How to Retire in France as an American: The Complete 2026 Guide

Yes, Americans can retire in France. There is no visa officially called a "retirement visa." Most retirees who aren't planning to work apply for a long-stay Visitor visa, known as the VLS-TS Visitor. It normally lets you live in France for up to a year and can be renewed from France.

Moving involves more than getting the visa, though. You'll also make decisions about healthcare, taxes, housing, banking, your driver's license, and what to keep in place back in the United States.

France attracts American retirees for a mix of practical and personal reasons. Healthcare costs are generally much lower than in the US, many parts of the country are considerably less expensive than major US coastal cities, and good rail connections make it possible to live without a car in some towns. French administration can be slow; speaking some French makes everyday life much easier, and moving abroad puts distance between you and family in the US. Taxes also get more complicated, because US citizens generally keep filing in the United States after moving abroad. Our Why France page makes the fuller case; this guide is about how the move actually works.

Who this guide is for

This is mainly for Americans who plan to make France their primary home, expect to live on Social Security, pensions, retirement accounts, investments, or savings, and don't plan to work in France. If you're married to a French or EU citizen, plan to work or run a business, or already hold EU citizenship, different rules may apply.

In this guide: the visa retirees use · visa requirements · what it costs · US-France taxes · healthcare and Medicare · where to live · rent or buy · banking · driving · before you leave the US · your first 90 days · residence and citizenship · common mistakes · how Aelos helps

The visa most American retirees use

As an American, you can spend up to 90 days in any 180 days in the Schengen area without a visa. That covers a long visit or a scouting trip, but not living in France.

To make France your home, you'll generally need a long-stay visa. Most American retirees use the VLS-TS Visitor. The initials stand for visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour. In plain terms, it's a long-stay visa that also acts as your residence permit while it's valid, once you validate it after you arrive. It's issued for a year at a time, renewed from inside France, and meant for people who can support themselves without working here.

You may see this described online as a "France retirement visa," but that isn't its official name.

The usual path: apply for the VLS-TS Visitor visa, validate it within three months of arrival, renew your residence status each year, and consider longer-term residence later.

Read our complete guide to the French long-stay Visitor visa for American retirees.

France retirement visa requirements

For a Visitor visa, the application mainly comes down to four things: financial resources, health insurance, accommodation, and your commitment not to work.

Financial resources. You need to show you can support yourself in France without working. Social Security, pensions, retirement income, and savings can all help demonstrate this. French authorities use minimum-income benchmarks when assessing Visitor residence status, but the amounts and documents that matter for a visa application depend on your household and circumstances. Our visa guide covers the current benchmark and examples.

Health insurance. You also need private health insurance that meets your visa's requirements and covers you in France. This is separate from the French public system, which you may become eligible to join after establishing residence.

Accommodation. Your application requires evidence of where you'll live in France. That can be a signed lease, proof of a property you own, or a formal accommodation declaration from someone hosting you, together with the supporting documents that arrangement requires.

A commitment not to work. The Visitor status is granted on the condition that you won't take employment in France. If you live on Social Security, a pension, investments, or savings, that is usually consistent with the purpose of the visa.

Documents and application. The process runs through the France-Visas portal, then an appointment with the consulate's visa center (usually VFS Global), then the consulate's decision.

Read our complete guide to the French long-stay Visitor visa for American retirees.

What will retirement in France cost?

The visa minimum and a comfortable life are two different numbers. Clearing the income threshold gets you the visa. It doesn't tell you what your months will cost.

There isn't one useful national figure, because housing costs vary so much. Renting in a smaller city like Limoges or Poitiers gives you a very different budget from living in Paris, Nice, or central Bordeaux. Housing usually makes the biggest difference. You'll also budget for groceries, utilities, transportation, supplemental health coverage (a mutuelle), travel back to the US, and, depending on your situation, taxes and social charges.

Food is closer to US prices than many people expect. Healthcare, once you're in the public system with a mutuelle, costs a fraction of what it does in the US.

