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How we verify our guides

Moving to France runs on rules that change and on offices that apply them differently. This page says what we do, today, to keep a guide true, and what we do not claim.

Sources: an official page, opened and read

Every time we write or correct a sentence that rests on a fact (a price, a delay, a legal or tax rule, what a form asks for), it is backed by an official page that was opened and read during the work: Légifrance, France-Visas, Service-Public, the immigration ministry, ameli, impots.gouv.fr, the EU's ETIAS website, the IRS, ssa.gov, the provider's own page. It is not recalled from memory and not taken from another article of ours.

Some of these sites refuse automated readers. When one does, we open it in a real browser and read it there. We do not fill the gap with a plausible figure: a fact with no readable source is left out or left as it was.

The sources of a guide are listed under its key takeaways. Tables name the official page their rows were read on.

Expert reviewers: named, licensed, limited to their field

12 guides are reviewed for factual accuracy by a professional whose name, credentials and firm are on their expert page. Each reviewer has a written scope that also lists the fields they do not review: a tax specialist does not review immigration content.

A reviewer does not write our content and has no editorial control over our recommendations. The review confirms that the guide is factually accurate in general; it is not tax or legal advice for your situation. Where a reviewer has a business tie to us, it is stated on their page and under the guide.

Most guides are not reviewed by an outside expert. They rest on the official pages described above, and their authors are named on each guide.

Dates: real ones

Published is the day a guide first appeared, or for a guide written on this site, the day it went public. Updated is the day of the last real change to what the guide says. A new link, a new picture or a formatting change does not move it, and we never change a date to make a guide look fresh. In October 2026 we rebuilt every date from the history of the site's files to remove dates that had been spread by hand.

Last reviewed, where it appears, is the day the expert reviewer signed the review. It is kept apart from the Updated date.

The Verified line

A line under the byline, Verified on a date against an official page, means that on that day we opened the page, compared the facts named in the line with the guide, and fixed any difference before showing the line. The line names what was compared. It does not say that everything else in the guide was checked that day.

The line is added guide by guide, starting with the visa, residence permit, tax and healthcare guides that readers need most. A guide without the line has not been through this re-read yet; it is not a sign that it is wrong. A date on the line is the day we read the page, not a promise that the rule has not changed since: official pages move, which is why the date is shown.

Guides that carry the line today:

Corrections

When a re-read or a reader shows that a sentence is wrong or out of date, we replace it with what the official page states, and the guide's Updated date becomes that day. A guide with a Verified line that is corrected after the line's date is not shown with it until the line is read again. Our October 2026 re-read of 22 key guides ended with 27 corrected sentences.

If you find an error, tell us and name the page you read.

What we do not claim

  • Our guides are information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. A consulate, a prefecture or a CPAM office can apply a rule differently from the page that states it.
  • Not every figure comes from an official page. Some typical delays and ranges come from our own experience of helping Americans through the process. The Verified line lists only what was compared with an official page.
  • We do not yet re-read official pages on a fixed schedule. Until we do, the date on a Verified line is the only guarantee of freshness we give.
  • Some guides contain links we earn from. Those links are marked as sponsored, and our affiliate disclosure says how it works.