You wired 10,000 euros from London, New York or Dubai to form your French SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or your SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company with parts sociales instead of shares). The French bank confirms receipt, then freezes everything. No card, no transfer, no supplier payment. The notary or the bank tells you the funds are “blocked” until the Kbis arrives. The Kbis is the official registration certificate issued from the RNE (Registre national des entreprises, the national companies register fed by the INPI, Institut national de la propriété industrielle, through the Guichet unique, the single online filing portal) and certified by the greffe (the clerk’s office of the commercial court). Weeks pass, the greffe asks for one more occupancy proof, and your launch budget sits idle while rent, salaries and suppliers wait. This guide explains, for a founder who lives abroad, exactly how to deposit share capital from another country, how to release the blocked money with the Kbis, how to complete the unpaid balance over time, and how to avoid turning an early withdrawal into personal or criminal liability. Every French acronym is explained, every decisive rule is cited to its official text, and every step can be done from abroad with a clear paper trail.
I. How to deposit share capital and release blocked funds with the Kbis when you live abroad
French company law treats the period before registration as a trust period. Your money is protected, but it is locked. Understanding the lock is the fastest way to open it.
A. How to deposit capital from abroad and obtain the certificate that unlocks registration
When you form a SARL, the starting rule is set by Article L223-7 of the Commercial Code: “Les parts sociales doivent être souscrites en totalité par les associés.” Every part must be subscribed from day one. Parts paid by contributions in kind must be fully paid immediately, while “Les parts représentant des apports en numéraire doivent être libérées d’au moins un cinquième de leur montant.” Cash contributions must be paid up at formation for at least one fifth of their amount. The balance, the law adds, follows a strict timetable: “La libération du surplus intervient en une ou plusieurs fois sur décision du gérant, dans un délai qui ne peut excéder cinq ans à compter de l’immatriculation de la société au registre du commerce et des sociétés.” The manager calls the balance within five years of registration. For a SAS, the architecture is different but the deposit logic is the same: Article L227-1 of the Commercial Code provides that “Dans la mesure où elles sont compatibles avec les dispositions particulières prévues par le présent chapitre, les règles concernant les sociétés anonymes […] sont applicables à la société par actions simplifiée.” The public limited company rules on subscription and deposit therefore apply to your SAS, adapted to its president. In practice, most foreign founders of a SAS pay half the cash capital at formation and free the rest within five years, while SARL founders pay one fifth, but your articles of association (statuts) can require more at once, and lenders often read a thin initial payment as a weakness.
The money itself must travel through a narrow channel. Article R223-3 of the Commercial Code states: “Dans les huit jours de leur réception, les fonds provenant de la libération des parts sociales sont déposés pour le compte de la société en formation et par les personnes qui les ont reçus à la Caisse des dépôts et consignations, chez un notaire ou dans un établissement de crédit.” Within eight days of receipt, whoever received the cash must deposit it with the Caisse des dépôts (the state-owned deposits institution), a notary, or a bank. The parallel rule for joint-stock companies is Article L225-5 of the Commercial Code, which warns: “A l’exception des dépositaires visés par le décret prévu à l’alinéa précédent, nul ne peut détenir plus de huit jours les sommes recueillies pour le compte d’une société en formation.” Nobody outside the authorised depositaries may hold formation money for more than eight days. From abroad, this means you never wire the capital to the personal account of a co-founder or an intermediary “for convenience”. You wire it to the blocked account opened in the name of the company in formation, held by a French bank, the Caisse des dépôts, or the notary handling your file. The depositary then issues the certificate of deposit (certificat du dépositaire), which lists each subscriber and the amount paid. That certificate goes into your registration file on the Guichet unique, and the articles must record the payment and the deposit.
