The moving-to-France checklist: everything, in the right order

Search "moving to France checklist" and you'll get a hundred items in a flat list, which is precisely the wrong shape. The problem with a French move is almost never that people forget an item; it's that they do the right things in the wrong order — chase the exciting property before the boring visa, leave the bank account until they need it, or drift past the one deadline that actually bites. So we've done this differently. Here's every task that matters, but grouped into the three phases a move genuinely happens in, so you can see not just what to do but when.

The three phases, task by task

Open each phase for the full checklist. The order within them matters as much as the order between them.

Months aheadBefore you go — sorted from the UK

The unglamorous groundwork that everything later depends on:

☐ Decide and budget honestly — is this the life, and does the money work? (See our reality check.)
☐ Secure somewhere to live — a rental and, crucially, an address you can put on the visa form.
☐ Gather your documents — passport, birth and marriage certificates, often needing an apostilleAn official certificate (£45 from the UK's FCDO) that authenticates a British document so France will accept it as genuine. (an official certificate, £45 per document from the UK's FCDO Legalisation Office, that authenticates a British document so France will accept it as genuine) plus a sworn French translation. Start this early; the apostille and the sworn translators both take weeks.
☐ Apply for the long-stay visa (VLS-TS) in Britain.
☐ Get your S1A UK form that makes Britain pay for your French healthcare, mainly for state pensioners. from the UK if you're a state pensioner.
☐ Book the movers and plan the logistics.

Deadline insideFirst weeks — the moment you land

A few time-critical things, one of them with a hard deadline:

☐ Validate your visa within three months — online, with a fee. Miss this window and you create a real problem. This is the single most important item on the whole list.
☐ Open a French bank account — the first domino; almost everything else needs the RIB it gives you.
☐ Set up utilities — which generates your justificatif de domicile (proof of address).
☐ Get a French mobile number — needed for verification on countless sites.

OngoingFirst months — settling in properly

The longer-tail admin that turns arrival into residence:

☐ Register for healthcare — S1 for pensioners; PUMA via CPAM for everyone else after three months.
☐ Exchange your driving licence — only if you actually need to (most UK licences don't, until they expire; see our licence guide).
☐ Register your vehicle if you brought a car.
☐ Set up your online tax account and prepare for your first return the following spring.
☐ Diarise your card renewal — apply two to four months before it expires.

The dependency chain that trips everyone

Buried in the first-weeks list is a chain reaction worth understanding, because it explains why the order matters so much. You need a French bank account to set up utilities; you need a utility bill as your proof of address; and you need proof of address for almost everything after that — the residence-card steps, healthcare registration, a phone contract, even some banks' final activation. So the humble bank account isn't just one task among many; it's the first domino. Knock it over early and the rest topples neatly into place. Leave it late and you'll find half your admin jammed behind it, unable to proceed.

The document folder you'll thank yourself for

One genuinely reassuring truth: you're not assembling fresh paperwork at every turn. A core set gets handed over again and again, and once it's organised the whole process speeds up. Keep these together, with copies: your passport (with the visa sticker); your residence permit once validated; your justificatif de domicile (proof of address); your RIB (French bank details); and your avis d'imposition (tax assessment) once you've filed. Behind them, keep your birth and marriage certificates (apostilled and translated, as above), plus proof of income, and the S1 if you're a pensioner. Get that folder in order before you go and you'll hand the same papers over a dozen times without breaking stride.

How long it really takes

Be realistic with yourself about the clock. From the first serious decision to the point where life feels genuinely settled — admin done, healthcare working, the rhythm of the place learned — is usually twelve to twenty-four months. The phases overlap in practice, and there's more than one valid route through (some buy first and holiday under the 90/180 rule before moving properly). But the deadlines within the move are real, and the sequence is what keeps them from colliding. Front-load the slow, annoying bits — the sworn translations, the visa, the bank account — and the rest unfolds far more calmly than the horror stories suggest.

That's the whole map. Every item here has its own detailed guide elsewhere in the Library — this checklist is the scaffolding; the guides are the how. Start at the right end, respect the one hard deadline, get the bank account done early, and a French move becomes what it should be: a big, exciting, entirely manageable piece of admin.

This checklist is a practical, general overview; it is not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice. Deadlines, procedures and requirements change and vary by consulate, préfecture and personal circumstance. Treat the sequence and timings here as a realistic guide, not a guarantee, and confirm the current requirements with official sources before acting.