Get your US documents accepted in France, the first time

You have a date. A consulate appointment, a wedding, a school year that starts in September. Your birth certificate, your FBI check and your marriage certificate all have to clear two governments before then. We run that chain for you, from wherever you are sitting right now.

Quoted per documentYou see the price before we start
Your file read before anything ships · Rush handling available · Answer back within one business day
Maxime Roseau and Aurelio Maurici, founders of EasyFranceNow, who check French document requirementsRun by our vetted US partner, with Maxime and Aurelio checking the French side.
Where each document goes
Birth certificateState of birth
Apostille, then sworn translation
FBI background checkUS Dept of State
Federal lane, nowhere else
Marriage certificateState of marriage
Apostille, then sworn translation
Single-status affidavitNotary's state
Sign by video from France
Power of attorneyNotary's state
Sign by video from France
One envelope in the wrong lane costs you a month.
Maxime Roseau, co-founder of EasyFranceNow, specialist in French immigration and prefecture files

I'm Maxime. I run French immigration files for a living. Prefecture dossiers, ANEF renewals, naturalization applications, and the admin that lands on people the week after they arrive. I see what these counters accept and what they push back across the desk.

Here is the one I watch most often. An American walks into a prefecture with a birth certificate. It's apostilled correctly. It's translated beautifully. The translator was American, so the clerk hands it straight back and asks for a sworn translation. Three weeks gone, and the appointment they waited two months for goes with it.

Every one of them did the work. They just got one detail wrong that nobody had ever mentioned to them.

So we found a US partner who runs the notarization, apostille and translation chain properly and quickly, and we kept the French half ourselves. You tell us what you're filing. We tell you what that office accepts, before you spend a dollar.

MaximeCo-founder, EasyFranceNow

Everything France asks for, in one package

One form. Every document routed, stamped, translated and delivered to your door.
1

Apostilles on your state records

Birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce decree, court judgments. Each one goes to the competent authority of the state that issued it. We pull a fresh certified copy where yours is too old to pass, route it, chase it, and put it back in your hands.

2

The federal apostille on your FBI check

Your FBI Identity History Summary is a federal record, so the US Department of State is the only office on earth that can authenticate it. Every state office returns it. Every US embassy refuses it. We take it straight to Washington.

3

Sworn translation France accepts

France recognizes a traducteur assermenté, sworn in by a Cour d'appel. We arrange that translation and package it with the apostille, in the order your prefecture expects to receive it.

4

Notarization without the flight home

Your certificat de célibat before a wedding. A power of attorney for your notaire. A US-commissioned notary witnesses your signature over live video while you sit in your kitchen in Lyon.

How we take weeks off the federal queue

Two lanes exist. Most people find out about the slow one and never hear about the other.

The FBI check

You mail a fingerprint card yourselfWeeks of silence once the FBI receives it, and they expedite for nobody.
An approved channeler files itPrints go in electronically and your summary lands within a few business days.

The federal apostille

You post it to the Office of AuthenticationsProcessed within five weeks of arrival, before you count postage in both directions.
Someone walks it to the counter in WashingtonProcessed in about seven business days, and the rules allow a third party to drop it off for you.
That second lane opens for ninety minutes a morning, four mornings a week, in one building in Washington DC. Someone has to physically stand there. That's what a partner buys you. Your exact turnaround still depends on the issuing state, the federal workload and international shipping, so we confirm yours once we see your list.

Six moments this lands on your desk

Miss one and everything queued behind it stops moving.

Six weeks before your consulate appointment

Several visa categories want an FBI background check, and every file reads better with an apostilled birth certificate. This deadline arrives long before you expect it, and the federal queue has no interest in your appointment date.

Marriage, on either side of the Atlantic

Your mairie wants a certificat de célibat signed in front of a notary before it publishes your banns. Married in the States already? Transcription into the French registry runs on your marriage certificate, apostilled and sworn-translated.

Turning your NIA into a real social security number

CPAM wants a birth certificate that names your parents. A US short-form certificate gets refused almost everywhere, and plenty of caisses want the apostille and the sworn translation on top of it.

