Can a foreigner start a business in France?
Yes. French company law does not filter founders by nationality: articles L227-1 and L223-1 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) ask only for “one or more persons” to form an SAS or a SARL. What the law does look at is your right to live in France and to carry on the activity there.
Nationality is not the filter, residence is
The one place where the Commercial Code names foreigners is the sole trader. Under article L526-22, checked October 2026, the status of entrepreneur individuel is not open to nationals of countries outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland unless they hold a residence permit that allows them to work under that status.
A company is different. You can hold its shares and be named in its statuts, the French articles of association, whatever your passport. The permit question returns the day you settle in France to run it.
Three routes, three different commitments
Most projects fit one of three routes:
- working in your own name, as an entrepreneur individuel, often under the simplified micro regime;
- creating a French company, usually an SAS or a SARL, alone or with partners;
- extending a company that already exists abroad, through a branch or a French subsidiary.
This guide follows the second route step by step, and says when one of the other two is the better answer.
Which legal structure fits your project?
Three questions narrow the choice. Does a foreign company already exist? Will you work alone, in your own name? Do you want the law to set the rules between partners, or to write your own? The answers lead to a branch or a subsidiary, to the sole trader status, to a SARL or to an SAS.
What does each structure mean in law?
| Structure | Who forms it | Who runs it | What the law fixes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entrepreneur individuel, with or without the micro regime | One natural person, in their own name (article L526-22) | You | Professional and personal assets are separate by law; a non-EU national needs a permit allowing the status |
| SAS, or SASU with a single partner | One or more persons, liable up to their contribution (article L227-1) | A president, and anyone else the statuts name (articles L227-5 and L227-6) | Very little: the statuts set how the company is run |
| SARL, or EURL with a single partner | One or more persons, liable up to their contributions (article L223-1) | One or more gérants, who must be natural persons (article L223-18) | Much more: management, decisions and share transfers follow the Code |
| Branch of a foreign company | The foreign company itself (article R123-112) | The representative it appoints | It registers its French establishment and files its statuts and, every year, its accounts |
A subsidiary is not a fifth structure. It is a French company, usually an SAS or a SARL, in which another company holds more than half of the capital (article L233-1).
SAS or SARL: freedom or frame?
The SAS is the structure of freedom. Article L227-5 holds in one sentence: the statuts set the conditions in which the company is run. Voting rights, vetoes, the powers of the president, the exit of a partner: almost everything is written by the founders. That freedom suits partners with unequal roles and outside investors, and it is why the statuts of an SAS deserve care.
The SARL is the structure of the frame. The Code decides more for you. A transfer of shares to an outsider needs the consent of a majority of partners holding at least half of the shares (article L223-14). For a family business or two equal partners, that built-in protection is often enough.
Is the micro-entrepreneur a structure?
No. The micro regime is a simplified tax and social security regime for a sole trader whose turnover stays under the ceilings of article 50-0 of the French tax code (Code général des impôts). You remain an entrepreneur individuel, with the residence condition of article L526-22. It is a light way to test an activity, not a vehicle for partners or investors.
Do you need a visa or a residence permit to run it?
Nationals of the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland do not. Everyone else who lives in France to run a business needs a residence permit that allows the activity: the one-year entrepreneur card, or the multi-year card now called talent-porteur de projet, which most people still search for as the Talent Passport.
Which card fits which project?
| Card | Who it is for | Length | Conditions written in the code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entrepreneur / profession libérale | A non-salaried activity that is economically viable and provides sufficient means of living (article L421-5) | Up to one year | A prior assessment of economic viability by the foreign labour service of the département (article R421-9); application at the consulate if you live abroad (article R421-8) |
| Talent-porteur de projet, business creation | A master’s-level degree or five years of comparable professional experience, a real and serious project, and a company created in France (article L421-16, 1°) | Up to four years | Project financing of at least 30,000 euros (article R421-33-2); resources at least equal to the full-time gross annual minimum wage (article R421-33-1) |
| Talent-porteur de projet, innovative project | An innovative economic project recognised by a public body (article L421-16, 2°) | Up to four years | The same resources condition (article R421-34-2) |
| Talent-porteur de projet, investor | A direct economic investment in France (article L421-16, 3°) | Up to four years | At least 300,000 euros in fixed assets, jobs created or protected within four years, and at least 30 % of the capital when you invest through a company (article R421-35) |
All four references are to the French immigration code (Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile, CESEDA), checked October 2026. The length of a talent card is set case by case, within the four-year limit (article R421-13).
What about your family, and your role in a group?
The spouse of a talent card holder receives a family card for the remaining period of that card, and so do the couple’s children when they come of age (article L421-22). A separate talent card exists for the legal representative of a French company who is already an employee or an officer of a company in the same group, subject to a pay threshold (article L421-19).
Which comes first, the permit or the company?
Neither: they are one decision. The card you can claim depends on the structure and on the money committed to the project. The structure you choose depends on whether you will be in France to run it. Decide them together, before anything is signed.
Founder and talent permits are among the residence matters Concord handles.
How do you register a company, step by step?
You write and sign the statuts, deposit the cash contributions, justify a registered office, publish a legal notice, then send a single online file. The company exists from its registration in the trade and companies register (registre du commerce et des sociétés, RCS). Until then, the founders answer personally for what they sign.
