You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. Your French company is registered, its Kbis (the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the clerk’s office of the Commercial Court) is in your inbox, and business is starting. Now you need hands on the ground: a first employee in France. From abroad, this step looks simple — sign a contract and pay a salary — but French hiring law follows a strict sequence, and each missed formality carries its own price. The declaration before hiring, the written contract, the trial period, the health follow-up, the monthly payroll declaration and the payslip each obey a different text, and the labour courts (conseils de prud’hommes) apply them literally.
This guide explains the full hiring sequence for a foreign founder or foreign company employing a first worker in France, with the exact legal texts and recent court decisions that shape practice. It covers the DPAE (déclaration préalable à l’embauche, the prior hiring declaration filed with URSSAF, the body that collects social contributions), the choice between a CDI (contrat à durée indéterminée, permanent contract) and a CDD (contrat à durée déterminée, fixed-term contract), the trial period rules that foreign employers misunderstand most, and the monthly payroll machinery — DSN (déclaration sociale nominative, the monthly electronic payroll return), payslips and affiliation to the general social security scheme. A companion overview of the whole set-up sequence is available in our general guide for foreign founders on setting up a company in France, from bank account and Kbis to VAT and first hire, while our analyses of overtime and working-time proof for a first employee and of URSSAF audits run from abroad complete the picture once the employee is in place.
Readers who want the companion view focused on mistakes and fines can also consult our earlier analysis of hiring a first employee as a foreign company, through the lens of fines and common errors, which approaches the same first hire from the sanctions side while this guide builds the full compliant sequence. French law treats hiring as a regulated entry into the social protection system, not as a private deal. The employer must declare the worker before work starts, register the contract in writing where the law requires it, affiliate the worker to social insurance regardless of nationality, organise health follow-up after hiring, and report wages every month. The sections below follow that order: first the entry formalities you must complete before day one, then the running obligations that start on day one and repeat every month.
I. How do you lawfully hire your first employee in France from abroad: DPAE filing, written contract and mandatory registrations?
A. How do you file the DPAE with URSSAF from abroad before your employee starts work?
The first reflex of a foreign founder should be the DPAE. Article L1221-10 of the Labour Code states: “L’embauche d’un salarié ne peut intervenir qu’après déclaration nominative accomplie par l’employeur auprès des organismes de protection sociale désignés à cet effet.” In plain English: no hiring without a prior nominative declaration to the designated social protection bodies. The second sentence adds that the employer completes this declaration in every workplace where employees work. For a company under the general scheme, that body is URSSAF, and the filing is electronic, through the net-entreprises.fr portal or the URSSAF online service. The official enterprise portal confirms the timing: the DPAE must be sent no earlier than eight days before hiring and in any event before the actual start of work (see service-public.fr, DPAE procedure and URSSAF, completing the DPAE).
Article R1221-1 of the Labour Code lists what the declaration contains: “La déclaration préalable à l’embauche comporte les mentions suivantes : 1° Dénomination sociale ou nom et prénoms de l’employeur, code APE, adresse de l’employeur, numéro du système d’identification du répertoire des entreprises et de leurs établissements ainsi que le service de santé au travail dont l’employeur dépend s’il relève du régime général de sécurité sociale”. The same article continues with the employee data: surname, first names, sex, date and place of birth, social security number if already registered, date and hour of hiring, and nature, duration of the contract plus any trial period for permanent contracts and for fixed-term contracts longer than six months. From abroad, this means you need three things ready before the start date: your French SIREN number (the company identifier issued by INSEE, the national statistics institute, at registration), your APE activity code, and the occupational health service (service de santé au travail) your company depends on. Many foreign founders discover the health service at the DPAE stage; you must join one beforehand, because its name goes on the form.
The DPAE is not a courtesy email. One filing performs several registrations at once: the hiring declaration itself, the request for employee registration with social security, the request for affiliation to occupational health, and the information of the labour inspectorate. The general hiring procedure page on service-public.fr, hiring formalities for a private-sector employee and the Ministry of Labour page on employer obligations at hiring describe this single-window effect. After filing, URSSAF returns an acknowledgement of receipt that you keep; it proves the date and hour of declaration. When the employee already holds a French social security number, the file moves fast. When the employee is newly arrived in France, the DPAE triggers the registration process, and you complete affiliation once the number is issued. Keep the acknowledgement with the employment file: in any dispute about undeclared work, the labour inspector or the court will ask for it first.
