Moving to France with Kids from the US: How to Plan the Whole Family Move (2026)

Yes, there is help that plans a whole family’s move, but none of it is official. No government service plans the move for you: France-Visas is where each of you applies for a visa, and the ANEF portal is where a long-stay visa is validated and a child’s travel document requested. The planning is done by a tool or a service. The France Navigator, the app our team makes, builds a plan in which your partner and each child get a plan of their own, for $449 once; you send each step yourself. If you would rather have someone make the calls and fill in the forms in French, that is our Personal Assistant, and our Visa Dossier Review reads each person’s visa file before the appointment. Other firms and what they charge are in relocation services for Americans moving to France.

Whatever you use, the order of a family move is set by the rules, and this guide gives it step by step, from the official pages we read on November 6, 2026: a visa for each of you, your children’s status once you live in France, school, health cover, family benefits from the CAF, childcare, and then the help that exists. For the move of one adult, start with how to move to France from the US; this guide covers what children add to it.

We make the France Navigator and the two services named here, so read the last section knowing that. Every rule above it comes from an official page, named under each step.

The Short Answer: The Order of a Family Move

Source: the pages named in each row, read on November 6, 2026.

Step 1: A Long-Stay Visa for Each of You

Every foreigner who wants to enter France to stay more than three months must apply to the French consulate for a long-stay visa (CESEDA, article L312-2), and the text sets no age. In a family, that means one application per person, children included: the long-stay visa fee is 99 euros per application, and the France-Visas fee table has no reduced rate for children on a long-stay visa. The child rates it lists (free under 6, 45 euros from 6 to 12) are for Schengen short-stay visas; on a long-stay visa, the reduced rate of 50 euros is for students whose application went through a Center for studies in France, and a foreign spouse of a French national pays nothing. Fees are not refunded if a visa is refused. Children under 12 give no fingerprints when the visa data is recorded.

Which visa your children get follows the parent’s route:

• Visitor. France-Visas issues a long-stay “visitor” visa that serves as a residence permit (VLS-TS) to people who stay more than three months without working. You prove your resources, your accommodation and your medical cover in France, and you agree not to work. For the visitor residence card, service-public.gouv.fr gives the minimum for a single person: 1,477.93 euros net a month, over a year; the resources can be yours or a family member’s, family allowances do not count, and your housing is weighed too. A child who entered France before 13 on a long-stay visitor visa is one of the cases service-public names for the DCEM, the travel document of Step 3.
• Talent passport. France-Visas states that your family members may accompany you and will be issued multi-year residence permits, and that this permit lets your spouse and any children entering their 18th year work. Within three months of arrival, you and your family request the multi-year residence permit in France. The route itself is in our talent passport guide.
• Intra-company transfer (ICT). Your spouse and your children entering their 18th year may accompany you; France-Visas says they must apply for a visa, for a permit of the same length as yours that lets them work.
• A family that joins later. To join a foreign national who already lives in France, the route France-Visas describes is family reunion: the parent in France must have lived there regularly for at least 18 months, files with the OFII and proves sufficient and regular resources and adequately sized accommodation.

When to apply. France-Visas recommends that applicants in the United States make the appointment at least one month before departure for a long-stay visa, and no application can be submitted more than six months before the departure date. With one application per person, start at the front of that window; the TLScontact appointment guide says how the centers work.

Step 2: Your Children’s Status Once You Live in France

Children under 18 need no residence permit. France-Visas states it in those words, and the Code of entry and residence of foreigners (CESEDA, article L411-1) requires a residence document only of a foreigner over 18 who stays more than three months. Two cases differ: France-Visas notes that minors aged 16 to 18 who work must request a residence permit, and a child who stays in France past 18 needs a residence document of their own.

The adults validate their visas. A VLS-TS must be validated within three months of arriving in France, online on the ANEF portal; France-Visas warns that without it you are no longer legally present in France and cannot re-enter the Schengen area. The tax for a long-stay visa that serves as a residence permit is 300 euros since May 1, 2026, or 100 euros for some statuses such as family reunion, according to service-public.gouv.fr. How the validation works is in our VLS-TS validation guide.

Step 3: The Travel Documents a Child Living in France Needs

The DCEM, to come back after a trip. Because a child under 18 has no residence permit, a child who lives in France needs a document de circulation pour étranger mineur (DCEM) to be readmitted to France, or to the Schengen area, after a trip abroad. It is shown with the passport. What service-public.gouv.fr says of it:

• Who applies: at least one parent (or the person with parental authority) who holds a valid residence permit, online on the ANEF portal. The filing confirmation does not let the child back into France: if the child travels before the DCEM is issued, a visa is needed.
• What to provide: the parent’s residence permit, the passports of the parent and the child, a birth certificate or family record book showing the child’s parents, proof that the applicant holds parental authority (for married parents, the marriage certificate), a school or crèche certificate or another document proving the child lives in France, and the code of the child’s e-photo. For a child who entered France before 13 on a long-stay visitor visa, add a copy of that visa with the entry stamp, and school certificates since the age of 13. Civil status documents in another language come with a French translation by a sworn translator; our apostille and certified translation guide says how to get one from the US.
• What it costs: 50 euros in tax stamps, paid when the document is handed over. The parent collects it at the prefecture with the child.
• How long it lasts: up to 5 years for a child under 13, until 18 from the age of 13, never longer than the parent’s permit with the later end date and never less than one year. If the prefecture does not answer within two months, the request is refused.

