A foreign founder who needs one person on the ground in France often assumes that a French subsidiary must be incorporated first. That assumption is too rigid. A company established abroad can, in principle, sign a French employment contract directly, even when it has no French subsidiary and no permanent establishment. The real question is whether the foreign employer has correctly organised French social-security registration, payroll, employment-law compliance, immigration checks and the evidence needed to prove the arrangement.

That distinction matters for a technology group testing the French market, a United States or United Kingdom company hiring a French sales manager, and an overseas parent recruiting an engineer who will work permanently from France. A direct hire may avoid the immediate cost and governance burden of a new French company. It does not create a legal vacuum. The employee remains protected by the mandatory rules applicable to work performed in France, while the foreign company may acquire French tax, administrative or litigation exposure.

This guide answers the practical question for foreign founders: can the foreign company be the employer, and what must be done before the first working day? It separates permanent direct employment from a temporary secondment, a French branch, a French subsidiary and an employer-of-record arrangement. It also explains the TFE, the Titre firmes étrangères or Foreign Firms Service, the DPAE, the déclaration préalable à l’embauche or pre-hire declaration, and the DSN, the déclaration sociale nominative or single social declaration. The starting point is a legal and payroll decision, not simply the choice of a corporate form.

I. Can a foreign company employ someone in France without opening a French subsidiary?

A. Can a foreign company hire directly through the TFE?

Yes, a foreign company can be the direct employer of a person who works in France without first incorporating a French subsidiary. The answer is strongest where the company remains genuinely established abroad, the worker has a clearly defined French work location, the company accepts responsibility for French payroll and social protection, and its French activity is assessed separately for tax and corporate-registration purposes. A contract signed by the foreign company is not converted into a French subsidiary merely because the employee works from Paris, Lyon or another French city.

The social-security route is expressly designed for this situation. Article L. 243-1-2 of the French Social Security Code refers to « L’employeur dont l’entreprise ne comporte pas d’établissement en France » and allows that employer to fulfil the relevant declarations and payments through a single collection body designated by the minister responsible for social security. The official text is available in Article L. 243-1-2 of the French Social Security Code.

The implementing rule, Article R. 243-8-1, identifies the situation in which « l’entreprise de l’employeur ne comporte pas d’établissement en France ». The same provision gives the legal basis for designating the collection body and setting the practical method for declarations and payments. It is not a special exemption from French rules; it is an administrative route for a foreign employer that is already subject to French obligations. See Article R. 243-8-1 of the French Social Security Code.

In practice, the foreign employer should first contact the Urssaf, the Union de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, which is the French body responsible for collecting many social contributions. The Urssaf Foreign Firms Service, often called SFE, is the entry point for a foreign company without a French establishment whose employee falls within the French social-security system. The official Urssaf Foreign Firms Service page states that the employer must declare and pay French contributions where the employee is covered by French social security.

The TFE is a separate simplification option within that framework. TFE means Titre firmes étrangères, literally the Foreign Firms Title or service. The official Urssaf TFE page describes it as a facultative service for foreign companies without an establishment in France. It can combine the DPAE and the employment contract in one document and can centralise several compulsory social-protection declarations and a single payment through the designated Urssaf service.

“Facultative” must not be misunderstood. It means that the employer can choose the TFE rather than another compliant declaration route. It does not mean that the foreign employer can ignore French registration, payroll or social contributions. If the employer does not use the TFE, it still needs an operational route for registration, the DPAE, the monthly DSN, payslips, contributions, supplementary pension and any applicable collective-agreement bodies. The official Service Public TFE procedure confirms that the service is available to companies without an establishment in France to register with the Urssaf, complete hiring formalities and make social declarations.

A foreign company should also distinguish the administrative identifier from a French subsidiary. The SIREN is the unique nine-digit identifier of an entity or registered activity in France; the SIRET identifies a particular establishment or place of activity. A foreign company developing activity in France can retain its home-country identifier and also receive a French SIREN for its French activity. The official French business formalities portal explains this distinction. Receiving a French number for declarations is not the same legal event as forming a French SAS or SARL.