Missing the DPAE feeds directly into concealed-work litigation. Article L8211-1 of the Labour Code provides: “Sont constitutives de travail illégal, dans les conditions prévues par le présent livre, les infractions suivantes : 1° Travail dissimulé”. Concealment of an employee classically rests on intentional failure to complete the formality of Article L1221-10. Courts examine whether the employer deliberately avoided the declaration, and the absence of any DPAE acknowledgement weighs heavily. A foreign founder who thought that a signed contract or a first bank transfer was enough learns here that French law reverses the reflex: the declaration comes before the work, and the contract documents what the declaration announced. File the DPAE before the start hour, keep the receipt, and only then let the employee begin.
Practical sequence from abroad: obtain the SIREN and Kbis at company registration; join an occupational health service competent for the workplace address; open the employer account on net-entreprises.fr; file the DPAE with exact start date and hour, contract nature and trial period; keep the electronic acknowledgement; and register the employee in the single personnel register (registre unique du personnel) on arrival. If you use a payroll provider (expert-comptable or payroll firm), mandate it in writing and check that the filing was actually made — the liability stays with you as employer even when a third party files.
B. Which written employment contract should a foreign company use: CDI as the rule, CDD as the narrow exception?
Once the DPAE is filed, the contract sets the legal frame. Article L1221-2 of the Labour Code states: “Le contrat de travail à durée indéterminée est la forme normale et générale de la relation de travail.” The permanent contract (CDI) is the normal and general form. A fixed-term contract (CDD) is lawful only in the cases and conditions set by the fixed-term chapter. For a first hire, the CDI is therefore the default, and it can be full-time or part-time, with a trial period if you write one in. The CDD requires a precise statutory ground — replacement of an absent employee, temporary increase in activity, seasonal work — plus a written document with exact mandatory content.
Article L1242-12 of the Labour Code states: “Le contrat de travail à durée déterminée est établi par écrit et comporte la définition précise de son motif. A défaut, il est réputé conclu pour une durée indéterminée.” The fixed-term contract must be in writing and state the precise reason; without that, it is deemed permanent. The article then lists the compulsory mentions: name and qualification of the replaced person for replacement contracts, end date and renewal clause where relevant, minimum duration for open-ended fixed-term contracts, job description, applicable collective agreement (convention collective), any trial period, pay and components, and the supplementary pension fund. From abroad, founders often sign a short offer letter in English and think the contract will follow. For a CDD, that habit is dangerous: an oral or late-written fixed-term contract is reclassified as a CDI, with back-pay and termination consequences.
The Cour de cassation applies this text strictly. In its judgment of 14 November 2018, No. 16-19.038 (Cour de cassation, Social chamber, 14 November 2018, No. 16-19.038), the Court held: “faute de comporter la signature de l’une des parties, les contrats à durée déterminée ne pouvaient être considérés comme ayant été établis par écrit et qu’ils étaient, par suite, réputés conclus pour une durée indéterminée”. Where fixed-term contracts lack the signature of one party, they cannot count as written and are therefore deemed permanent. Twelve successive replacement contracts were at stake, and the reclassification date moved because of that signature defect. For a foreign employer exchanging PDFs across time zones, the lesson is concrete: circulate the CDD early, have both parties sign before the start, and keep the signed original. An unsigned draft in an email thread does not protect you.
For the CDI, French law does not impose the same written-form sanction, but writing remains essential. The contract should state the identity of the parties, the start date, the job title and classification, the workplace, working time (35 hours as the statutory reference, or the agreed part-time schedule), pay, the applicable convention collective, and any trial period. Without a written trial clause, there is no trial at all. Without a written convention collective reference, the court applies the agreement matching the company’s real activity, which the employer should have identified. Foreign founders should also align the contract with immigration status where relevant: a non-EU hire needs a work authorisation before the start, and the contract cannot cure its absence. That file belongs to immigration law and sits outside this hiring guide, but the hiring cannot proceed without it.
Collective agreement selection deserves a paragraph, because it shapes pay minima, trial caps and dismissal steps. The convention collective is the branch-level agreement that completes the Labour Code for your sector — for example Syntec for tech consulting, Commerce de détail for retail, Bâtiment for construction. The company applies the agreement of its main activity in France, mentions it in the contract and on the payslip, and joins the corresponding pension and welfare schemes. If you hesitate between two agreements at set-up, check the APE code, the actual duties of the first employee, and the branch scope clauses before signing. Changing agreements later is possible but creates pay-regularisation risk, so the first contract should name the right one.
II. How do you run French payroll from abroad after the hire: trial period, health follow-up, payslips, DSN and undeclared-work risk?