Read our post comparing the cost of retiring in France vs in Florida.

How US-France taxes work

Moving to France does not mean you stop filing US taxes. US citizens generally keep filing a federal return on their worldwide income even after becoming French residents.

The good news for many retirees is that the US-France tax treaty gives favorable treatment to several common sources of US retirement income. US Social Security and qualifying US pension and retirement-plan distributions, including many 401(k) and IRA distributions, are taxable only in the United States under the treaty. You may still need to report that income on your French return even when France ultimately doesn't collect tax on it, and it can affect the calculation of tax on other income, depending on the treaty treatment.

Other income is more complicated. Dividends, investment gains, real estate, trusts, and certain financial accounts each need to be looked at on their own. France also has a wealth tax on larger real-estate holdings, known as the IFI (impôt sur la fortune immobilière), which applies to property above €1.3 million net and not to financial assets.

Americans living in France can also have extra US reporting obligations for foreign bank and investment accounts. The best-known is the FBAR, which can apply once the combined balance of your non-US accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year. Some taxpayers also have to file Form 8938. The answer depends on your income and assets, and this is an area where specialist advice can be useful.

Read our full guide to US-France taxes for American retirees.

Healthcare and Medicare

Healthcare follows a sequence. Before you move, you carry the private insurance your visa requires. People who qualify for the public system (PUMa) on the basis of stable residence can generally apply after three months of residence in France. Enrollment isn't automatic: you submit an application to your local CPAM, the local office that administers France's national health insurance, and processing takes time. Once enrolled, you receive a Carte Vitale, the health-insurance card that handles reimbursement at pharmacies and doctors. Most residents then add a mutuelle, supplemental private insurance, for the share the public system doesn't cover.

What about Medicare? Original Medicare generally does not cover routine medical care in France. So many Americans have to decide whether to keep paying for Part B even though they won't normally use it while living in France. Dropping Part B can lead to a late-enrollment penalty if you later return to the US and sign up again, depending on your circumstances, so it's worth deciding before you move.

Where to live

The best place to retire depends much more on how you want to live than on any national ranking. The main variables are your budget, climate, access to an international airport, local healthcare, train connections, whether you want to drive, and how much of an English-speaking community you want nearby.

For example:

Nice or Menton for a Mediterranean climate, an airport, and a large international community, at a higher cost.
Bordeaux for a real city with wine country nearby and a fast train to Paris.
Annecy for mountains, lakes, and the outdoors.
The Dordogne area for countryside and an established Anglophone population, with more reliance on a car.
Paris for connectivity and culture, at the highest prices in the country.

Not sure where in France fits you? Take Find Your France.

Rent or buy

Many Americans choose to rent first. It gives you time to see what a town is like year-round before committing to a purchase, and it can also provide the proof of accommodation your visa application needs.

Americans can also buy property before becoming French residents, but the costs are higher than many expect. On an older property, acquisition costs (the "frais de notaire") commonly add roughly 7% to 8% to the purchase price. Financing can also be more complicated for US citizens, and owning French property can create US and French tax considerations.

Banking and managing US money

Banking creates problems on both sides of the Atlantic. Some US banks and brokerages restrict accounts after a customer moves abroad, and some French institutions are reluctant to take US citizens because of FATCA, the US reporting law. So before you leave, confirm which of your US institutions will keep serving you, and keep your best accounts open.

Opening a French current account is possible, although some banks are reluctant to take US citizens because of the reporting burden. If you're repeatedly refused one, France has a process called the droit au compte (a "right to an account"), through which the Banque de France can designate a bank to provide basic banking services. Investment and brokerage accounts can be considerably harder for US citizens, because financial institutions have to deal with both US and European rules.

For moving money, services such as Wise are commonly used for international transfers, but compare the exchange rate and total fees before moving a large amount. Plan to keep a US card or two active, and sort brokerage questions before you move.

Read our full guide to banking and money for Americans in France.

