is also INCORRECT OMG!!! NO!! Don't "just get here" LOL! OMFG. And Les Frenchies’ reiteration "so you can get a 1 year visa and it's super easy to get". LOLOLOL Nope! And Les Frenchies’ comment "so basically anyone can come here and stay for 6 months without a visa" … NO! The passport-stamped visitor visa (that requires no application) is for 90 days. PERIODT. Then you have to leave the entire Schengen Zone EU, not just France. And also corrected – the rule, not just in France but in the entire Schengen Zone EU is 90 out of 180 days, so yes that can add up to 180 days max per year, but not 180 consecutive days. 90 days in then requires 90 days out before you can return. Another correction: You cannot even apply for the 1 year visitor visa except from your home country. Sure, it makes sense to make sure you know enough to know you really want to live in France for a year or more, so yes you should already have that experience, or get it. And you have to obtain a place to live, either by renting or buying, so you could use a 90 day max trip to do that if you don't want to enter a lease via internet / sight unseen. But that is also going to cost you several thousands of $. Jay's comment that you have to leave France to go home to renew it (after 1 year) is INCORRECT OMG. NO! The only reason you have to leave is if you applied for the wrong visa in the first place – those people have to go home and re-do it the right way. If you have successfully obtained the "VLS-TS Long-Stay Visa" for visitors (or biz visa), you validate your visa (online) once you arrive in country, you do a few more official steps steps like go to a Dr. appt. to make sure you don’t have TB, get signed up for the French public health care plan, file your tax return, get your driver's license switched over (if from certain states), and then in month 9 (or so) you apply to the prefecture renew your visa / residence permit, and you continue to do so annually. And that's why they demand a permanent address that isn't just a hotel, because all of that bureaucratic activity will occur to that address and determine which prefecture you'll use going forward. Yes you must file a French Tax return every year, and declare all your income even from other countries, they use this to determine your share owed, for the national health system, which you will be a beneficiary of after 3 months. No, France won't tax your income earned in another country where you are a citizen and already pay taxes on, but you still must DECLARE all your income to the French Govt.
To get even the "simplest" type of 1 year visa, first, it's a visitor visa, with which you cannot work, which Jay didn't mention. And to get it, you must apply from your home country, yet prove you already have a permanent address in France, with a year lease – this is before you even apply for the visa. Also, you must prove you have savings of at least equal to the French minimum wage for 1 year, that is per person. Also, you must pre-purchase a 1 year French health insurance plan with specific requirements, again, before you even apply for the visa. And all of that evidence, and all other required docs, must also be translated into French by an officially-approved translator. The Visa application process then requires you to make an appointment (online) and travel (in person) to not one of 10 consulates (in the US), but to one of its vendor’s (VFS Global) locations (again, only 10 of them, in large cities) to turn in the hard copies, in person, of all that's required, then you get a decision in 1-5 weeks usually, and they return your passport, which you also had to leave with them while applying, and if approved, the visa will be stamped in the passport before it is mailed back to you. That visa application in-person trip, if you live far from a major city where they are located, could cost you $1,000-$2,000 on its own. And if your visa is not approved, and if/when you figure out why and how to fix it, you have to re-apply (French visa website), and re-do the in-person VFS Global appt. And that's just for starters, and just for the simplest visa type.
If you're going to apply for a business visa it is much more work, none of which is detailed on the French visa website. There's a lot more to figure out, gather, disclose, translate, plan for, before you even get to the application step. That's why people might want to pay for immigration services / lawyers, but do you have an extra $5,000 sitting around? And a few of the most well-known YT immigration consultants have been ripped by reviews by people that hired them recently, so buyer beware, make sure you understand if you are buying any actual guarantees of anything, what timelines, promises of timeliness you are contractually being promised, and what the refund policies are if mistakes were made by them and those mistakes caused a denial or delay.
Re: renting / buying – again beware and do your homework on what to expect in France. The system is completely different than in the US, which they barely touched on, and there’s no MLS, so you have a lot more work to do just locating places available. Don’t be caught unprepared by the large fees and taxes. There are agent fees, the notaire’s fees, to name a few, that may or may not be included in the asking price, and taxes, to budget for.
It's very disappointing. I can't give this video a thumbs up for several reasons. You really needed to fact check the information before publishing.
Thank you so much for this very informative video. I am wanting to live overseas at some point in my life, even if it is just for a a few months.
forget france….it,s a socialist country for many years now….paris is already a piece of sh=t…go to chateau rouge metro station and have a walk around the frenchies ….you just stay in the secured center of the capital…less and less..secured…and you are right…..for your safety….going to the usa is much more complicated for a french / european citizen…..so gringos stay in gringoland…and manage your local mess…
Americans and Canadians can visit France without a Visa for 90 days every 180 days of a rolling calendar. In order to stay longer, you have to apply for a LTV for 12 months. The "subject matter" expert was not entirely correct with his information.
Where are the links to the immigration attorneys?