A. How do you set a valid trial period and organise the post-hiring health visit from abroad?
The trial period (période d’essai) lets both sides test the fit, but it exists only if the contract or the branch agreement provides for it in writing, and it obeys statutory ceilings. Article L1221-19 of the Labour Code states: “Le contrat de travail à durée indéterminée peut comporter une période d’essai dont la durée maximale est : 1° Pour les ouvriers et les employés, de deux mois ; 2° Pour les agents de maîtrise et les techniciens, de trois mois ; 3° Pour les cadres, de quatre mois.” Workers and employees: two months; supervisors and technicians: three months; executives (cadres): four months. Shorter branch caps can apply, and the contract can set a shorter period, but it cannot exceed the legal ceiling. During the trial, either party can end the relationship with the specific notice periods for trial termination, without the dismissal procedure; after the trial, ending the contract requires a dismissal, resignation or mutual separation with its own rules.
Renewal is where foreign employers most often fail. Article L1221-21 of the Labour Code states: “La période d’essai peut être renouvelée une fois si un accord de branche étendu le prévoit. Cet accord fixe les conditions et les durées de renouvellement.” Renewal is possible once, only if an extended branch agreement allows it, and that agreement sets the conditions and durations. Total duration including renewal cannot exceed four months for workers and employees, six months for supervisors and technicians, and eight months for executives. Three cumulative conditions follow: the branch agreement must authorise renewal, the contract must provide for the possibility, and the employee must give clear written agreement before the initial period expires. An acknowledgement of receipt is not an agreement.
Two recent decisions illustrate the strictness. In its judgment of 27 June 2018, No. 16-25.756 (Cour de cassation, Social chamber, 27 June 2018, No. 16-25.756), the Court recalled: “aux termes de l’article 4.1.2 de la convention collective nationale des entreprises de propreté, dès lors que cela est prévu dans la lettre d’engagement ou le contrat de travail, la période d’essai pourra être renouvelée une fois pour une durée équivalente ou inférieure en cas de nécessité technique”. Renewal required a contractual stipulation and a technical necessity under that branch text, and the court checked that the employer had shown the need to assess the full range of professional skills. In its judgment of 11 June 2025, No. 23-21.128 (Cour de cassation, Social chamber, 11 June 2025, No. 23-21.128), the Court restated the written-agreement rule for renewal. The applicable branch text provided: “Ce renouvellement fait l’objet d’un accord écrit entre le salarié et l’employeur ou son représentant, avant le terme de la période d’essai initiale.” The Court then held that the appeal judges had relied on reasons “qui ne suffisent pas à caractériser l’accord écrit non équivoque du salarié au renouvellement de la période d’essai” — reasons that did not establish the clear written agreement of the employee — and quashed on that ground. A signed acknowledgement of a letter plus a polite forwarding email did not suffice. From abroad, organise renewal as a separate signed amendment (avenant) before expiry, or do not renew.
Health follow-up starts immediately after hiring. Article L4624-1 of the Labour Code organises individual health follow-up for every worker through the occupational physician and the occupational health team. The same article continues: “Ce suivi comprend une visite d’information et de prévention effectuée après l’embauche par l’un des professionnels de santé mentionnés au premier alinéa du présent article.” The follow-up includes an information and prevention visit after hiring, which produces a certificate. The decree sets the deadline (in practice within three months, sooner for night work or young workers, with a full medical examination for high-risk posts). The employer books the visit with its health service; the employee attends on working time. Missing this visit does not void the contract, but it exposes the company in any later dispute about fitness, working conditions or occupational injury, and the labour inspector can order compliance.
Paris and Ile-de-France specifics help here. Occupational health services in Paris (Paris), Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne process large English-speaking caseloads and often propose appointment slots in English. The competent labour court for most Paris workplaces is the Conseil de prud’hommes de Paris (27 rue Louis Blanc, 75010 Paris), and the regional labour authority is the DREETS Ile-de-France (Direction régionale de l’économie, de l’emploi, du travail et des solidarités). Mention the exact workplace address in the contract and the DPAE, because it determines the health service, the court and the inspectorate. A founder in London hiring for a Paris office follows Paris rules; a founder hiring for remote work from a home office in Boulogne-Billancourt follows the rules of that workplace.
B. How do you pay, declare and prove employment every month: affiliation, DSN, payslip and concealed-work penalties?
Affiliation to social security is automatic and universal. Article L311-2 of the Social Security Code states: “Sont affiliées obligatoirement aux assurances sociales du régime général, quel que soit leur âge et même si elles sont titulaires d’une pension, toutes les personnes quelle que soit leur nationalité, de l’un ou de l’autre sexe, salariées ou travaillant à quelque titre ou en quelque lieu que ce soit, pour un ou plusieurs employeurs et quels que soient le montant et la nature de leur rémunération, la forme, la nature ou la validité de leur contrat ou la nature de leur statut.” Every employee, whatever their nationality, age, pay level or contract form, is compulsorily affiliated to the general scheme. Nationality, expatriate status and remote management change nothing: a British, American or Gulf founder employing a worker on French soil pays French contributions on that wage. The first payslip therefore carries French deductions — health, retirement (base and supplementary AGIRC-ARRCO), family, work-accident, unemployment (France Travail, formerly Pôle emploi), and the CSG-CRDS levies — calculated on gross pay under the branch minima and the statutory minimum wage (SMIC, salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance).
