Relocation Services for Americans Moving to France (2026): Who Does What and What They Charge

Help with a move to France comes in five kinds, priced so differently that a single “average cost” means nothing: an app that runs the whole move as a project costs $449 once with the France Navigator, a reading of your visa file $279 per person, a call with an expert $249, an assistant in France $989 for two weeks, and a firm that takes the file off your hands 3,000 euros for one retired visa at French Connections HCB, or from $6,500 per person on Expatsi’s Movers plan. Under every one of them sit the French state’s fees, 99 euros for the long-stay visa and 300 euros to validate it, per adult, which no provider can remove.

EasyFranceNow, which publishes this guide, sells four of these services: the France Navigator, the Visa Dossier Review, the Consulting Call and the Personal Assistant. They come first below, with what each price pays for. The other providers are named with the price their own page publishes, read on November 9, 2026, keeping to those with established sites; the quote you receive is the one that counts.

What You Pay Whatever You Choose: the State’s Fees

These are paid by you, to the French state, with or without help.

For one adult on a visitor visa, that is 399 euros in the first year before anyone is paid to help; for a couple, 798 euros. France-Visas also warns applicants to “exercise caution in all transactions with companies claiming to offer assistance in obtaining French visas”: a service can prepare your file, it cannot sell you the visa. A refused file costs time and the 99 euros, which are not refunded. For the whole one-time bill of the move (flights, shipping, deposits, insurance), see what it costs to move to France from the US.

The Five Kinds of Help at a Glance

Doing It Yourself With an App

The rules of a move to France are spread across the sites of nine French agencies, and none of them says which parts apply to you or in which order. The France Navigator by EasyFranceNow does that synthesis. It is built from and rechecked against service-public.gouv.fr, France-Visas, impots.gouv.fr, Légifrance, ameli.fr, ANTS and irs.gov, every figure in it shows the day it was last verified and links back to its official page, and the check runs automatically every month, so a figure that changes while you plan changes in your plan. Two independent experts review the modules in their own field: a US investment adviser (EFP, Series 65) for the American money side, a French tax lawyer (avocat, TEP) for French tax and inheritance.

Then it runs your move like a project. It builds your plan from your answers (visa route, household, dates): the steps that apply to you in the order they happen, each with its deadline and a reminder before it, and the plan rebuilds when an answer changes. It shows where you stand (your phase, the days left before you leave, the steps done and to go), tracks every document your visa asks for with its status and the day it is due, counts down your OFII deadline once you land and your Schengen days, drafts every letter and form with your details, and gives your partner and each child a plan of their own. Once you live in France, 29 of its 50 modules take over, and its residency tracker puts each card renewal and your earliest dates for the ten-year card and for citizenship in your calendar, with reminders. Baguette Bound, who have helped Americans move to France since 2023 and are its official partner, test every feature. $449 once, for life, everything added later included, 14 days money back. It does not file for you: you send each step yourself, knowing it is the right one.

Why it costs more than a free planner: MigrantIQ’s guides cover 220 countries and WhereNext’s Move Abroad Planner 95, with 35 or more steps per country; the France Navigator covers one move, from the US to France, in 50 modules, with its sources rechecked every month and your own deadlines. Expatsi Go, an app for a move abroad that starts by matching you with a country, costs $99 a month or $1,188 a year on its Planners plan: the France Navigator costs less than five months of it, once. The planners are described from their own pages in the apps and tools to plan a move to France.

Having Your Visa File Read or Built

With the Visa Dossier Review by EasyFranceNow, you build the file and the two founders of EasyFranceNow, Maxime Roseau and Aurelio Maurici, French nationals who move people to France for a living, read every document the way the consulate will. They flag what gets American files refused, starting with the refusal line they see most on American files, “incomplete or unreliable information”: a screenshot of a banking app instead of the real statement, a translation that is not sworn, statements that do not go back far enough. You get the fix for each flag, color-coded from ready to missing, in writing within 72 hours. $279 per person.

