The route most families take
The long-stay visitor visa asks for resources of EUR 17,735.19 a year for the main applicant, which is 1,477.93 euros net a month (Service-Public.fr, carte de sejour temporaire visiteur, checked 2026-08-26). That is the net annual SMIC, the French minimum wage, so a threshold you checked last year is already stale.
Two conditions ride with it. You must hold health insurance covering the whole stay, and you must sign a handwritten declaration that you will not work in France, as an employee, a freelancer, a trader or a company director. Resources can come from a family member rather than from you, and the prefecture also weighs your housing. Child benefit does not count toward the test.
The visa itself costs 99 euros per applicant, and that is where families get the arithmetic wrong. France-Visas publishes one fee table for every French visa, and the child discounts on it belong to short-stay Schengen visas only: under-6s free, 45 euros from 6 to 11. Long-stay visas carry no child rate. So a family of four budgets four times 99 euros, not two. An outside provider taking your file may add up to 45 euros, and nothing is refunded if the visa is refused.
The cost after arrival is fixed and plannable. A long-stay visa acting as a residence permit must be validated online within three months of landing, and the tax due then is 300 euros per person, up from 200 euros on 1 May 2026 under article 128 of the 2026 finance law. Year two is a separate card: the carte de sejour temporaire visiteur costs 350 euros on first issue, being 300 euros of tax plus 50 euros of stamp duty, and 250 euros to renew, filed online no later than two months before your current document expires.
If one parent has a French employer or a qualifying project, the family arrives on a salaried or talent route instead, with a different income test. That route is not costed here.
Schooling
Your children can enrol in state school whatever your nationality, and instruction is compulsory from 3 to 16. For primary you go to the mairie first, which issues a certificat d’inscription naming the school, then to the school with proof of the compulsory vaccinations. The deadline is the June before the September start, and most communes open enrolment in March. A child of 6 or over arriving from abroad is assessed on French, on other languages taught and on schooling already completed, and that assessment decides the class. A child without enough French goes into a UPE2A support unit.
The underpublished part is the sections internationales: state-funded international sections sitting inside ordinary public schools. At the 2025 rentree the education ministry’s own list records 188 sections across the Paris, Versailles and Creteil academies, 71 of them British, American or Australian. Public examples in Paris include Lycee international Honore de Balzac, Lycee Maurice Ravel, Lycee Camille See and Cite scolaire Montaigne. The dataset gives the school, the level and the language. It does not publish places or admission rules, so ask the school directly and ask early.
The private alternative is what moves a budget. Tuition for 2026-27 runs from 25,000 to 41,400 euros per child per year across the two schools we checked. American School of Paris publishes 25,000 euros for K3 to K5, 34,600 for Grades 1 to 5, 39,965 for Grades 6 to 8 and 41,400 for Grades 9 to 12. International School of Paris publishes 25,500 euros for Nursery to Pre-Kindergarten, rising to 39,000 for Grades 10 to 12. On top of tuition sit one-off charges of 10,000 to 12,200 euros per child: ISP’s entry fee and ASP’s capital assessment.
A middle option exists. Ecole Jeannine Manuel, bilingual and under contract with the state, publishes 10,260 euros a year for Paris primary in 2026-27, plus a 1,650 euro registration fee (school fee schedule, checked 2026-08-26).
Healthcare for the family
Residents are covered by the Protection universelle maladie. If you are not working, your rights open three months after you arrive, not on arrival. If you are working, you are affiliated immediately. Rights stay open as long as you live in France at least six months a year, and a non-EU national must hold a residence document. Children stay attached to a parent until the year they turn 18.
Those three months are exactly why the visitor route requires private insurance covering the whole stay. Most families keep private cover afterwards as a top-up. This site publishes no premium figure for France, because no insurer’s own rate page was verified at source.
One change is pending. The social security financing law of 30 December 2025 creates a contribution for PUMa beneficiaries who reside lawfully, do not work and are not liable for CSG or CRDS under an international agreement. The decree setting the amount was not published when we checked, so we give you no figure.
What the first year costs
Rent is the largest recurring line. In Paris, the median monthly rent excluding charges for a new letting at 1 January 2025 was 1,750 euros for a three-room flat and 2,548 euros for four rooms or more (OLAP, Donnees de l’annee 2025). Read those labels carefully: French room counts include the living room, so a three-room flat is what you would call a two-bedroom, and four rooms or more is a three-bedroom. Mean floor areas were 64 and 99 square metres.
To sign, budget one month of rent excluding charges as the deposit on an unfurnished lease, two months if it is furnished. Agency fees are capped: for the file, the viewing and the lease you pay the lower of half the agency’s charge and 12.10 euros per square metre in the zone tres tendue, plus the entry inventory at the lower of half its cost and 3.03 euros per square metre.
Immigration costs 99 euros per person for the visa, then 300 euros per adult at validation, then 350 euros per adult for the year-two card. Schooling is either the state route or 25,000 to 41,400 euros per child plus a one-off 10,000 to 12,200 euros. Bringing the cat costs 12 euros to register with I-CAD, plus your vet’s charges, which are not published.
There is no official source for what an international move costs, so this site publishes no mover figure. Collect quotes instead. If you request them through a form on this site, we get paid for that referral.
What surprises families
The enrolment deadline is June, not August. Arrive in July and you are negotiating for a place rather than claiming one.
The three-month health wait catches people who assumed residence equals cover. Plan private insurance to run past month four, not to month three.
Since 1 January 2026, non-EU nationals must pass a civic exam before applying for a multi-year card or naturalisation: 40 questions in 45 minutes, 32 correct to pass, taken at the end of 24 hours of civic training spread over four days. The training now comes before the card, not after (Service-Public.fr, published 18 December 2025, checked 2026-08-26). It does not apply to renewing a card you already hold.
Tax residence can arrive before you expect it. France treats you as resident if your household’s habitual residence is there, or you spend 183 days, or your main work or economic centre is there. Any one test is enough. The France and United States convention of 31 August 1994 decides which country taxes what; it does not end a US citizen’s filing obligation.
Your dog needs a microchip implanted before the rabies shot, not after, and the vaccine is only valid 21 days later. The United States is exempt from the antibody titration test, which saves three months of waiting.
Who should not move here
Do not choose France on the visitor route if your income is below the net annual SMIC, because you cannot make up the difference with local work. Do not choose it if you need English-language state schooling as a certainty: 71 English-language sections serve a whole metropolitan region, and admission cannot be counted on from abroad. Do not choose it if someone in your family needs continuous specialist care in the first three months, unless you have priced private cover that will genuinely carry that care.