The whole move, expertly orchestrated.

The decision itself usually takes a couple of weeks once your file is submitted — up to 45 days in special circumstances. Start to finish — preparing the dossier, applying, and getting the visa — plan on six to ten weeks. The preparation (financial documentation, healthcare strategy, apostilles) is the part that runs longer than people expect, and starting earlier buys slack, not speed. Once you arrive and validate, the visa converts into a residence permit, renewed annually for the first few years and then on a multi-year card.

The final decision belongs to French administration, and no one can guarantee it. What we stand behind: what you've paid covered preparation and dossier work that was done, and the arrival payment — and any scheduled payment that hasn't happened — is never charged. If a corrected file can fix the refusal, we re-prepare and re-file once within six months at no additional Aelos fee.

Government-mandated and TLS fees are excluded: the consulate visa fee (~$116/person), the TLScontact appointment fee (~$257/person), the TLS Express passport-return courier ($40/person), the validation timbre fiscal (~$351/person, required within three months of arrival), and US apostilles. All in, that's typically ~$840 per person, ~$1,680 for a couple, and you'd pay these no matter who manages your move. Insurance premiums (your visa-year policy and your mutuelle) are paid directly to your carrier; we handle the enrollment, not the premium. And home search is scoped with you and delivered by a vetted partner you engage directly, at their rates.

Yes — married couples get a discount on the household total, and so does each of you who also holds an EU passport, because the visa work falls away for that person (self-declared at checkout, checked against the passport you upload). They stack, and you see the exact numbers before you pay.

Payment is staged with your move: a first payment to begin, and the final payment only once you've confirmed your arrival in France. If your move is further out, the middle is scheduled around your move date — you see and approve the exact amounts and dates at checkout, we save your card securely with Stripe, and we email you a week before any scheduled payment.

The arrival payment is only ever taken when you confirm arrival, on screen — it's never a debt. Payments already made aren't refundable once the work they cover has begun. The first year of Aelos Membership (50% off) is separate, and only billed if you add it as you confirm your arrival.

For pre-retirees in the US, plan on six to twelve months from consultation to landing in France. The visa runs six to ten weeks start to finish — preparing the dossier, applying, and getting the decision, which itself usually takes a couple of weeks and at most 45 days. The work around it — passport renewals if needed, choosing a region, securing housing — runs longer than people expect. Move Concierge runs it as one sequenced plan once you're committed and your visa file is in motion — the order of the work is fixed even when consulate dates move. After arrival, validation, Sécurité Sociale, banking, driver's license, and your first tax cycle take another six to nine months to fully settle. By year two, life is steady.

Medicare doesn't follow you to France. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) covers almost nothing outside the US, and most Medicare Advantage plans terminate when you move abroad permanently. The good news: France's universal healthcare system, PUMa, is available to legal residents, and a mutuelle on top covers the rest at a fraction of US costs. (One thing to know: if your income is mostly from investments, a French health contribution — the “taxe PUMa” — can apply; it's the kind of thing our tax partners handle for members.) We'll walk you through whether to keep paying Part A premiums (worth it if you might return) and how to time the transition to avoid coverage gaps. Whether to drop Part B is a real decision. Done wrong, it can carry a lifetime late-enrollment penalty, so we put a Medicare specialist in the loop before you decide.

No. Most Aelos members keep US citizenship and file US taxes every year for the rest of their lives — that's just what being American means, regardless of where you live. The US–France tax treaty makes this work cleanly: you generally don't pay income tax twice, and on US-source income you often pay less in France than you did at home. (The treaty doesn't cover certain French social contributions — notably the cotisation subsidiaire maladie, the “taxe PUMa,” which can touch investment income for retirees without pension income — so we review whether it applies to you in the consultation.) Renouncing US citizenship is a serious decision with significant tax consequences (the exit tax) and rarely makes sense.

They come with you — with the right sequencing. US brokerages have different policies for customers with foreign addresses (some restrict trading, a few close accounts), so we check your custodian's policy before you change anything. One of our standing rules: don't update your brokerage address until the strategy is set. For the mail that needs to keep a US address, we help you choose a virtual mailbox provider and get the notarized USPS Form 1583 done before you leave. You contract with the provider and pay their monthly fee directly. And Social Security keeps paying: if you want your benefits in euros, we walk you through the in-person Federal Benefits Unit appointment that switches your deposit to your French bank. Payments then land at the official conversion rate, with no US wire fees.