The services that sell a visa file cost more. French Connections HCB sells a DIY Starter at 599 euros (written guides, a review of the documents you upload, follow-up by non-priority email) and prepares a retired or remote-working visa for 3,000 euros. The European Concierge prepares a single retiree’s visa for 950 pounds. If you can gather your own documents, the Visa Dossier Review gives you the founders’ eyes on every line for less than either, in writing within 72 hours. TLScontact’s own assistance at its centers and the other ways to have a visa file read before the appointment are compared in who can review your French visa application.

A Call With an Expert

The Consulting Call by EasyFranceNow is a consultation, not a sales call. For 30 minutes, Maxime Roseau, co-founder of EasyFranceNow, who handles visa, OFII, prefecture renewal and naturalization files for a living, goes through your move as deep as your situation needs: the visa route that really fits (freelance income, remote work in a gray zone, savings instead of a salary, a partner on another status, children who need a school), what the consulate looks at in your proof of funds, when to look for housing, what to line up for the bank and healthcare, and the order to do it all in. He raises the questions you would not think to ask, the small details that quietly get a visa refused or a rental file turned down. You hang up knowing what to do next. $249, and if you then want the French handled for you, the $249 comes off a Personal Assistant plan taken within 14 days of the call.

The depth is the same as in the guides you are reading. EasyFranceNow publishes more than 150 guides for Americans moving to France, every fact in them backed by an official page opened and read, as the way EasyFranceNow verifies its guides sets out, and 31 of them reviewed by lawyers, accountants and a financial adviser named on the site. A client on a long-stay student visa wrote on Google that Maxime was “incredibly knowledgeable, patient, and responsive”.

Why it costs more than a firm’s assessment: French Connections HCB’s 45-euro Relocation Assessment is a conversation with a relocation specialist that ends, its page says, with a plan and the price of its services, the 45 euros coming off them. The Consulting Call is the advice itself, for a move you run yourself or with EasyFranceNow.

Someone on the Ground in France

Once you are in France, much of the work is phone calls, letters and appointments in French: the CPAM, the bank, the préfecture, the agency of an apartment you want. The Personal Assistant by EasyFranceNow is one named French assistant, trained by the founders on how files from abroad get accepted, who stays yours for the whole plan: calls, emails and letters in French, appointments booked, every letter read and answered, and the housing search from the first listing to the keys, with your file defended when a foreign income gives an agency pause. A written answer within one business day, up to about 10 hours of active work a week, and the founders step in on the hard cases. $989 for two weeks or $1,649 a month, renewed until you stop it.

Firms price the same tasks one by one: French Connections HCB charges 1,314 euros for the Carte Vitale and healthcare registration alone. The Personal Assistant takes the CPAM file in hand as part of the plan, along with the bank, the préfecture and the rest of your list.

Full Relocation Firms

A full firm takes the whole move off your hands. Expatsi’s Movers plan, a move coordinated by a concierge with its visa partners, starts at $6,500 for one person and $8,000 for two on the destinations it prices, and quotes France on request; government and consular fees and translations are paid on top. EasyStart prices by the services you choose and quotes before you start.

Between doing everything alone and handing everything over, the four EasyFranceNow services fit together: the France Navigator for the order, the sources and the dates, a Visa Dossier Review before the appointment, the Personal Assistant for the French once you land, and a Consulting Call whenever a decision needs an expert. For one person with two weeks of the assistant, the first three come to $1,717, less than a third of the price at which the Movers plan starts.

Which One Fits Your Case

A Retiring Couple

For two adults on a visitor visa, the state takes 798 euros in the first year (two visas, two validations). On top of that, from the pages read:

A couple with a simple file (pensions, savings, a rented home lined up) usually needs order and a second pair of eyes more than a full firm. A couple with property to sell and investments in both countries has more to put in order: the France Navigator’s long-term phase covers tax, property, retirement and estate, and a Consulting Call settles the order of the first steps. The guide to retiring in France as an American walks through the visa, healthcare and tax steps in order.

A Family With Children

The France Navigator gives your partner and each child a plan of their own at no extra cost. Elsewhere a child is priced on its own: 550 pounds per child at The European Concierge, and the standard rate at French Connections HCB, whose reduction for a second applicant applies to adults only. The guide to enrolling your kids in a French public school explains the steps.