I have been waiting for this video. 😊 It is excellent as always, and what fun it was to be a small part of it. Merci, Antoine and Colleen. ❤
Non-EU nationals can visit the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
Your first guest was implying you could stay 180 days.
I have figured out a way to rent AirBNBs for two months at a time in France – so four months a year – without having to worry about rental contracts. I pay extra for health insurance, obviously. (Allianz has been good – it’s $480 annually.) Also, interestingly, my Paris AirBNB host requires that I pay $15 for “apartment rental insurance” (to cover damage to the apartment). It’s fairly easy to pay for that online before my arrival; the host tells you how to do that. What I like about using AirBNB for a couple months at a time is that the utilities are all inclusive – plus, long-term renters get between 30 and 50% off the regular rental rate, depending on what time of the year you’re there. It’s a win-win.
Thank you for this video. Very informative!
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Sorry, Antoine and Jay, but you are both wrong. You can stay in France without a visa for 90 days out of 180, and this is a rolling 180 days. This is the same rule for US citizens and Australian, and also UK citizens now since Brexit. And you can apply for a 1 year Long Stay Visa, of which there are two types of- one is renewable and one is NOT. The renewable LSV can be renewed in France, there is no need to return to your home country to renew this visa type, and it is advisable to begin the renewal process at least three months before the visa expires. If you have the renewable visa, you will also be required to attend a medical appointment when you arrive in France, after registering your arrival with the OFII and paying for a tax stamp.
Could you make a tube video for English people wanting to move to France?
France cannot be my permanent residence. Even though love visiting and enjoy the places, Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, and some down south area, it's not to call home for me. Everything is slow, too much bureaucracy, lack of comfort, scamming….
A few weeks visit is fun, but not to call home. After spending time to research it's a NO. Before making an important move, do your research carefully. Moving to live in France or any part of Europe, does not save you money. It's not cheaper. First you downgrade your space, loose your daily convenience (no car , expensive cost to own). High utilities cost, groceries are not cheaper, high taxes buying things you need. Unless you're wealthy you won't have a problem but for middle class, moving to France will definitely a huge regret. I found out the housing in a nice area cost ways more than in the USA. For a little one bedroom condo in a nice area in California near the ocean with pool and tennis like mine cost around 600k USD. The same apartment in Paris without pool and tennis course must be more than double, over a million Euros not to say utilities cost triple monthly and HOA is up the hook .
And when you have an issue there's no where to report. You will be thrown around like a ball
There are some aparthotels. Very roomie and comfortable that provides full equipped kitchen . They are zre very new opened early 2024. Priced very reasonably
For Australia's, we too can just get our passport stamped but I heard from next year you need to get an esta
Not sure why the title says Europe when it’s only about France.
Thanks for putting this video together. Lots of additional content to dig into. Always enjoy your videos — wife and I are visiting Paris this coming week. Her first time and I haven't been in more than 35 years. Can't wait.
Your experience will vary greatly from region to region, and from town to city to countryside. You have to ask yourself the questions about priorités like climate/weather, proximity to sea, mountains, transportation, healthcare services….do you prefer big city living or a smaller town life. I’d recommend travelling and visiting many places, staying for longer periods of time to get a realistic feeling about daily life in a specific place.
Wow! Fantastic video, guys! Thanks for including links to the full interviews. Really, really great information. Absolutely love your channel!
The most informative program I have seen. Love you guys❤. Did you rent while your possessions were still in the US? Or did you find a rental and move in with your possessions?
Hi there,
I like your channel ! If you look for a place to rent for a limited time, think websites like "parisattitude" are good. You have a big choice, photos, sometimes videos and clear terms & conditions.
When it comes to buying, there is "Belles Demueres" for example.
Is that last big apt near Saint-denis , which is a very bad area
It’s 90 days out of 180 throughout the Schengen zone. There are apps and calculators to help keep track of your days.
Thank you for this video! Alot of Great resources for me to use when I move to retire to France in a few years! 🙂
Greetings from a fellow American in Southern Burgundy. I love your videos! But, there are a few things in this video that are not quite right. 1) Americans can only stay 90 out of every 180 days in France without a visa (not 180 days like the video says). 2) There is no such thing as a specific retirement visa. Retirees are issued a VLS-TS – a long term non-work tourist visa). 3) You do not/can not renew a visa. After one year you must apply for your Titre de Sejour. (or let the visa lapse later apply for a new visa). If you ever want to do a video on Southern Burgundy – the beautiful Charolais-Brionnais region and the nearby Maconnais, I'd be happy to show you around! Keep up the good work!
NO – Americans CANNOT just stay six months, unbroken. The 'Schengen Rule' for Americans is max 90 out of any 180 days. So 90 days in, 90 days out, then another 90 days permitted in Schengen. This is assuming that you are not requesting any specific visa that enables you to remain in the country [or Schengen] for longer than 90 days.
Thank you so much for this video!!! I love France but never thought about moving here. Now, I have 20 years to think about retirement. You brought up good points about legal and renting and potentially feeling isolated if you don't have a background or don't speak the language. Definitely something to think about.