You run a French SAS or SARL from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and you have found the right person to grow the business in France. There is only one problem: your future hire is Moroccan, Indian, American, British or Brazilian, and they do not hold a European passport. Before you think about the online hiring declaration, the employment contract or the first payslip, one prior question decides everything: does this worker need a French work authorization, and if so, how do you, the employer living abroad, obtain it? Many foreign founders discover the answer too late, after the candidate has resigned from their previous job or after an inspection has already started. French law is strict: no one may hire a foreign worker without the document authorizing them to work, each new employment contract requires its own authorization, and employing someone without it exposes you to five years of imprisonment, heavy administrative fines and a per-worker employer tax bill. This guide explains the full procedure in practical order. First, which hires need an authorization and which do not. Second, how you file the employer’s application online, what salary you must offer and what contract follows. Third, what the procedure costs, what you risk if you skip it, and how you challenge a refusal from abroad within the two-month time limits.

I. Hiring a non-European worker for your French company from abroad: who needs a permit and how you apply as the employer

A. Which of your future hires actually needs a French work authorization

The starting point is a simple prohibition that applies to every employer in France, including a foreign-owned company managed from abroad. Article L. 8251-1 of the French Labour Code provides that “Nul ne peut, directement ou indirectement, embaucher, conserver à son service ou employer pour quelque durée que ce soit un étranger non muni du titre l’autorisant à exercer une activité salariée en France.” You can read the provision in force here: Article L. 8251-1 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. The same article adds that you may not employ that worker in a different occupation, profession or geographical area from the one stated on their permit. For a founder based abroad, the consequence is immediate: the nationality and the residence document of your candidate matter as much as their CV, and you must check them before signing anything.

The regulation then defines precisely who is concerned. Article R. 5221-1 of the Labour Code states that the workers who must hold a work authorization are, first, foreigners who are not nationals of a European Union Member State, of another State party to the European Economic Area agreement or of Switzerland. Read it here: Article R. 5221-1 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. In practice, this means that hiring a German, Spanish, Polish or Portuguese employee requires no work authorization at all, while hiring a British worker after Brexit, an American, a Canadian, a Moroccan, an Algerian, an Indian or a Brazilian worker always requires one. Every new employment contract means a new application: “Tout nouveau contrat de travail fait l’objet d’une demande d’autorisation de travail.” (Article R. 5221-1 of the Labour Code on Légifrance) If your candidate already holds a French residence permit that authorizes work, such as a multi-year passeport talent card or a resident card, no separate authorization is needed. But if they hold a student permit, a visitor permit or no permit at all, you as the employer must go through the authorization procedure.

Two points about timing surprise most foreign employers. First, the authorization is linked to the contract, not to the person in general: the same regulatory article provides that “Tout nouveau contrat de travail fait l’objet d’une demande d’autorisation de travail.” (Article R. 5221-1 of the Labour Code on Légifrance) including when you renew a fixed-term contract or convert it into a permanent one Second, for a candidate who still lives outside France, the authorization comes before the visa. Article L. 5221-2 of the Labour Code provides that to enter France for salaried work, the foreigner must present “Un contrat de travail visé par l’autorité administrative ou une autorisation de travail.” See Article L. 5221-2 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. Without that approved contract or authorization, the consulate will not issue the long-stay visa, and your candidate cannot legally enter France to take up the post.

Once the worker is authorized, the residence document follows. A foreigner hired on a permanent contract receives a temporary residence card marked salarié with a maximum duration of one year. Article L. 421-1 of the Code on the Entry and Stay of Foreigners (CESEDA) provides that this card is issued to a foreigner working under an indefinite-term contract and that “La délivrance de cette carte de séjour est subordonnée à la détention préalable d’une autorisation de travail, dans les conditions prévues par les articles L. 5221-2 et suivants du code du travail” See Article L. 421-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance. For a fixed-term contract, the mirror provision is Article R. 421-4, and the general bridge between the two codes is Article R. 421-1, which states that the salarié card authorizes professional activity “dans les conditions définies aux articles R. 5221-1 et suivants du code du travail”: Article R. 421-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance. The logic is therefore a chain with three links: employer authorization first, then visa and entry, then residence card. Break the first link and the whole chain fails.