Foreign founders trip on three practical points. First, identity verification. A French bank must identify every shareholder and the future legal representative before opening the blocked account, and it applies anti-money-laundering checks to non-resident senders with visible strictness: passport, proof of address abroad, source of funds, company draft articles, sometimes an apostilled company register extract for a corporate shareholder. Send a complete file in one batch, in French or with a certified translation, and keep the wire transfer in the exact name of the subscriber shown in the draft articles. A transfer from a different name triggers a freeze and a request for explanations. Second, the corporate shareholder case. When your foreign parent company subscribes, the bank asks for the parent’s incorporation certificate, the register extract, the board resolution authorising the subscription, and the identity of the ultimate beneficial owner registered for the future RBE (Registre des bénéficiaires effectifs, the beneficial ownership register). Prepare these before wiring. Third, the notary route. If banks stall, a French notary can receive the funds and issue the certificate, often faster for non-residents, for a fee. The Caisse des dépôts also accepts online deposits for companies in formation. All three depositaries are equal before the greffe; choose the one that answers your emails.
The official Service-Public Entreprendre page on forming and depositing company share capital (F32333) summarises the sequence in plain terms: once the capital is deposited and all registration formalities are completed, the file goes to the Guichet des formalités des entreprises, and the blocked funds are released only after the company is registered in the RNE. Blocked money becomes available after registration, not before. That single sentence governs your cash planning: budget two to six weeks of locked funds between the wire and the Kbis, longer if the greffe issues a rejection (rejet) or a request for additional documents (demande de pièces complémentaires) on occupancy proof, identity, or the deposit certificate itself. If your bank refuses to open even the blocked account, the companion remedy is the Banque de France right-to-account procedure described in our guide for foreign-owned companies facing a bank refusal, which links from this article; the present guide assumes the deposit succeeded and the money is now blocked.
From abroad, run this checklist before filing. One, obtain the deposit certificate naming every subscriber with exact amounts. Two, confirm the articles mention the payment and the deposit. Three, file on the Guichet unique with the certificate, the articles, the occupancy title for the registered office (titre d’occupation: lease, domiciliation contract, or owner authorisation), the identity and clean-record documents of the director, and the beneficial ownership declaration. Four, track the formalities dashboard daily; answer any greffe request within 48 hours with a single PDF per document, correctly labelled. The INPI helpdesk and a Paris business lawyer can file corrections without your physical presence. Never let a well-meaning contact “fix” the file by withdrawing part of the deposit to pay the domiciliation invoice: before registration, that withdrawal is forbidden, as the next section shows.
B. How to unblock the money after the Kbis arrives, and how to recover it if the company is never registered
The release rule is short and absolute. Article L223-8 of the Commercial Code provides: “Le retrait des fonds provenant de la libération des parts sociales ne peut être effectué par le mandataire de la société, avant l’immatriculation de celle-ci au registre du commerce et des sociétés.” The company’s agent cannot withdraw the paid-up money before registration. Only registration unlocks the account. In daily terms: the Kbis is the key. Once the greffe validates the file, the company is entered in the RNE, the Kbis is issued, and the depositary releases the funds to the company’s operating account on presentation of the Kbis. The BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where creations are published) then publishes the notice, but you do not wait for the BODACC to move money: the Kbis alone instructs the bank. If the blocked account and the future operating account sit in the same bank, the transfer is usually same-day. If you deposited with a notary or the Caisse des dépôts while your operating account sits elsewhere, send the Kbis, the new RIB (relevé d’identité bancaire, the bank identity slip), and a written release instruction signed by the legal representative; allow three to ten business days and chase in writing.
Why the lock is so strict becomes clear in the case law on legal personality. In its judgment of 17 January 2024, First Civil Chamber, appeal no. 22-11.303 (Cour de cassation, 17 January 2024, no. 22-11.303), the Court recalls: “les sociétés autres que les sociétés en participation jouissent de la personnalité morale à compter de leur immatriculation.” Companies acquire legal personality only upon registration. It adds: “Jusqu’à cette date, les rapports entre les associés sont régis par le contrat de société et par les principes généraux du droit applicable aux contrats et obligations.” Until then, relations between partners are governed by the contract alone. The blocked funds therefore belong to a company that does not yet legally exist as a person; the depositary holds them under the formation contract, and no director can treat them as a current account. That is why banks dishonour pre-Kbis cheques and transfers from the blocked account, and why attempting to pressure the branch manager is wasted energy: the refusal executes the statute, not a commercial choice.