The choice of direct employment is particularly coherent where the employee is a single French-based contributor, the foreign company retains management and contracting decisions abroad, and the work does not amount to a self-standing French operation. It may be less suitable where the person will sign contracts for the group, manage a local team, negotiate and close French sales, hold stock, serve customers from a fixed location or make the French market operationally autonomous. Those facts call for a broader analysis of establishment and tax exposure.

The employment relationship is assessed from reality, not just from the label written on the contract. In Soc., 13 January 2009, no. 07-40.077, the Cour de cassation stated that « le contrat de travail ne dépend ni de la volonté exprimée par les parties » and examined the conditions in which the work was performed. The same decision describes subordination through the employer’s power to give orders, control performance and sanction breaches. For a foreign founder, that is a useful warning: calling a French employee a “consultant” or “country partner” will not defeat an employment relationship if the facts show authority, regular work and remuneration.

A direct foreign employer should therefore prepare a short written position before recruiting. It should identify the employing legal entity, the country of incorporation, the absence or presence of a French establishment, the employee’s work location, the person who will supervise the employee, the applicable collective agreement, the payroll channel and the reason why the chosen route is direct employment rather than a branch, subsidiary or employer of record. This file becomes valuable if the Urssaf, the tax administration, the employee or a French labour court later asks who employed whom and where the activity was performed.

B. When are a French subsidiary, branch or employer of record safer?

A French subsidiary is a separate French legal person. For a foreign founder, a SAS, meaning société par actions simplifiée or simplified joint-stock company, is often considered where flexible governance and investment are important. A SARL, meaning société à responsabilité limitée or private limited company, may suit a more closely held operating business. The corporate choice, however, should follow the intended activity, financing and governance; it should not be used as a substitute for deciding who will employ the first worker.

A branch, or succursale, is an establishment of the foreign company rather than a new subsidiary owned by it. The parent remains the principal legal person, but the French operation may have a registered address, a French registration file, local management and a wider operational footprint. The registration process runs through the Guichet unique, the one-stop electronic business formalities portal operated by the INPI, the Institut national de la propriété industrielle. The INPI Guichet unique information explains that the portal is the required channel for business creation, modification, cessation and filing formalities.

The registration vocabulary is important for an international board. The greffe is the registry office attached to the commercial court that processes relevant company filings. A Kbis is the official extract showing the information recorded in the Trade and Companies Register, including the company’s registered details. The BODACC is the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements, where certain corporate and insolvency notices are published. These documents and notices are evidence of a French registration status; they are not, by themselves, proof that every employment or tax obligation has been satisfied.

An employer of record, or EOR, is a third party that becomes the contractual employer and operates payroll while the foreign business directs the day-to-day commercial work under a services arrangement. It can reduce the foreign company’s immediate administrative burden, but it does not make French law disappear. The EOR must have a real and lawful role, the service agreement must match the working reality, and responsibilities for work authorisation, health and safety, equipment, supervision, intellectual property and termination must be allocated clearly. An EOR that exists only on paper may create a dispute over the true employer or a co-employment theory.

Direct hiring is also different from a secondment. Article L. 1261-3 of the Labour Code defines a detached employee as one who normally works for an employer established and active outside France and performs work in France for a limited period at that employer’s request. The text begins: « Est un salarié détaché au sens du présent titre tout salarié d’un employeur régulièrement établi ». See Article L. 1261-3 of the French Labour Code. A person recruited to work permanently in France from the outset should not be described as a posted worker simply because the parent is foreign.

The distinction has been made clearly by the Cour de cassation. In Soc., 5 April 2023, no. 21-21.318, the Court held that the foreign employer’s failure to comply with posting rules « n’a pas pour effet de voir reconnaître la qualité d’employeur à l’entreprise établie sur le territoire national ». The lesson is two-sided. A French host does not automatically become the employer merely because a foreign arrangement was mishandled; equally, the foreign business must use the correct direct-hire or posting route rather than rely on a convenient label.