One common confusion must be avoided. If instead of hiring locally you send to France an employee who already works for your foreign parent company, that is not a local hire but a posting of workers, called détachement, with a different declaration called SIPSI and different pay rules. We explain that separate regime in our guide for foreign companies posting staff to France, and you should read it before choosing between posting and local hiring, because the wrong choice invalidates your whole file. What follows here concerns only the direct hire by your French company of a worker who will hold a French employment contract.

B. The employer’s work authorization file: online application, salary floor and the contract that follows

The most reassuring feature of the procedure for a founder living abroad is that it is the employer who applies, not the worker. Article R. 5221-1 states it plainly: “La demande d’autorisation de travail est faite par l’employeur.” (Article R. 5221-1 of the Labour Code on Légifrance) The same article adds that the application may also be filed by a person authorized in writing by the employer, which means your French lawyer, your accountant or any holder of a written mandate can file and follow the case while you stay abroad. In practice the application is filed online through the ANEF digital platform of the Ministry of the Interior and is sent to the préfet of the department where your company is established, where the DREETS, the Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labour and Solidarity, examines the file. You do not need to fly to France to start the procedure; you need a complete file and a reachable representative.

The administration examines four things above all: the reality of your company, the reality of the job, the salary, and the state of the local labour market. The employer procedure is described on the official service-public portal: Authorization to work for a foreign employee in France, employer procedure. Your company must be genuinely active, with its Kbis extract from the commercial court registry, called the greffe, and proof of an actual establishment. The employment contract must describe a real full-time or substantial position consistent with your business. The salary must reach at least the French statutory minimum wage, called the SMIC, or the higher minimum set by the collective agreement applicable to your company. The official service-public employer guidance (official employer guidance on salary conditions) requires pay of at least the statutory minimum wage or the higher minimum set by your company’s collective agreement. In practice, applications offering exactly the SMIC for a skilled position are examined with suspicion, because the administration compares the salary with the qualification claimed. Offer a salary that matches the job title and the applicable collective agreement scale, and attach the pay scale to the file. See the official guidance on work authorization for foreign employees.

The fourth criterion, the employment situation, is where most refusals are born, and it deserves its own discussion in the second part of this guide. At this stage, retain one practical reflex: attach evidence that you genuinely tried to recruit locally, such as advertisements, France Travail postings and answers received, unless the occupation appears on the national shortage-occupation list, where the labour-market test does not apply. A founder who files from abroad with a bare two-page contract and no supporting evidence is asking for a refusal. A founder who files a documented dossier showing a real company, a real job, a compliant salary and real recruitment efforts gives the DREETS examiner every reason to approve.

Once the authorization is granted, the ordinary French hiring formalities resume, and they apply to your foreign worker exactly as to any employee. The hiring of an employee can only take place after the prior hiring declaration, called the DPAE, filed with the social security collection body, called the URSSAF. Article L. 1221-10 of the Labour Code provides that “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.” See Article L. 1221-10 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. For a first hire, this very first DPAE also opens your employer account with URSSAF. The declaration must be sent before the employee takes up the post and no earlier than eight days before the hiring date, a copy or acknowledgement must be given to the employee, and skipping it intentionally is treated as concealed work, as explained below.

The employment contract itself follows French rules with no exception for foreign workers. The permanent contract, called the CDI, is the default form, and any trial period, called the période d’essai, must be expressly written into the contract or the hiring letter; it is never implied. Article L. 1221-19 of the Labour Code caps it strictly: “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.” See Article L. 1221-19 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. Renewal is even stricter: Article L. 1221-21 provides that “La période d’essai peut être renouvelée une fois si un accord de branche étendu le prévoit.” See Article L. 1221-21 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. The Cour de cassation enforces this rigorously. In a ruling of 11 June 2025 on a renewed trial period, the Social Chamber held: “En se déterminant ainsi, par des motifs qui ne suffisent pas à caractériser l’accord écrit non équivoque du salarié au renouvellement de la période d’essai, la cour d’appel a privé sa décision de base légale.” That is Cour de cassation, Social Chamber, 11 June 2025, appeal no. 23-21.128, readable here: Cass. soc., 11 June 2025, no. 23-21.128 on courdecassation.fr. A mere signature acknowledging receipt of the renewal letter is not enough; you need the employee’s clear written agreement before the initial period expires. For a founder managing from abroad, the lesson is operational: calendar the trial expiry date, send the renewal proposal in writing with acknowledgement of receipt, and obtain an explicit signed acceptance, or the dismissal at the end of the trial will be reclassified as an unfair dismissal.