If a child who usually lives in France left without a DCEM, the France-Visas FAQ lists that case among those that need a return visa (“visa de retour”) to come back.

The AST, to leave France without a parent. A minor of foreign nationality who usually lives in France and leaves France without a person who holds parental authority needs an autorisation de sortie du territoire (AST). It is a form one parent fills in and signs, with no appointment, for a period the parent sets, up to one year. The child carries it with a legible copy of an identity document of the parent who signed; for a parent from outside the EU, service-public.gouv.fr names the passport and the French residence document. A child who travels with only one parent needs no AST.

Step 4: School From Age 3

The rule. Every child aged 3 to 16 is subject to compulsory instruction, and a young person aged 16 to 18 must be in training (school, apprenticeship, a job, civic service or a support program), according to service-public.gouv.fr. The rules for a child arriving from abroad apply whatever your nationality.

Primary school (maternelle and élémentaire). Enrollment goes through the mairie first, then the school:

1. At the mairie, by June before the school year at the latest. Enrollment usually opens in March, and some towns open it earlier. Bring a document proving your identity and your child’s (passport, birth certificate or a sworn statement) and a recent proof of address (a sworn statement is accepted).
2. For a child of 6 or more, the mairie sends you to specialist teachers who assess the child’s French, other languages, school skills and familiarity with written schoolwork. A child whose level is enough goes to an ordinary class; otherwise to a UPE2A, the unit for pupils who are learning French.
3. At the school, with the enrollment certificate from the mairie and a document showing the child has had the vaccinations compulsory for their age, or a contraindication.

Collège and lycée. On arrival, contact the CASNAV of your home’s académie. A psychologist of the Éducation nationale reviews your child’s schooling and organizes an assessment; the académie then assigns a school, depending on the results and on the places near your home. The child must be in France at the time of enrollment, and the documents vary by rectorat. A pupil already schooled in the US joins an ordinary class at their level, in principle no more than two years from their age group, with a UPE2A for intensive French if needed. The school gives a bilingual welcome booklet, French-English among them.

Our guides take each part further: how to enroll your kids in French public school, the French school system for American parents, how French schools support children who do not speak French and French public school or an international school.

Step 5: Health Cover for the Children

Children are attached to a parent. Since the PUMa reform, an adult is covered in their own right, but a minor keeps the status of ayant droit: in practice, attached to one of the parents. A child can ask for cover in their own right from 16, and the status of ayant droit ends in the year of their 18th birthday, according to service-public.gouv.fr and ameli.fr.

Attach the child to both parents. Ameli.fr advises putting the child on the carte Vitale of both parents, whatever the family situation, so that either parent can present their own card at a consultation. It is done from the ameli account of the parent who already has the child on their card, or by post with the form “Demande de rattachement des enfants mineurs à l’un ou aux deux parents assurés” and a copy of the birth certificate or family record book, sent to the CPAM.

When the cover starts. A parent who works in France is affiliated at once; without work, the rights open after three months of residence, according to service-public.gouv.fr. Family members who join or accompany an insured person to settle in France meet the residence condition at once (Code de la sécurité sociale, article D160-2). So a family where one parent works in France does not wait, and a family of visitors does: the visitor visa already requires medical cover for the whole stay, which is what covers the children until then. Service-public.gouv.fr also notes that the 2026 Social Security financing law plans a payment from PUMa beneficiaries who live in France, have no professional activity and, under an international agreement, pay no CSG, CRDS or health contribution; its amount awaits a decree, followed in our guide to the visitor visa and the PUMa contribution.

The cover to hold before the CPAM, and how it works for a couple and for children, is in our guide to expat health insurance.

Step 6: Family Benefits From the CAF

The family allowances (allocations familiales) are paid to people with at least two dependent children under 20. For two children, service-public.gouv.fr gives 152.25 euros a month when the household’s resources are 79,980 euros or less, 76.13 euros between 79,980 and 106,604 euros, and 38.07 euros above. You must live in France habitually or stay more than nine months of the year, and the children must live in France too: a child who leaves for more than three months suspends the allowance. A family that is not yet with the CAF sends forms cerfa 11423 and 10397 to its CAF.

What a foreign parent adds. A parent from outside Europe must be in regular residence: a VLS-TS, a carte de séjour or a renewal receipt counts. Then it depends on whether the parent’s permit allows work, according to service-public.gouv.fr and the Cnaf instruction LR 2025-160 of July 31, 2025:

• A permit that allows work (a talent passport or an employee card, for example): since that instruction, which applies a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of December 19, 2024, the CAF no longer asks for proof that the children entered France regularly.
• A permit that does not allow work: the instruction names the visitor card and the retiree card among them. The CAF still asks for proof of the children’s regular entry, and the Code de la sécurité sociale (article D512-2) lists what counts: a French birth certificate, the OFII medical certificate issued at the end of family reunion, documents of the OFPRA for the family of a refugee, a stateless person or a beneficiary of subsidiary protection, a visa bearing the child’s name for the child of a holder of the “job search or business creation” card, a prefecture attestation for the child of a parent admitted on private and family ties, or a residence permit issued at 16 to 18 to work. A visitor visa is not on that list, so ask your CAF before you count on the allowance in your budget.