Your first carte de séjour on ANEF

The file commonly asks for a copie intégrale d'acte de naissance with a translation by an approved translator. Americans get caught here, because a VLS-TS is a visa and the first ANEF file converts it into a card.

Enrolling the kids in September

The passport legally satisfies the mairie. Plenty of schools ask for a translated birth certificate anyway. Worth knowing which one you're dealing with before you pay a sworn translator.

Naturalization, years from now

The citizenship file reopens all of it and wants recent documents. People who kept a clean apostilled set from the start hand it in over a weekend. Everyone else starts from zero.

Who does what

One US specialist on the paperwork. Two French nationals on what France accepts.

The US paperwork

Execution runs through a licensed notary and apostille firm we work with, chosen because they handle clients who already live abroad. Remote notarization, state and federal apostilles, certified copy retrieval and legal translation, with your scans read before anything goes in an envelope.

  • Someone on the ground in Washington
  • Fresh certified copies pulled per state
  • Tracked delivery to your door in France

The French requirement

We're the part that tells you what to order in the first place. Maxime works prefecture files, ANEF renewals and naturalization dossiers. Aurelio works CPAM, banking, and the documentary standards French institutions apply in practice rather than on paper.

  • What your procedure requires, and what you can skip
  • Sworn translation, done the French way
  • The order that stops you paying twice
I just needed help with applying for a long-stay visa and Maxime gave me solid advice and a clear list of documents I needed to get. If you need some guidance with the French immigration process I'd recommend these guys everytime.
JBJames B.Long-stay visa · February 2026Google
Your quote covers the US execution and our coordination on the French side, in one price, with one point of contact. You deal with us from the form to the delivery.

Start the FBI check this week

It's the slowest thing in your move, and it runs at the same speed whether or not you have an appointment booked. Everything else can wait seven days. This one picks your departure date.
1

Tell us what you need

Two minutes in the form. Your documents, your deadline, where you are.

2

We read it and price it

Your list gets checked against what your procedure actually asks for, then priced per document.

3

We run it, you pack

Routing, apostilles, notarizations and sworn translations handled, delivered wherever you are.

Quoted per document

Tell us what you're holding and what you're filing. You'll have a firm price, a realistic turnaround, and a note on anything in your list your procedure won't ask for.

Nothing to pay to startAnswer within one business dayFamily and multi-document packages

Common questions

What does it cost?+
It's priced per document, because a one-page birth certificate from Ohio and a rush federal apostille on a deadline are different jobs. Send the form and you get a firm number and a turnaround before any work begins.
How fast can this actually go?+
Your FBI check comes back in days through an approved channeler, against weeks if you mail a fingerprint card in yourself. Federal apostilles dropped at the Washington counter clear in about seven business days, against the five weeks quoted for post. Your exact dates get confirmed once we see your list, since the issuing state and international shipping both move.
Do I have to fly back to the States?+
No. Vital records never required you in person anyway. For the papers you sign yourself, a US notary witnesses your signature over live video while you sit in France. The notary stays in their commissioning state. You stay where you are. Our guide covers how to notarize US documents without flying back.
Can I use a translator I found online?+
For a French administration it has to be a traducteur assermenté, sworn in by a Cour d'appel. A US certified translation is the single most common reason a clean dossier gets handed back at the counter. We break down which documents need an apostille and which need a certified translation, institution by institution.
What if you tell me I don't need you?+
Then that's what you'll hear. One birth certificate and four months of runway is a job you can run yourself, and we'd rather say so than take three hundred dollars for stamping an envelope.
Who actually handles my documents?+
Execution runs through a licensed US notary and apostille firm we work with, picked because they deal with clients living abroad every week. Maxime and Aurelio stay on the French side, on what your prefecture, mairie or caisse will accept, and we stay accountable to you for the result. One price covers both.
Before you order anything, readWhich US documents need an apostille versus a certified translationHow to notarize and apostille US documents without flying backGet your visa dossier reviewed before you submitBook a 30-minute relocation call with Maxime
Processing times depend on the issuing state, federal workload and international shipping. This is document preparation and coordination, and it does not replace legal or immigration advice.
Apostille · Sworn translation · FBI checkQuoted per document