II. What it costs and what you risk: employer tax, criminal and administrative sanctions, and how to challenge a refusal without flying to France

A. The OFII employer tax and the sanctions for hiring without authorization

Hiring a foreign worker costs more than the salary and the social charges. When the worker is admitted to residence for the first time for salaried work requiring an authorization, the employer pays a one-time tax to the French Office for Immigration and Integration, called the OFII. Under the official service-public guidance (official guidance on the employer tax), an employer tax applies at the first admission to residence of a foreign employee for salaried work subject to authorization, including workers temporarily posted by a company not established in France, and it is due for authorizations longer than three months except for seasonal farm workers. The amount depends on the contract length and the gross monthly salary. For contracts of more than three months and less than twelve months, the published scale runs from 74 euros for a salary at or below the SMIC, to 210 euros and 300 euros for higher salary bands. For longer contracts the amounts are higher. Budget this tax in your hiring cost from the start, because it is due even when everything else in the file is perfect, and it is payable only once per first admission by the first employer.

The sanctions for skipping the authorization are on a completely different scale, and they strike the employer directly, including a company director living abroad. On the criminal side, Article L. 8256-2 of the Labour Code provides that employing a foreigner without the authorizing document “est puni d’un emprisonnement de cinq ans et d’une amende de 30 000 euros.” See Article L. 8256-2 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. The fine applies as many times as there are workers concerned, and the penalties rise to ten years of imprisonment and a 200,000 euro fine when the offence is committed by an organized group. The same article punishes anyone who knowingly uses the services of an employer of unauthorized foreign workers, which means that using an undeclared subcontractor to staff your French operations can make you criminally liable too. The only statutory shelter is good faith: the first paragraph does not apply to an employer who, faced with a forged document presented by the worker, completed the hiring declaration and verified the authorizing document with the competent administrations without knowledge of the fraud. Systematically verify every candidate’s permit on the official verification tools and keep the proof.

On top of the criminal risk sits an administrative fine that the immigration minister can impose without waiting for a criminal trial. Article L. 8253-1 of the Labour Code provides that the minister imposes an administrative fine on the author of a breach of the hiring prohibition, taking into account financial capacity, intent, gravity of negligence and the cost of removing the worker from French territory. The text caps the fine at 5,000 times that hourly rate, rising to 15,000 times for repeat offending: “Le montant de l’amende est, au plus, égal à 5 000 fois le taux horaire du minimum garanti” See Article L. 8253-1 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. That administrative fine is applied as many times as there are workers concerned, and where both an administrative and a criminal fine are imposed for the same facts, the combined total may not exceed the highest legal maximum. With the minimum garanti hourly rate around four euros, the ceiling per worker runs into tens of thousands of euros, multiplied per worker. A small foreign-owned company employing three unauthorized workers can face a bill that wipes out a year of margin.

Finally, the hiring declaration itself carries its own trap. Article L. 8221-5 of the Labour Code provides: “Est réputé travail dissimulé par dissimulation d’emploi salarié le fait pour tout employeur”, including an employer who deliberately skips the formality of Article L. 1221-10 on the prior hiring declaration. See Article L. 8221-5 of the Labour Code on Légifrance. In plain terms, deliberately skipping the DPAE is the criminal offence of concealed work, even if the worker holds a valid residence permit. The URSSAF guidance confirms the ladder: back payment of evaded contributions, an administrative penalty of 300 times the hourly minimum garanti rate, and criminal prosecution for intentional concealment, with up to 45,000 euros of fine and three years of imprisonment for an individual, and 225,000 euros for a company. File the DPAE on time for every hire, including the authorized foreign worker, and keep the acknowledgement of receipt.