If registration never happens, the law gives you an exit instead of an indefinite freeze. The same Article L223-8 of the Commercial Code continues: “Si la société n’est pas constituée dans le délai de six mois à compter du premier dépôt de fonds, ou si elle n’est pas immatriculée au registre du commerce et des sociétés dans le même délai, les apporteurs peuvent individuellement demander en justice l’autorisation de retirer le montant de leurs apports.” If the company is not formed or not registered within six months of the first deposit, each contributor can ask a court for permission to take the money back. The text adds a collective shortcut: “Dans les mêmes cas, un mandataire, dès lors qu’il représente tous les apporteurs, peut demander directement au dépositaire le retrait des fonds.” An agent representing all contributors can demand the money directly from the depositary. And it closes the loop: “Si les apporteurs décident ultérieurement de constituer la société, il doit être procédé à nouveau au dépôt des fonds.” If you later decide to form the company after all, the deposit must be made again from scratch. For a founder abroad, the six-month clock runs from the first deposit, not from your last email with the bank. Diary it. If the project stalls because co-founders disagree, because the lease falls through, or because the greffe definitively rejects the name or the office, instruct a lawyer to write to the depositary before month five, gather unanimous withdrawal instructions if possible, and otherwise petition the president of the judicial court for authorisation. Do not simply leave the money sleeping: dormant blocked accounts generate fees, exchange-rate exposure, and evidentiary fog about who paid what.
Three failure patterns recur with foreign founders. The abandoned project: one founder wires, the other disappears, nobody files, and the bank keeps the money because a single co-founder cannot give unanimous instructions and no court order exists. The fix is the individual court petition described above. The rejected file: the Guichet unique file bounces three times on occupancy proof, the founders give up, and the deposit sits. The fix is either a fresh compliant filing with a proper domiciliation contract, or the organised withdrawal. The converted project: the founders switch from SARL to SAS mid-course and assume the old deposit certificate follows automatically. It does not: the subscriber list, amounts and vehicle name must match the filed articles, so a new consistent deposit and certificate are needed. In each case, keep every wire slip, the certificate, and the depositary correspondence: they prove the origin of funds for the bank, the tax administration, and any later dispute between founders about who actually paid the capital.
II. How to complete, increase and protect capital without creating personal liability from abroad
Release is only the midpoint. After the Kbis, the capital must be completed on time, and the money must be spent as company money. The second half of this guide covers calls for the balance, increases, and the liability traps that catch absent directors.
A. How to pay the unpaid balance, increase capital and answer a cash call while living abroad
The timetable for the balance is set at formation. For a SARL, Article L223-7 of the Commercial Code requires that “La libération du surplus intervient en une ou plusieurs fois sur décision du gérant, dans un délai qui ne peut excéder cinq ans à compter de l’immatriculation de la société au registre du commerce et des sociétés.” The manager decides the calls, and the outside limit is five years from registration. SAS practice follows the same five-year horizon through the applicable public-company rules. Your articles can shorten the period or require full payment at once, and many banks and landlords treat a fully paid-up capital as a quiet signal of seriousness. From abroad, organise yourself from day one: record in a simple table who subscribed what, who paid what, the balance due, and the five-year deadline computed from the Kbis date. When the manager calls the balance, each partner pays to the company account against a receipt, and the accounts and the register of movements reflect the new paid-up level.