Monthly reporting runs through the DSN. Article L133-5-3 of the Social Security Code describes the return as the employer’s monthly nominative declaration establishing, for each employee, the workplace, the characteristics of the job and contract, pay amounts, social contributions, working time, and the dates of start, suspension and end occurring during the month. The same article adds that the declaration is electronic under ministerial procedures and that its data serve contribution recovery, verification, opening of employee benefit rights, and the missions of the recipient bodies. In practice the payroll software or provider files the DSN by the 5th or 15th of the following month depending on headcount, and the payment of contributions follows. The DSN also feeds income-tax withholding (prélèvement à la source), so the net pay shown to the employee already reflects the withheld tax paid to the tax authority (Direction générale des finances publiques). Errors are corrected by regularisation in a later DSN, but repeated late or missing returns draw penalties and trigger URSSAF attention that can lead to a full audit.
The payslip proves the wage. Article L3243-2 of the Labour Code states: “Lors du paiement du salaire, l’employeur remet aux personnes mentionnées à l’article L. 3243-1 une pièce justificative dite bulletin de paie.” At each payment the employer hands over the payslip. The decree fixes its compulsory mentions: employer identity, employee identity and job classification, period and hours worked including overtime, gross pay, each contribution base, rate and employee share, allowances, net social amount (montant net social), net taxable amount, net paid, and paid-leave balances. Since recent reforms the payslip must show the montant net social, the reference amount for social benefits. Electronic delivery is lawful unless the employee objects, provided integrity, availability and confidentiality are ensured. From abroad, use payroll software localised for France rather than a home-country template: a foreign-style salary statement without French contribution lines will be rejected by banks, landlords and courts as proof of employment, and it signals non-compliance to URSSAF.
Concealed employment remains the heavy tail-risk of a first hire managed remotely. Beyond the entry point of Article L8211-1, the Labour Code defines concealment by failure to declare and attaches a flat-rate sanction: where the court finds concealed work, the employee receives an indemnity equal to six months’ wages on top of back-pay and regularisation, and URSSAF issues contribution assessments with surcharges for the undeclared period. Criminal exposure also exists for intentional concealment. The preventive checklist is short and should be run before every start date: signed written contract for a CDD and written trial clause for any trial; DPAE filed before the start hour with acknowledgement kept; personnel register entry; health-service membership and visit booked; payroll set for monthly DSN and French-format payslip; branch agreement applied from the first payslip. Companies that run this checklist rarely meet the concealed-work presumption; companies that start work on a handshake and regularise weeks later meet it often.
Cost calibration helps foreign founders budget the first hire. Gross-to-total-cost ratios in France typically add roughly 42 to 47 percent of gross pay in employer contributions depending on sector, size and branch rates, before the sectoral welfare and training levies. A gross monthly salary of 3,000 euros therefore costs the company around 4,300 euros before office, health-service subscription and payroll fees. The payslip shows the employee share; the DSN carries both shares to URSSAF and the pension bodies. Reductions exist for low wages (the general reduction, formerly Fillon) and for overtime, and the payroll provider applies them automatically when the DSN data are correct. Budget the full cost from the offer stage, because raising the gross later to compensate for a misunderstood net costs more than pricing correctly at hiring.
Conclusion
Hiring a first employee in France from abroad succeeds when the sequence is respected: declare before hiring, write the contract before the start, set a trial only in writing within legal ceilings, book health follow-up after arrival, then declare and pay every month through the DSN with a compliant payslip. The texts are demanding but predictable — Articles L1221-10, R1221-1, L1221-2, L1242-12, L1221-19, L1221-21, L4624-1, L3243-2, L311-2 and L133-5-3 of the applicable codes, read with the Cour de cassation judgments of 27 June 2018, 14 November 2018 and 11 June 2025 on trial renewal and fixed-term form — and they reward employers who file early and keep every acknowledgement. Run the DPAE before the start hour, sign the right contract for the right ground, cap the trial to the category ceiling, renew only on a separate written agreement where the branch allows it, and let payroll run monthly without gap. The first hire then becomes what it should be: a working French employment relationship, provable to URSSAF, to the health service and, if ever needed, to the labour court.