Optical components like resonator or waveguides often have stringent requirements in term of positioning accuracy during packaging. While this can be done routinely in a laboratory environment, permanently positioning and aligning optical elements with nanometer accuracy in a fully packaged device is a challenging endeavor. Here, we demonstrate the use of femtosecond laser-induced modifications in glass for the remote permanent fine-positioning of an optical element with sub-nanometer resolution. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America