There is also a permanent-establishment question. An employee in France does not automatically create a taxable permanent establishment for the foreign company. The factual risk increases where the employee has a fixed place available to the business, habitually negotiates or concludes contracts, performs a complete commercial cycle or operates as a dependent agent. The French tax administration’s official permanent-establishment guidance explains that the analysis generally considers a fixed business installation or a dependent agent with authority to bind the company, subject to the relevant tax treaty.

The tax analysis should be coordinated with the employment file. A French-based sales employee who can bind the foreign company may have a different risk profile from an engineer performing internal development under instructions from an overseas team. The fact that the employer uses a payroll service or has no Kbis does not prevent the tax administration from examining the actual activity. The official impots.gouv.fr guidance on foreign companies and French corporate tax explains that profits from an enterprise operated in France can be taxable in France, subject to international conventions.

A foreign company should choose a French subsidiary or branch before the first hire where it needs local contracting authority, a visible commercial platform, several employees, French directors or managers, local premises, French invoicing and banking, or a durable business cycle. It should choose direct employment where those facts have been examined and the business genuinely wants the foreign entity to remain the employer. The decision must be recorded; otherwise the company may pay for the same risk twice, once through a payroll provider and again through an unplanned French establishment.

II. What must a foreign employer do before the first French working day?

A. Which contract, work permit, DPAE and payroll steps are mandatory?

The first step is to identify the employee’s legal status and the actual work pattern. Nationality is not the same as residence, and residence is not the same as social-security affiliation. A French national living in France, an EU or European Economic Area national, a Swiss national, and a non-EU national with a valid authorisation may follow different immigration checks. The foreign employer’s own nationality does not remove the French employer’s duties.

For a non-EU worker, the employer must verify the right to work before the employee starts in the relevant job and geographical area. Article L. 8251-1 of the Labour Code states: « Nul ne peut, directement ou indirectement, embaucher » an unauthorised foreign national. The full provision also prohibits employment outside the professional category, occupation or geographical area stated on the relevant document. The official text is available at Article L. 8251-1 of the French Labour Code.

The risk is not merely administrative. Article L. 8256-2 provides that employing a foreign national without the required work authorisation may be « puni d’un emprisonnement de cinq ans et d’une amende de 30 000 euros », subject to the conditions and exceptions in the article. See Article L. 8256-2 of the French Labour Code. A careful employer keeps a dated copy of the document checked, the verification record, the role description, the place of work and any renewal calendar.

The employment contract should then be drafted for the French job, not copied from a foreign template without review. Article L. 1221-3 of the Labour Code states: « Le contrat de travail établi par écrit est rédigé en français. » The article also addresses translation into the foreign employee’s language at the employee’s request and explains which language can be invoked against the employee when the texts differ. See Article L. 1221-3 of the French Labour Code.

An English version can be supplied for a foreign founder, group headquarters or employee who works in English. It should sit beside a reliable French version, with the parties’ execution process and language hierarchy checked. The contract should state the employing entity, position, start date, work location, remuneration in euros or a carefully drafted currency mechanism, working time, holidays, probation period if lawful, applicable collective agreement, confidentiality, intellectual-property treatment, remote-work rules, expenses, benefits and termination framework. A translation added after a dispute is not an adequate substitute for a controlled signing process.

Before the start date, the employer must complete the DPAE, the déclaration préalable à l’embauche or prior declaration of employment. Article L. 1221-10 provides: « L’embauche d’un salarié ne peut intervenir qu’après déclaration nominative » to the designated social-protection organisations. The same article requires the declaration for each place where employees work. See Article L. 1221-10 of the French Labour Code.

The official Service Public procedure for hiring a private-sector employee lists the information needed for the DPAE, including the employer’s identity and address, its SIRET or the receipt number when registration is pending, the occupational-health service, the employee’s identity, the start date and the nature and duration of the contract. A foreign employer should not wait until the first payslip to discover that the local registration, occupational-health contact or work location is missing.