Missing the timetable has teeth. The same Article L223-7 of the Commercial Code warns: “Toutefois, le capital social doit être intégralement libéré avant toute souscription de nouvelles parts sociales à libérer en numéraire, à peine de nullité de l’opération.” Capital must be fully paid before any new subscription of cash parts, failing which the operation is void. A capital increase launched while the old balance is still outstanding can be annulled. The Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation polices restructuring operations built on irregular capital with visible severity. In its judgment of 4 January 2023, Commercial Chamber, appeals nos. 21-10.609 and 21-12.515 (Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 4 January 2023, nos. 21-10.609 and 21-12.515), the Court reviewed an extraordinary meeting that “a décidé de la réduction à zéro du capital social et de l’augmentation de ce capital par création d’actions nouvelles”, a reduction to zero followed by an increase creating new shares, and the litigation over whether the operation regularly made one shareholder the sole owner. The lesson for a foreign owner is practical: never improvise a “coup d’accordéon” (the French nickname for a wipe-out followed by a recapitalisation that dilutes absentees) from abroad without a lawyer checking quorum, majority, preferential subscription rights, auditor reports where required, and the full payment of existing capital first. What looks like a quick rescue injection can become a void operation that hands your opponent its annulment.
Distributions obey a parallel lock. Article L232-12 of the Commercial Code allows interim dividends only from a certified interim profit: where accounts certified by a statutory auditor show a profit after depreciation, provisions, prior losses, legal and statutory reserves and retained earnings, interim payments can be distributed before annual approval, capped at that profit. And it ends with the sanction: “Tout dividende distribué en violation des règles ci-dessus énoncées est un dividende fictif.” Any dividend paid in breach of these rules is a fictitious dividend. Managers who distribute fictitious dividends face civil restitution claims and the criminal penalties examined below. For a founder abroad who needs cash home, the safe path is the ordinary one: approve the annual accounts within six months of year-end, confirm distributable sums exist, vote the dividend, pay within nine months of year-end, and document each step in minutes you can produce from your files. Shareholder loans (comptes courants d’associés, the current accounts through which owners lend to their company) are a flexible alternative for moving money, but they must be documented, interest-capped where rules apply, and repaid on terms the company can bear; they never replace a missing capital payment.
Cash calls from abroad need method, not presence. Give the manager or president a written procedure: call notice by email with amount, deadline of at least fifteen days, and payment references; receipt upon payment; updated capital table; filing where the law requires it. If you are the manager and you live abroad, sign calls electronically, keep proof of sending, and apply the articles equally to all partners: favouring one contributor or exempting yourself feeds minority abuse claims. If a co-founder defaults, follow the articles and the statute: formal notice, suspension of voting or dividend rights where the law allows, forced sale procedures where provided, and as a last resort court action. If the company needs more than the balance, choose the right tool: cash increase with preferential rights, shareholder loan, or regulated contribution in kind with an auditor (commissaire aux apports, the independent appraiser for non-cash contributions) where thresholds require one. Each tool has its own publicity on the Guichet unique and, for increases, a new Kbis line. File from abroad through your lawyer and check the updated Kbis before announcing the new capital to the bank.
B. How to avoid criminal and civil liability when touching company money too early or too freely
The criminal boundary runs through every French boardroom. Article L241-3 of the Commercial Code punishes with five years’ imprisonment and a 375,000 euro fine “Le fait, pour les gérants, de faire, de mauvaise foi, des biens ou du crédit de la société, un usage qu’ils savent contraire à l’intérêt de celle-ci, à des fins personnelles ou pour favoriser une autre société ou entreprise dans laquelle ils sont intéressés directement ou indirectement”. Using company property or credit in bad faith, knowing it contradicts the company’s interest, for personal ends or to favour another business in which the manager is interested, is the offence of misuse of corporate assets (abus de biens sociaux). For a SAS, Article L244-1 of the Commercial Code provides that the penalties imposed on the president, directors and general managers of public limited companies apply to the president and managers of simplified joint-stock companies. Withdrawing blocked capital before the Kbis for personal expenses, paying your foreign parent’s invoices from the blocked account, or taking an undocumented “advance” the day after release all sit inside this frame when done knowingly against the company’s interest. Distance is no defence: orders given by message from abroad, signatures on transfers, and beneficial ownership make the absent director the author, not a spectator.