B. The préfet says no: refusal grounds, the two-month remedies and building a file that survives from abroad

Most refusals rely on one ground: the state of the local employment situation. When the occupation is not on the national shortage-occupation list, the administration may lawfully consider that local workers are available and that your recruitment efforts were insufficient. The courts uphold such refusals regularly. A clear example is the ruling of the Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal of 9 July 2020, appeal no. 19BX04735, concerning an authorization application filed by the company Autaa solution services for a mechanic-welder-handler position and rejected by the préfet of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The court recalled the 18 January 2008 order under which “La situation de l’emploi ou l’absence de recherche préalable de candidats déjà présents sur le marché du travail n’est pas opposable à une demande d’autorisation de travail présentée pour un étranger non ressortissant d’un Etat membre de l’Union européenne, d’un autre Etat partie à l’Espace économique européen ou de la Confédération suisse souhaitant exercer une activité professionnelle dans un métier et une zone géographique caractérisés par des difficultés de recrutement et figurant sur la liste annexée au présent arrêté.” But the position in question was not on the shortage list for the region, and local availability figures exceeded the jobs offered, so the court concluded: “Dès lors, c’est à bon droit que le préfet des Pyrénées-Atlantiques a estimé que le métier envisagé par M. C… ne figurait pas sur la liste des métiers en tension dans la profession et dans la zone géographique en cause.” and it rejected the claim. Read the full ruling here: CAA Bordeaux, 9 July 2020, no. 19BX04735 on Légifrance. The practical message for a founder abroad is blunt: check the shortage list for your occupation and your region before filing, and if the job is not listed, document a genuine local recruitment search with dated advertisements, applications received and reasons for rejection.

Other standard refusal grounds include a salary below the SMIC or the applicable collective minimum, a company with no real activity, often a newly created shell with no premises and no clients, an employment contract that does not match the claimed qualification, and doubts about the authenticity of diplomas or identity documents. Each of these is curable if you prepare. Incorporate properly with a real registered office, open the corporate bank account and deposit the capital, sign a detailed contract with duties matching the diploma, align the salary with the collective agreement grid, and attach certified translations of foreign diplomas with equivalence evidence where needed. Our step-by-step setup guide for foreign founders covers the bank account, the Kbis registration, VAT and the first hires, and you should treat it as the companion to this work-permit guide: Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire.

If the refusal arrives despite your efforts, French law gives you three remedies, all subject to a strict two-month clock. Under the official service-public guidance (official guidance on remedies against a refusal), you have two months from an express refusal to use the following remedies, namely an informal appeal to the préfet, called the recours gracieux, a hierarchical appeal to the Minister of the Interior, called the recours hiérarchique, and a court action before the administrative tribunal, which alone can annul the refusal. If the préfecture simply stays silent, the silence becomes a refusal: a prefecture silence lasting two months counts as an implicit refusal (official guidance on implicit refusals), and you then have two months from that implicit refusal to act. Do not let the deadline pass while negotiating informally. The safe sequence from abroad is: have your representative file the gracious appeal immediately to seek reconsideration, prepare in parallel the tribunal application with a lawyer admitted before the French administrative courts, and ask the judge for interim relief, called the référé-suspension, if the worker faces imminent removal or the company faces an urgent operational loss.

Three operational reflexes make the difference between a file that survives and one that collapses. First, give a written mandate to someone in France, your lawyer or a trusted adviser, with power to receive notifications and file appeals, because time limits run from notification whether you read your mail in London or Singapore or not. Second, never let the candidate start working before the authorization is granted, however urgent the business need: early work transforms a curable refusal into a criminal file for illegal employment plus concealed work. Third, keep every proof of compliance in one binder: the ANEF filing receipts, the DPAE acknowledgement, the contract and its trial-period letters, the payslips, the URSSAF statements and the permit verification records. If an inspection comes, that binder is your defence; if a refusal comes, that binder becomes your court exhibit. A foreign founder who respects this discipline hires foreign talent in France almost as smoothly as a Paris-based employer, and keeps the valuable asset that matters most: the right to keep operating.

Conclusion

Hiring a non-European worker for your French company while you live abroad is neither a formality nor a gamble. It is a sequenced procedure where each step conditions the next: verify who needs an authorization, file a documented employer application through the ANEF platform with a compliant salary, complete the DPAE and a written contract with a capped and properly agreed trial period, pay the one-time OFII employer tax, and keep every receipt. The prohibitions are severe, with five years of imprisonment and 30,000 euros of criminal fine per worker, administrative fines of up to 5,000 times the minimum garanti rate, and concealed-work prosecution for a missing DPAE. But the remedies are real: shortage-list occupations escape the labour-market test, documented recruitment efforts defeat most refusals, and the administrative tribunal annuls unfounded decisions when seized within two months. Build the file as carefully as you built the company, mandate a representative in France for notifications and appeals, and never let work start before the authorization arrives. Done correctly, your first international hire becomes what it should be: the proof that a French company can be run and grown from anywhere in the world.

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