Expat Academy

Courses

Spend part of the year in France

Live months in France each year, stay a US tax resident, and keep it that way.

For Americans who keep their home in the US and spend part of every year in France: the Schengen limit and the temporary long-stay visa, France's four residence tests and the treaty tie-breaker, renting for a season or keeping a flat all year, the residence tax on a second home, banking, healthcare when Medicare doesn't pay, and what the months abroad do to your US tax and Medicare premiums.

Twenty-five lessons: the Core (what changes for any American abroad), Track A (staying a US tax resident) and the France lessons for visitors. Calculators: the residence check, US tax and Medicare for Track A, the two-home budget, the day counter and the visa checker.

Try it first: C1 The four kinds of "residence", A1 The day-count trap, F1 France's four residence tests (free).

What you keep

Download these while your access lasts: they're yours to keep, to print, and to take to your attorney and CPA. PDFs carry your name.

  • Workbook (Excel) Part-year workbook

    Your days log with the Schengen and France counts, the two-home budget, US tax, state tax and Medicare surcharges, and the yearly checklist, with one exchange-rate cell.

  • Course book (PDF) Part-year course book

    Every lesson of the Core, Track A and the France lessons for visitors, with the worked examples.

Printable guides and checklists (10)

  • Guide (PDF) Staying non-resident in France

    The Track A playbook: the limits, the visas, housing, money and the warning signs.

  • Checklist (PDF) Your Track A year

    Before, during and after the season, in order.

  • Checklist (PDF) Evidence of your US ties

    What to keep, year by year, to show your life is centred in the US.

  • Comparison (PDF) Spain, Portugal and France side by side

    Visas, healthcare, residence rules, how each country taxes your US income, wealth, inheritance and paperwork, in one table per topic.

  • Guide (PDF) The four kinds of residence

    Immigration status, tax residence, state domicile and Schengen days on one page.

  • Guide (PDF) What the IRS still expects

    Form 1040, FBAR, Form 8938, PFICs and the June 15 extension.

  • Checklist (PDF) State domicile checklist

    What to change, file and keep when you move your US domicile.

  • Checklist (PDF) Documents and apostilles

    The papers to gather before you go, and the order to get them in.

  • Fact sheet (PDF) France fact sheet

    The 2026 numbers: tax scale, social charges, visa resources, inheritance and wealth tax.

  • Glossary (PDF) French glossary

    The French words on every form, letter and lease, in plain English.

What's inside: 25 lessons

The Core: retiring abroad on US income

What changes for any American who retires abroad on Social Security, IRAs, a 401(k), an HSA and a brokerage account, whichever country and path you choose: the four kinds of residence, what the IRS and your state still expect, your accounts and benefits, money across the border, paperwork, two homes on one budget, healthcare and estate basics.

Module 1: Residence, and what the US keeps (3 lessons)
  1. C1 The four kinds of "residence" Free preview
    Your visa, your tax residence, your US state and your Schengen days are four separate tests, and they can point in four directions.
  2. C2 What the IRS never lets go of
    The US taxes citizens wherever they live. The return, the foreign-account reports and the fund rules all come with you.
  3. C3 Your US state after you leave
    States aren't bound by tax treaties, and some are hard to leave. Your domicile decides whether a state still taxes you.
Module 2: Your income and your accounts (4 lessons)
  1. C4 Your income, source by source
    Social Security, IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, Roth, HSA, dividends, interest and gains each follow their own rule abroad. Here is the grid the country lessons fill in.
  2. C5 Keeping your US accounts open
    Some US brokers restrict or close accounts with a foreign address, and EU rules block buying US funds. Plan where your money will live before you move.
  3. C6 Social Security and Medicare abroad
    Social Security follows you to France; Medicare mostly doesn't. Decide about Part B before you go, because dropping it can cost you later.
  4. C7 Money across the border
    Your income is in dollars and your life in euros. How much the exchange rate moves your budget, how to move money cheaply, and how much to keep in euros.
Module 3: Setting up (2 lessons)
  1. C8 Identity numbers and paperwork
    Each country gives you a tax number before almost anything else works, and wants US documents with apostilles and translations. Here is the order to get them in.
  2. C9 Opening and keeping a local bank account
    Being American makes banking abroad harder because of US reporting rules. How to open an account, and how to stop it being frozen over a missed letter.
Module 4: Living in two places (3 lessons)
  1. C10 Running two homes on one budget
    Some costs follow you; others keep running in the home you've left. Separating them is what makes a two-home budget honest.
  2. C11 Healthcare models compared
    Medicare at home with travel cover, private cover abroad, or the public system there. Which one fits each track, and what each visa demands.
  3. C12 Estate basics across borders
    Wills in two countries, forced heirship, and inheritance tax where you die. The basics now; a full estate module comes later.