The payroll file must show gross remuneration, employee deductions, employer contributions and the net amount paid. French payslips and social declarations use French concepts that need to be mapped to the foreign finance system. URSSAF contributions, supplementary pension, unemployment insurance and any sector-specific organisation may sit alongside the core payroll calculation. Where the TFE is used, the employer must still contact the relevant social organisations according to the collective agreement and the employee’s situation. The TFE is a controlled workflow, not an invitation to use a foreign payroll as the only record.

The monthly DSN, the déclaration sociale nominative or single social declaration, reports payroll and social data electronically. The employer also needs a calendar for payslip delivery, contribution payment, corrections, sickness or family-leave events and changes of address or role. If French income-tax withholding applies, the employer must examine the PAS, prélèvement à la source or withholding at source. The official tax guidance for foreign companies states that companies paying taxable salaries in France may need to collect and remit PAS and identifies the DSN or PASRAU route, PASRAU meaning prélèvement à la source des revenus autres or withholding for other income, where applicable.

Occupational health is another first-day issue. Article L. 4624-1 states that the individual health monitoring system includes an information and prevention visit after hiring, and that « Cette visite donne lieu à la délivrance d’une attestation. » See Article L. 4624-1 of the French Labour Code. The foreign employer should identify the competent occupational-health service and preserve the appointment or referral evidence. The absence of a French office does not transfer the employer’s responsibility for arranging the employee’s required monitoring.

Finally, the employer should decide whether the employee is on a CDI, a contrat à durée indéterminée or open-ended contract, or a CDD, a contrat à durée déterminée or fixed-term contract. A CDD is not a general trial device for a foreign company entering France; its statutory grounds, duration and written-form requirements must be checked. If the business merely expects the first hire to last “until the market is tested”, a CDI with a lawful probation period or a different operating model may be less risky than an unsupported CDD.

B. How do remote work, tax, social security and disputes change the risk?

Remote work can make direct employment commercially attractive while increasing the need for precise evidence. Article L. 1222-9 defines telework as work that could have been performed at the employer’s premises but is carried out elsewhere voluntarily using information and communication technologies. The definition begins: « le télétravail désigne toute forme d’organisation du travail ». See Article L. 1222-9 of the French Labour Code.

The contract or applicable charter should specify whether the employee works from a home address, a coworking location, a client site or a French office; how equipment and cybersecurity are handled; how working time is recorded; which days require travel; and how the employer can contact the employee in an emergency. A French home used continuously for the foreign business may also become relevant to the permanent-establishment analysis, particularly where the employee negotiates or concludes contracts or presents the home as the business’s French base.

Health and safety obligations continue outside the foreign headquarters. Article L. 4121-1 requires the employer to take the measures necessary to protect workers’ physical and mental health, including prevention, information, training, and an adapted organisation. The statutory text begins: « L’employeur prend les mesures nécessaires pour assurer la sécurité ». See Article L. 4121-1 of the French Labour Code. A remote employee should receive an appropriate risk assessment, equipment instructions, reporting channel and manager training, not just a laptop shipped from abroad.

The location of work also matters for social security. A person hired to work permanently in France will usually require a French social-security analysis and, where applicable, French registration and contributions. A person already employed abroad and temporarily sent to France may fall under a coordination or posting regime, often evidenced in the European Union by a portable A1 certificate. The CLEISS guidance for foreign employers hiring in France, where CLEISS is the Centre of European and International Liaisons for Social Security, separates an employer with a French establishment from an employer without one and describes the French affiliation question.

Do not use an A1 certificate as a universal answer to a permanent French recruitment. It is evidence in a specific social-security coordination situation; it does not turn a new French hire into a temporary posting, and it does not decide employment law, income tax, corporate tax or work authorisation. The hiring file should state why the person is permanently employed in France or temporarily posted, what regime has been selected and which document proves that selection.