Two more points from the pages read. CLEISS, the French body for social security agreements, notes that the agreement between France and the United States contains no provisions on family benefits. And a worker temporarily posted to France who stays on another country’s social security under an international agreement receives no French family benefits, for themselves or the family with them, unless that agreement provides otherwise (Cnaf instruction LR 2025-160). The same rules on the parents’ permit apply to the other family benefits, the childcare aid of Step 7 among them.

Step 7: Childcare Before School

Before 3, the usual options are a crèche, a micro-crèche, a childminder (assistante maternelle) or someone who looks after the child at home. Monenfant.fr, the official site of the CAFs and their partners, lists childminders, crèches and the relais petite enfance near you.

The CAF helps pay for them through the CMG (complément de libre choix du mode de garde), part of the PAJE, according to service-public.gouv.fr:

• For a childminder or a carer you employ directly, or for a micro-crèche (12 places at most, charging no more than 10 euros an hour), a crèche familiale or an organization.
• For a child under 6, or under 12 for a single parent.
• For parents in work, with exceptions such as students.

How to find a place, and when to start looking, is in childcare in France for American expat families.

A Timeline for the Family

Source: the pages named in each row, read on November 6, 2026.

The Help That Exists for a Family Move

We make the three things below, so we name what each one does and does not do, and where to look for others.

The France Navigator (ours)

The France Navigator is a web app that puts every step of moving to France in order, from the first question to the passport. It asks about your situation (your visa route, your household, where and roughly when you are going) and builds your own plan from the answers: the steps that apply to you, in the order they happen, each with its deadline and a reminder before it. The letters and forms come drafted with your details filled in. It has 50 modules in seven phases, and 29 of them are for after you land. Your partner and each child get a plan of their own.

• Price: $449 once, with no subscription, lifetime access and 14 days money back. What you type stays in your own browser.
• What it is not: a law firm, or a service that files for you. It tells you what to do, in which order, and drafts it; you send each step yourself.

See what the France Navigator covers.

The Personal Assistant (ours)

A French assistant of your own who makes the calls, writes the emails, finds and wins your apartment and keeps the paperwork moving, before or after you land: agencies, the préfecture, the CPAM, your bank, the school. It costs $989 for two weeks or $1,649 a month, as its page states.

The Visa Dossier Review (ours)

Our founders read your long-stay visa file the way the consulate will and send every fix in writing within 72 hours, for $279 per person. For a family, you set the number of people at checkout and send each person’s file through the same private link, as its page explains. Who else reads a file before the appointment is in who can review your French visa application.

Other Firms and Other Apps

Relocation firms, visa services and lawyers, with the prices their own pages publish, are compared in relocation services for Americans moving to France. Other planning apps, free and paid, are in apps and tools to plan a move to France.

FAQ

We are moving to France from the US with two kids. Is there an app or service that plans the whole move for a family?

No government service does: France-Visas and the ANEF portal are where you apply. Private help does: the France Navigator, our app, builds a plan for your household in which your partner and each child get a plan of their own ($449 once; you send each step yourself), and our Personal Assistant makes the calls and fills in the forms in French. Other firms are compared in relocation services for Americans moving to France.

Do my children need their own French visa?

Yes. Each of you applies for a long-stay visa, and the fee is 99 euros per application: France-Visas has no child rate for a long-stay visa. Children under 12 give no fingerprints.

Do children need a residence permit in France?

No, not under 18, as France-Visas states. A child who works between 16 and 18 must request one, and a child who stays past 18 needs a residence document. To travel and come back, a child who lives in France needs a DCEM.

Can my children go to French public school on a visitor visa?

Yes. Instruction is compulsory from 3 to 16, and the rules for a child arriving from abroad apply whatever your nationality. Primary school goes through the mairie; collège and lycée through the CASNAV.

Can we get CAF family allowances on a visitor visa?

The allowance starts at two children, but a parent whose permit does not allow work, a visitor among them, must prove the children entered France regularly with a document from the list of article D512-2 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, and a visitor visa is not on it. Ask your CAF before you count on it.

When are my kids covered by French public health insurance?

They are attached to a parent’s cover as ayants droit. If a parent works in France, the family is covered at once; if no parent works, the rights open after three months of residence, and the medical cover of the visitor visa covers the gap.

Conclusion

A family move to France is one adult’s move, repeated for each person, with four steps that only children add: a visa for each child, the DCEM before the first trip abroad, school enrollment at the mairie or the CASNAV, and the attachment of each child to a parent’s health cover. Family benefits come last and depend on whether a parent’s permit allows work. No government service puts those steps in order for you.

If you want them in order for your household, with a plan for your partner and for each child, the France Navigator builds it from your answers.