Track A: staying a US tax resident

For the student who keeps a home and a life in the US and spends months of each year abroad: the day limits, the visas that don't make you resident, the tests that aren't about days, housing for part of the year and the year-round lease question, local taxes, banking and healthcare as a visitor, US tax and Medicare when the months abroad are paid from an IRA, and the yearly rhythm that keeps you on the US side.

Module 1: Staying on the US side (3 lessons)
  1. A1 The day-count trap Free preview
    Two different limits count your days in Europe, Schengen's 90 in 180 and each country's tax tests, and the EU now counts them for you at the border. How to plan a season around both.
  2. A2 Visas that don't make you resident
    France's temporary long-stay visa covers four to six months without starting residence. Why the year-long visitor visa, Spain's non-lucrative visa and Portugal's D7 are Track B routes, and where Portugal's Golden Visa fits.
  3. A3 The tests that aren't about days
    France can claim you with far fewer than 183 days. The household, main-stay and economic tests, the treaty tie-breaker, and the evidence that keeps your life centred in the US.
Module 2: A home there for part of the year (3 lessons)
  1. A4 Housing for part of the year
    The kinds of French furnished lets that fit a season, which leases are closed to retirees, what a four-month let costs against a year-round lease, and how to book one.
  2. A5 Keeping a year-round lease
    A flat kept all year in France is a permanent home under the treaty. What that changes, what it doesn't, and how to decide whether the convenience is worth it.
  3. A6 Local taxes that still reach you
    As a non-resident, France doesn't tax your US income, but taxes tied to a home still apply. The residence tax on a second home, French bank interest, and the US reporting that follows a French account.
Module 3: Money, papers and health (2 lessons)
  1. A7 Banking and identity numbers as a visitor
    What a part-year visitor actually needs in France, how a non-resident account works, when a transfer-service account does the job instead, and the numbers you don't need.
  2. A8 Healthcare for months abroad
    Medicare doesn't pay in Europe, Medigap's travel benefit stops after the first 60 days of a trip, and a visa needs its own cover. How to put together insurance for a season.
Module 4: Year by year (2 lessons)
  1. A9 US tax unchanged, budget changed
    As a US tax resident, your federal and state tax don't change because you spend months in Europe. What does change is the money you withdraw to pay for them, and with it your tax, your taxable Social Security and your Medicare premiums.
  2. A10 Your yearly rhythm
    A part-year life runs on a calendar of visa applications, day counts, insurance, reports and a yearly check that you haven't drifted into French residence. Tick off this year's as you go.

France

The French rules in detail: the residence tests, the visitor visa, income tax and the treaty credit on US income, social charges, how each kind of account is taxed, wealth and inheritance tax, the French return and Form 3916, identity numbers and banking, healthcare, the cost of living and renting.

Module 1: Becoming resident (2 lessons)
  1. F1 France's four residence tests Free preview
    Any one of four tests makes you French tax resident. How each works, how the treaty breaks a tie with the US, and how Track A students stay on the US side.
  2. F2 The visitor visa, step by step
    France's long-stay visitor visa is the usual route for retirees. The resources test, the insurance, the application, validation on arrival and renewal.
Module 3: Daily life (1 lessons)
  1. F10 The cost of living in France
    Where the money goes for a retiree in France, how cities differ, which costs are lower or higher than at home, and how to build your own budget in euros.