The foreign employer must also avoid hidden employment. Article L. 8221-5 defines concealed employment by concealment of salaried employment and covers intentionally avoiding the DPAE, a payslip or the required salary and social-contribution declarations. It describes the offence as « Est réputé travail dissimulé par dissimulation d’emploi salarié le fait pour tout employeur » in the situations listed by the article. See Article L. 8221-5 of the French Labour Code.

A foreign company should therefore resist a common shortcut: asking the French worker to invoice the overseas entity as a freelancer while the company fixes hours, supplies all tools, imposes reporting lines and controls the work like an employee. The label is not decisive. The test applied by the Cour de cassation in Soc., 13 January 2009, no. 07-40.077 focuses on the conditions of performance and the employer’s power of direction. Reclassification can bring back pay, social contributions, penalties and termination exposure.

Income tax needs its own calendar. An employee who is tax-resident in France may have French filing and withholding consequences, while a non-resident may have a different result depending on the workdays, residence and tax treaty. A foreign company without a permanent establishment can still have French payroll duties. Conversely, payroll registration alone does not answer whether the company’s profits are taxable in France. The official impots.gouv.fr page for a foreign company employing in France should be read alongside the applicable treaty and the permanent-establishment analysis.

Employment disputes can be brought before a French Conseil de prud’hommes, the labour court, when the French jurisdiction rules are met. A foreign-law clause in a group template should not be treated as a complete answer. The worker’s habitual place of work, the employer’s establishment, the chosen law, mandatory French protections and European jurisdiction rules may all matter. The official Cour de cassation decision of 14 November 2000, no. 98-41.959, published in the Bulletin, concerns the limits of relying on a pre-dispute jurisdiction clause in an employment setting. It is a reminder to draft jurisdiction and governing-law clauses with the actual French work pattern in mind.

A founder should keep the following evidence pack before the start date and update it when the job changes:

• the foreign company’s certificate of incorporation, registered address, directors and authority for the signatory;
• the written French employment contract and the controlled English translation, if supplied;
• the work-authorisation check, passport or identity evidence, and a renewal reminder where relevant;
• the Urssaf SFE registration, TFE enrolment or other declaration route, including the French identifier;
• the DPAE confirmation, occupational-health contact, collective-agreement analysis and first payroll calendar;
• the DSN, payslip, contribution and PAS records, with the foreign finance ledger reconciled to the French payroll;
• the remote-work agreement, equipment inventory, risk assessment and incident-reporting procedure;
• the tax memorandum addressing French payroll, treaty residence, permanent establishment and the employee’s contracting authority; and
• the decision note explaining why the company selected direct employment rather than a branch, subsidiary, posting or EOR.

This evidence is especially important when the first employee becomes the French team’s commercial face. If the person signs customer contracts, controls a local budget, recruits other workers, manages French premises or spends most of the working week building a self-contained operation, the original “one employee without a subsidiary” analysis must be revisited. A change in facts can require a branch or subsidiary registration, different tax filings, a revised social-security route or an internal reorganisation. The company should review the position before, rather than after, the second or third hire.

For the wider sequence of forming and operating a company in France, a foreign founder can also review the firm’s French company formation and corporate advice page. The existing guide on setting up a business in France as a foreign founder is useful for the structural questions; this article addresses the narrower employment decision that follows when the first French-based worker is recruited by the foreign entity itself.

Conclusion

A foreign company can hire an employee in France without creating a French subsidiary, but only if it accepts the full consequences of being an employer in France. The direct route normally requires a French social-security and payroll solution, a compliant French employment contract, the DPAE before work starts, work-authorisation checks, occupational-health arrangements, income-tax withholding analysis and a permanent-establishment review. The TFE can simplify the declarations for an eligible foreign company; it does not remove the underlying duties.

The practical decision is simple to state: use direct employment when the foreign company remains the genuine employer and the French activity has been analysed; use a subsidiary, branch or properly structured EOR when the business needs a durable French operating platform. Keep the decision, evidence and payroll trail together. That is what allows a foreign founder to test the French market without confusing a payroll convenience with a corporate or legal exemption.

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