Move to France:
Personalized Relocation Guidance
What you get
60-minute private video call
Total clarity: Your visa pathway, where to land, and an honest read on whether now is the time
A written follow-up summary with your specific pathway, next steps, and resources
Honest answers — including "don't move yet" if that's the truth
Clarity Call fee of 250€. If you book a larger relocation package within 30 days, the call fee is credited toward it.
The French Edit: 60 minutes with someone who’s lived it
You've read the blogs. You've lurked in the Facebook groups. You've gotten seventeen contradictory answers about visas, taxes, and whether you can really work from France.
I'm Maggie Spicer. I moved from San Francisco to France five years ago — first Paris, now the Basque coast — on a Talent Passport, as a self-employed entrepreneur. I've navigated the Talent Passport (Passeport Talent) and profession libérale, entrepreneur/commerçant, VLS-TS, long-stay visitor visa process, the prefecture appointments, the banking maze, the micro-entrepreneur setup, the healthcare system, and every unglamorous piece of French bureaucracy the guidebooks skip.
This call is 60 minutes of straight answers about your situation. Not a sales pitch. Not generic advice. The conversation I wish someone had offered me before I moved.
What we'll cover
Whatever matters most to your move, which usually includes:
Your visa pathway — which of France's long-stay visas actually fits your situation (and which ones people waste months pursuing)
Where to land — Paris vs. the southwest vs. elsewhere, matched honestly to your budget, work, and the life you're picturing
Working legally — freelancing, running a business, or working remotely from France, and what each actually requires
The real costs — what your first year genuinely costs beyond rent
What nobody tells you — the timing traps, the paperwork sequences, the things that only make sense once you've lived them
"Is this for me?" — If you're seriously considering a move to France within the next 18 months and want clarity before spending money on lawyers, plane tickets, or incorrect assumptions: yes.
Why me and not a relocation agency
Most relocation services are staffed by consultants who've never done it themselves. I have. I moved from San Francisco to Paris, then to the Basque coast, on a Talent Passport as a self-employed entrepreneur — visa file, prefecture appointments, micro-entrepreneur registration, French banking, healthcare, all of it, without a corporate transfer package. When I tell you which pathway fits, it's from having walked it.
What happens after the call
Some people leave the call with everything they need. Others want the full roadmap or hands-on support through the move — both are available, and we'll figure out on the call which one you actually need.
Ready to Commit to the Move?
The Blueprint — from €1,500
Your move, mapped end to end. Everything in The Call, plus a personalized relocation plan: the right visa route and document sequence, a realistic first-year cost breakdown, your setup checklist (banking, healthcare, micro-entrepreneur or business structure), and two working sessions as you go. You leave knowing exactly what to do and in what order.
The Landing — from €5,000 / bespoke
Hands-on, start to settled. I work alongside you through the whole move: visa application support, prefecture prep, banking and healthcare setup, coordination with notaires and housing, and the hundred small things nobody warns you about. For people who'd rather have someone who's done it walking beside them than a stack of tabs open at 2am. Limited spots — this one's high-touch by design.
The Integration — By Application
Ready to invest with your full heart in France and buy a property? You’re in the right hands. Or, not quite ready to move but want to acquire a second property? Let’s talk. My team is ready for you.
Frequently asked questions about moving to France
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It depends on your work and your revenue, but the main routes are the Talent Passport (Passeport Talent), the profession libérale visa, and the entrepreneur/commerçant visa. The Talent Passport is a multi-year permit worth pursuing if you qualify — it's the route I took as a self-employed entrepreneur. The wrong first move is picking a visa before you've mapped your actual situation, which is exactly what most people do.
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Sometimes — and this is the question people get wrong most often. Your right to work depends entirely on which visa you hold: the long-stay visitor visa, for example, doesn't permit professional activity in France, while the entrepreneur and Talent Passport routes do. If remote income is your plan, the visa has to be built around it from the start, not bolted on afterward.
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Far more than rent. Beyond your deposit and monthly housing, budget for visa and residence-permit fees, private health coverage until you're in the system, document translation and apostilles, and business registration if you're working. The number varies widely by city and situation — mapping your real first-year cost is part of what we do on the call.
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Not always. Plenty of moves are very doable on your own once you understand the sequence — that's exactly what the clarity call is for. A lawyer earns their fee in genuinely complex cases; a relocation agency mostly sells you back information you could get from someone who's actually done it. That's the gap I fill.
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It's a multi-year French residence permit with several categories covering entrepreneurs, qualifying freelancers, and others — one of the most attractive routes because it isn't a year-by-year renewal grind. Whether you qualify depends on your profile, your project, and your means. It's the route I moved on, so I can tell you honestly whether it fits you or whether another pathway is cleaner.
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Often yes, but the structure matters. You might keep a foreign company, register as a micro-entrepreneur (France's simplified self-employed status), or set up a French entity — each carries different visa, tax, and social-charge consequences. Choosing before you understand those trade-offs is how people create expensive problems for future-them.
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Honestly, it depends on your budget, your work, and the life you're picturing — Paris, the southwest, the Basque coast, and the smaller cities each suit very different people. I moved from Paris to the Basque coast for reasons that may or may not apply to you. Part of the call is matching a location to your actual life rather than to a fantasy of it.
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Plan on months, not weeks. Between gathering and translating documents, securing a visa appointment, the consulate's processing time, and your post-arrival prefecture steps, the timeline stretches — and doing things out of order costs you more of it. The sequencing is one of the biggest things people underestimate.