The Criminal Chamber applies the test without romance. In its judgment of 10 September 2025, Criminal Chamber, appeal no. 23-82.847 (Cour de cassation, Criminal Chamber, 10 September 2025, no. 23-82.847), the Court approved judges who found false invoices “contraires à l’intérêt social des sociétés” and made for personal ends, adding the principle every foreign director should memorise: “quel que soit l’avantage à court terme qu’elle peut procurer, l’utilisation des fonds sociaux, ayant pour seul objet de commettre le délit de corruption, est contraire à l’intérêt social en ce qu’elle expose la personne morale à un risque anormal de sanctions pénales ou fiscales contre elle-même ainsi que ses dirigeants et porte atteinte à son crédit et à sa réputation.” Whatever short-term advantage it may bring, using company funds exposes the company to an abnormal risk of criminal or tax sanctions and harms its credit and reputation. The Court concluded that the judges had “caractérisé […] la réalisation par M. [D], en tant que dirigeant social au sens des articles L. 241-3, 4°, et L. 244-1 du code de commerce, d’actions constitutives d’abus de biens sociaux”. Substitute your own shortcut for the corruption facts and the reasoning holds: knowingly using locked or свеже released capital against the company’s interest, for yourself or your other company, is characterised as misuse of corporate assets by a director within Articles L241-3 and L244-1. Keep this judgment next to your banking passwords.
Civil liability arrives sooner and more often than criminal prosecution. A director who lets the balance call lapse, who distributes a dividend without distributable sums, or who mixes personal and company money faces claims for the shortfall, for restitution of fictitious dividends, and for the company’s debts where management fault is proven. Tax law adds its own layer: undocumented advances can be reclassified as salary or distributed income, with social charges from URSSAF (Union de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the agency collecting social contributions) and penalties from the tax administration. The practical shield is documentary discipline. After release, move the money once to the operating account, adopt a written expenses policy, pay yourself only through salary voted or contracted, dividends voted from distributable sums, or documented loan repayments, and keep every minute, receipt and bank slip in a shared file your accountant can audit. If cash is tight, call the unpaid balance or record a proper shareholder loan rather than helping yourself: a traceable loan can be defended, a silent withdrawal cannot.
Banking friction after release deserves its own reflex. Some banks keep enhanced monitoring on the new operating account for months: large incoming wires from abroad, rapid outgoing transfers, and cash withdrawals trigger fresh proof requests. Answer with the Kbis, the release letter, the articles, and the contracts behind each movement. If a bank closes the operating account despite clean paperwork, French law offers the right-to-account procedure of Article L312-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code, under which the Banque de France (the French central bank) designates a bank that must open a deposit account; our companion guide on bank refusal and the right-to-account fix walks through that rescue step by step, and this article links to it as the banking companion. If the operating account works but the old blocked-account balance seems short by fees, demand an itemised statement from the depositary: custody fees must be contractual and proportionate, and any unexplained deduction is challenged in writing before it becomes accepted.
For founders in Paris and the Île-de-France region, add one local layer. The greffe of the Paris commercial court processes high volumes through the Guichet unique and rejects incomplete occupancy titles more often than provincial registries admit: a domiciliation contract must come from an approved provider (agréé), a lease must match the company name exactly, and a home-office authorisation must respect the building rules. Build three extra days into every filing, keep a bilingual contact at your domiciliation provider who answers the greffe within hours, and choose a depositary with a Paris desk that issues corrected certificates the same day. None of this requires your presence in Paris, but it requires Paris-responsive paper.
Conclusion
Blocked capital in France is not a bank error and not a negotiation. It is a statutory lock that opens with the Kbis, runs on five-year and six-month clocks, and punishes anyone who forces the door. Deposit cleanly to an authorised depositary within the eight-day channel, file a consistent Guichet unique dossier, present the Kbis to release the money, diary the five-year balance call and the six-month withdrawal window, and pay yourself only through voted salary, lawful dividends, or documented loans. A founder who lives abroad and respects those five reflexes turns the French capital regime from a cash trap into a credibility asset: the bank sees paid-up capital, suppliers see a real Kbis, and the director sleeps without criminal exposure. When the file sticks, a short call with a lawyer who reads the greffe’s rejection line by line costs less than a month of frozen launch budget.
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