Working in France

Which route fits a remote job, freelance income or a job offer in France is the first thing a Consulting Call settles. For a salaried job, see the work visa guide, and once you have the job, what French employment law guarantees you.

Already in France

29 of the France Navigator’s 50 modules are for after you land, and its residency tracker sets out each card renewal on your route with the window to file it, and your earliest dates for the ten-year card and for citizenship. For the calls and letters in French, the Personal Assistant ($989 for two weeks). If the steps ahead are a renewal and, later, citizenship, the France Navigator or a Consulting Call may be all you need.

What to Check Before You Sign

• What the price covers, and per whom. Per person or per household (the France Navigator covers the household; a second adult adds 75% of the price at French Connections HCB), the move only or the first year too, the state’s fees included or not.
• Who does the work. At EasyFranceNow, the founders read your file, Maxime Roseau takes your call and one named French assistant stays with you. Elsewhere, ask whether the person you speak to is the one who will handle your file.
• Where the facts come from. Ask which official page each rule and figure rests on and when it was last checked. In the France Navigator, every figure shows both.
• What happens after a refusal. No one can promise a visa, and the France-Visas FAQ says visa fees “are not refunded, even in case of refusal or withdrawal of the application”.
• The housing line. The guide to what France relocation services cost, from a consultant to a spreadsheet or a tool suite, explains what French law says about the fees of a property search and when they can be billed.

FAQ

How much does a relocation service to France cost?

From the pages read on November 9, 2026: $449 once for the France Navigator, $279 per person for the Visa Dossier Review, $249 for the Consulting Call and $989 for two weeks of the Personal Assistant, all four sold by EasyFranceNow; 599 euros for French Connections HCB’s DIY package and 3,000 euros for a retired visa it prepares; 950 pounds for a single retiree’s visa at The European Concierge; from $6,500 per person on Expatsi’s Movers plan. The state’s fees (99 euros for the visa, 300 euros to validate it) come on top.

What is the best relocation service for Americans moving to France?

The one that matches what you cannot do yourself. To run the move yourself with every step, source and deadline in one place, the France Navigator. To have your file read by experts before the appointment, the Visa Dossier Review. To settle your route in depth, the Consulting Call. For the French once you land, the Personal Assistant. To hand over everything, a full firm, from $6,500 per person on Expatsi’s Movers plan.

Do I need a relocation service to move to France?

No. You can apply for the visa on France-Visas and for every permit after it on the ANEF portal yourself. A service saves time and catches mistakes; it does not change what the consulate asks for. If you do it yourself, the France Navigator puts every step in order, with its official source, for $449 once.

Can a relocation service guarantee my French visa?

No. The consulate decides. A service prepares the file; the visa fee is not refunded after a refusal.

Are the French state’s fees included in a relocation package?

Rarely, and the page should say. Of the providers named here, French Connections HCB includes the validation tax in its visa price; the 99-euro visa fee is yours to pay in every case.

What does a relocation service cost for a retired couple?

The state takes 798 euros for two visas and two validations. On top: $449 for the France Navigator shared by the household, $558 for two Visa Dossier Reviews, 1,250 pounds for a retiree couple’s visas at The European Concierge, or 5,250 euros at French Connections HCB.

Conclusion

The price of help with a move to France is mostly the price of how much you hand over. A whole move handed to a firm starts at $6,500 per person on Expatsi’s Movers plan; a retired visa prepared for you costs 3,000 euros at French Connections HCB, 5,250 euros for a couple. With EasyFranceNow you keep the move in your hands without doing it blind: the France Navigator holds every step, source and deadline for $449 once, the Visa Dossier Review puts the founders’ eyes on your file for $279 per person, and the Personal Assistant takes over the French once you land. The state’s 399 euros per adult are the same in every case.

If you are still deciding how much help you need, a 30-minute Consulting Call settles it in depth with Maxime Roseau, and how to move to France from the US gives the whole order of the move for free.