Driving and your US license

After becoming resident, you can generally keep driving temporarily on a valid US license, provided you meet the translation or International Driving Permit requirements. After that, the rules depend on your specific US state.

France has license-exchange agreements with some US states but not others. Check whether your state has a reciprocal agreement before you move. If it does, you can exchange your license for a French one without a test, but the application window is short, usually the first year after you establish residence, so don't miss it. If it doesn't, plan on eventually getting a French license through the French testing process.

Read our article about driving in France as an American.

What to do before leaving the US

Much of how smoothly the move goes depends on what you handle while you still have US doctors, US banks, and time.

Six to twenty-four months out. Get a cross-border tax and estate review. Plan the visa. Choose your region. Settle a housing plan for year one.

Three to six months out. Assemble the visa documents. Line up visa-compliant health insurance. Ask your banks and brokerage firms whether they'll keep serving you once your primary address is in France. Check your state's driver's license reciprocity. Start pet paperwork if you're bringing animals.

The final month. Decide how you'll handle US mail and which address your US financial institutions will accept after the move. Make sure you can still receive security codes from your US banks and other accounts after you move. Talk to your doctors about the prescriptions you rely on and how much medication you can legally bring. Gather originals of key documents. Consider whether someone you trust in the US should hold a limited power of attorney for things that are hard to handle from abroad. Book the movers, or decide what ships and what you replace in France.

Your first 90 days

Several deadlines start from your arrival date.

Validate your VLS-TS visa online within three months, or it lapses. Set up your French bank account, phone, and utilities. If you're joining the health system on the basis of residence, prepare your CPAM application so you can submit it once you're eligible, generally after three months of stable residence. Keep the records you'll need for your first French tax return, which will generally be filed the following year. Exchange your driver's license if your state qualifies and you're inside the window.

Several of these steps have deadlines, so keep one calendar with the dates that apply to you.

Long-term residence and citizenship

The path is gradual: VLS-TS Visitor, annual renewals, then eligibility for longer-term residence, and citizenship later for those who qualify. A few common questions:

Do the Visitor years count toward residence? Yes. Years spent legally in France on Visitor status can count toward the five years generally required for a ten-year carte de résident longue durée-UE, a renewable long-term residence card. Five years of residence isn't the only condition: applicants also need to meet requirements on resources, health coverage, and integration.

Can an American become French? Naturalization is possible after five years of residence in many cases, but five years doesn't create an automatic right to citizenship. France tightened its naturalization requirements in 2025, with more emphasis on integration and stable, sufficient resources. Since January 2026, applicants also generally need to show French at B2 level. For retirees whose income comes mainly from the US, naturalization can be less straightforward than the "five-year rule" suggests.

Spouses of French or EU citizens follow a different, generally easier track, with its own timelines.

Read our guide to going from a Visitor visa to long-term residence and citizenship.

Common mistakes

Waiting until after the move to think about taxes. Some decisions are much easier to make while you're still a US resident.
Assuming Medicare will follow you to France. For routine care, it generally won't, and the Part B decision is best made before you go.
Closing US accounts too quickly. Some banking and brokerage relationships are hard to recreate once you have a foreign address.
Missing your driver's license exchange window. Whether you can exchange your license at all depends on the state that issued it.
Treating visa approval as the finish line. Healthcare registration, banking, taxes, and residence renewals all come afterward.
Planning US and French taxes separately. The costly errors tend to fall in the gap between two advisers who never speak to each other.

How Aelos helps

You can handle all of this yourself. If you do, you'll be coordinating immigration paperwork, housing, healthcare enrollment, tax specialists, and the administrative steps after arrival.

If you're preparing to move, Aelos Move Concierge helps with the visa and relocation process through your first months in France. If you already live in France, Aelos Membership covers ongoing needs, including US and French tax filings, residence renewals, healthcare, and other cross-border administration.

Explore Move Concierge · Explore Membership

This guide is educational and is not tax, legal, or immigration advice. Rules change and vary by individual circumstance and by region. Confirm the current position for your own situation with a qualified professional before acting.