Coming to France to take up salaried work

If you have an offer for a permanent work contract (known as a CDI in France), you will come to France on a salarié visa which will be exchanged later for a carte de séjour salarié. If you have a fixed-term (CDD) contract the visa and corresponding visa and card is travailleur temporaire. 

There are exceptions to this if you meet criteria for the ‘talent’ visa (see the dedicated article later on in this chapter). One version of the latter is France’s version of the European blue card scheme for highly-qualified workers from non-EU countries. 

Standard employee cards are for one-year (renewable) or, in the case of the salarié card, a carte pluriannuelle, valid for up to four-years, may be issued for a person who has a CDI and intends to settle long-term assuming that they are considered to be well-integrated in France and are deemed to be following any required language rules (see chapter 8 on renewing or updating cards).

If only a one-year card is issued, then it may be possible to obtain a multi-year card when that card comes up for renewal. Note, however, that France’s 2024 immigration law states that temporary cards cannot be renewed more than three times under the same heading.

If you were to make contact with potential employers while on a visit to France you would still need to go back to your original home country to apply for the visa. A firm cannot simply hire you ‘on the spot’. 

As a general rule, in order to sponsor you [ie. support your bid to come to France to work for them] a firm would have to consider that you have specific skills required and that it could not find someone who already has the right to live and work in France to do the job.

They also have to pay a tax after you move to France.

This used to be paid to Ofii so is still sometimes referred to as the ‘Ofii tax’, however it is in fact paid to the tax authorities now. For temporary work (more than three months and less than 12) this tax is between €50 and €300 depending on how high the salary is. For contracts for long term workers this tax is 55% of the gross monthly salary, up to a maximum payment of of €2,567.

Seasonal workers are subject to a different rate of €50 per month worked.

The process for the employer starts on the Anef website by clicking Demander une autorisation de travail, then Je suis une entreprise. The formalities then differ, depending on whether the recruitment is for a so-called ‘under pressure sector’ (métier en tension), or not. ‘Under pressure’ sectors include, for example, qualified workers in the building sector. 

In this case it is not necessary for the would-be employer to advertise the job; in other cases they must advertise it for three weeks via the French job centre network (France Travail). There is a simulator on the Anef website for employers to use to check about ‘under pressure sectors’, if in doubt.

The application process on the website involves attaching several documents, including a copy of the advert, if appropriate, and a document showing that no suitable candidate was found within three weeks. 

Another option for employees is the talent visa route, a special kind of residency card for categories including certain highly qualified or paid workers.

This avoids the need for pre-approval and advertising the job.

The employer will inform you if the work authorisation has been obtained; you can then apply for a VLS-TS salarié or travailleur temporaire. This must be validated by the holder within their first three months in France although the person can work as soon as they arrive. The validation fee is €300. 

To stay on long-term you must apply for a salarié or travailleur temporaire carte de séjour no more than four months and no less than two months from your visa’s expiry date. 

There is a fee of €350 (250 on subsequent renewals) for this which is payable by timbres fiscaux obtainable online.

Note: People sometimes ask if it is possible to come to France on a visitor visa while remaining an employee of a firm outside France. This is a complex area and as a general rule is not recommended, especially as a long-term strategy. See here and here for more on these issues.