What are the six steps, and where does each come from?
- Statuts. They are in writing and state the form, the object, the name, the registered office, the capital and the duration, which cannot exceed 99 years (article 1835 of the Civil Code; article L210-2 of the Commercial Code).
- Capital deposit. Cash contributions are deposited and blocked. At least one fifth is paid up in a SARL (article L223-7) and at least half in an SAS (article L225-3, which article L227-1 applies to the SAS). The balance follows within five years.
- Registered office. The company proves its right to use its premises (article L123-11). They can be the home of its legal representative (article L123-11-1) or those of an approved domiciliation company (article L123-11-3).
- Legal notice. A notice is published in a newspaper authorised for legal notices in the département of the registered office (article R210-3).
- Single online file. One file, sent electronically to a single body, the guichet unique, replaces separate declarations to each administration (article L123-33). The declaration of beneficial owners is made through the same body (article L561-46 of the Monetary and Financial Code).
- Registration. The company acquires legal personality (article L210-6). It enters the national directory kept by INSEE, the statistics institute (article R123-220), and receives a nine-digit identification number, completed by five digits for each establishment (article R123-221). The court registry, the greffe, can then issue the extract known as the Kbis (articles R123-150 and R123-152).
What exists before registration?
A company in formation is not yet a person. Under article L210-6, those who act in its name before registration are jointly and indefinitely liable for what they sign, unless the company, once registered, takes over the commitments. A lease, a first hire or a supplier contract signed too early therefore sits on the founders.
The Code gives two ways to hand those commitments to the company. A statement of the acts already signed is annexed to the statuts, and signing the statuts transfers them once the company is registered. Or the partners give one of them a precise mandate, in the statuts or in a separate deed (articles R210-5 for a SARL and R210-6 for an SAS).
The funds are protected in the same interval. They cannot be withdrawn before registration. If the company is not registered within six months of the first deposit, a contributor can ask a court for their return (articles L225-11 and L223-8).
What must appear on your documents afterwards?
Every registered company states on its invoices, order forms, price lists, advertising and correspondence its identification number, the mention RCS followed by the city of its greffe, and its registered office (article R123-237). A foreign company trading through a French establishment adds its name, its legal form and its registration number at home.
What should partners agree on before they sign?
Who decides, who can leave, and at what price. In an SAS the founders write these answers themselves, in the statuts and often in a separate shareholders’ agreement, the pacte d’associés. In a SARL the Code supplies default answers. The stakes are real: in an SAS, a transfer made in breach of the statuts is void (article L227-15).
What can the statuts of an SAS lock?
| Question between partners | Tool | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Can a founder sell in the first years? | An inalienability clause, for ten years at most, adopted unanimously | Articles L227-13 and L227-19 |
| Can an outsider enter the capital? | An approval clause: the company must agree to any transfer | Article L227-14 |
| Can a partner be made to leave? | A forced transfer clause, in the conditions the statuts set | Article L227-16 |
| Who speaks for the company? | The president, with the widest powers towards third parties, and managing directors if the statuts allow | Article L227-6 |
Statuts or shareholders’ agreement?
The statuts are filed with the registry and bind the company and every future partner. A shareholders’ agreement is a private contract between its signatories: it has the force of law between them and must be performed in good faith (articles 1103 and 1104 of the Civil Code).
What everyone dealing with the company must be able to rely on goes in the statuts. What is personal to the founders, such as the departure of one of them or the terms of a future fundraising, usually goes in the agreement. Concord drafts both: see shareholders’ agreement.
What does the first year ask of you?
A French company keeps accounts, closes them every year, has them approved and files them. It shows its registration details on every document and keeps the record of its beneficial owners up to date. None of it is difficult once planned, and all of it is dated: the calendar starts on the day of registration.
What are the recurring obligations?
- Accounts. Every company records its transactions, takes an inventory at least once every twelve months and draws up annual accounts (article L123-12 of the Commercial Code).
- Filing. A SARL and an SAS file their approved accounts with the greffe within one month of approval, or two months when they file online (articles L232-22 and L232-23). The smallest companies can ask that their accounts are not made public (article L232-25).
- Beneficial owners. The company holds accurate and current information on the people who ultimately control it (article L561-45-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code).
- Value added tax. Légifrance shows several VAT articles of the tax code, including article 293 B on the small-business exemption, with an end date of 1 January 2027. Check the reference in force on the day you invoice.
What comes next?
Hiring a first employee, signing the first contracts, protecting a name and handling customer data each have their own rules. They are the subject of the guides that follow this one.
When does a lawyer change the outcome?
Not for everything. You can register a sole trader activity yourself, and a decree even provides model statuts for a single-member SARL managed by its sole partner (article L223-1). A lawyer changes the outcome where the law leaves the answers to you: the statuts of an SAS, the agreement between partners, the order of permit and company.
Where are the decisions yours to write?
- Two or more founders. The law sets almost nothing between partners of an SAS. What is not written is not protected.
- A permit that depends on the structure. The card and the company are decided together, with the financing the code requires.
- Something to sign before the company exists. A lease or a first contract needs a route into the company, or it stays with you.
- A brand, code or content created by the founders. The company only owns what has been transferred to it.
If you are at one of those points, tell us what you are building. The first conversation starts from your situation, and no work begins without a written scope and fee.