You have the offer letter from a Paris employer, the start date is circled on the calendar, and then human resources asks for a paper you have never heard of: the autorisation de travail, the French work authorisation. Since 1 January 2021, British citizens are third-country nationals in France, which means you cannot simply walk into a French job the way you could before Brexit. Your employer must obtain a work authorisation before you start, you must enter France with the correct long-stay visa, and you must then collect a residence permit that matches your contract. Each step has its own office, its own queue and its own refusal letter, and a refusal at any stage can be challenged if you move quickly and keep every receipt. This guide explains the hiring chain in the order it happens, the specifically British traps along the way, what occurs when someone works without the right paper, and the remedies available against a refusal or a removal order, with the Paris and Ile-de-France practical details that national guides leave out.
I. The permission to be hired: work authorisation first, then the residence permit
A. How the French work authorisation works and who does what
In France, the right to do salaried work and the right to live in the country are two separate permissions, and the work permission comes first. An autorisation de travail is the administrative decision that allows a foreign national to take a salaried job in France, and it is the employer, not the employee, who applies for it. The application is filed online on the ANEF platform, which is the administration portal for foreign nationals in France, before the employment begins. The file is examined by the regional labour authority, known as the DREETS, and for jobs based in Paris and the surrounding departments that means the DREETS of Ile-de-France. Only once the authorisation is granted can the residence side of the process move forward, which is why experienced human resources departments in Paris start the file several weeks before the planned start date and treat the stamped ANEF receipt as the first milestone rather than the finish line.
The statute states the entry rule plainly. Article L. 5221-2 of the Labour Code provides that: “Pour entrer en France en vue d’y exercer une profession salariée, l’étranger présente : 1° Les documents et visas exigés par les conventions internationales et les règlements en vigueur ; 2° Un contrat de travail visé par l’autorité administrative ou une autorisation de travail.” In ordinary English, a foreign worker presents the required visas and either an approved employment contract or a work authorisation. The same chapter closes the back door for people already in France: article L. 5221-5 provides that a foreign national authorised to stay in France still needs the prior work authorisation before doing salaried work, as the text states at article L. 5221-5 of the Labour Code. The scope rule confirms who is concerned: article R. 5221-1 requires a work authorisation for any foreign national who is not a citizen of a European Union member state, another European Economic Area state or Switzerland, a category that has included British citizens since the end of free movement, as set out at article R. 5221-1 of the Labour Code.
The residence permit you receive then depends on the contract you signed. A permanent contract, known in France as a CDI (contrat à durée indéterminée), leads to the temporary residence card marked “salarié”, meaning employee, valid for up to one year. Article L. 421-1 of the Code on the entry and stay of foreign nationals provides that: “L’étranger qui exerce une activité salariée sous contrat de travail à durée indéterminée se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention « salarié » d’une durée maximale d’un an. 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.” A fixed-term contract, known as a CDD (contrat à durée déterminée), or a posting arrangement leads instead to the card marked “travailleur temporaire”, meaning temporary worker, also for up to one year and likewise conditional on the prior work authorisation, under article L. 421-3 of the same Code. The administration spelling this out in plain language is the official service-public guide on the foreign employee work authorisation, which walks through the employer application and the supporting documents at the service-public foreign employee page, with the online filing steps detailed at the online work authorisation application page.
Employers carry their own verification duty, and it is checked. Article L. 5221-8 of the Labour Code requires the employer to check with the competent local authority that the foreign worker holds a title allowing salaried work in France, as stated at article L. 5221-8 of the Labour Code. In practice, a Paris employer verifies the candidate file before the contract is signed, keeps a copy of the authorisation with the personnel records, and re-checks the position at each renewal, because hiring or keeping a worker without the proper title exposes the company to the sanctions described in the second part of this guide. Candidates can help their own file by supplying early a passport valid well beyond the contract term, the signed contract or a firm hiring promise with the job title, workplace address, working hours and gross salary, up-to-date proof of address in France, and any diplomas or professional licences the regulated post requires, since a missing page is the most common reason a file stalls in the DREETS queue.
B. What Brexit changed for British hires, visas first and residence second
Before Brexit, a British citizen took a Paris job the way a Lyon worker would: sign, register for social security, start on Monday. That freedom of movement ended with the transition period on 31 December 2020. The Withdrawal Agreement protects British nationals who were already lawfully resident in France before that date, and who hold or have applied for the Agreement residence document, but it offers nothing to the newcomer who arrives in 2026 with a fresh offer letter. If you moved after the cut-off, you travel the standard third-country road: a long-stay visa matched to salaried work, applied for at the French consulate covering your home area before you travel, then the work authorisation chain and the residence card described above. Readers mapping the whole visa landscape first should also consult the companion guide on which long-stay visa and which residence permit a British newcomer needs and how to challenge a refusal, which covers the consulate stage in detail.
Three British misunderstandings cause most of the damage. The first is the belief that a visa-free short stay allows a trial period at the Paris desk. British visitors may spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area without a visa, but that short stay gives no right to work, paid or unpaid, and starting early while the authorisation is pending puts both the worker and the employer in the irregular-employment regime analysed below. The second is the belief that the Withdrawal Agreement covers every Briton with French ties. It does not: family members who joined later, returning expatriates who broke residence, and first-time movers all fall under ordinary immigration law. The third is the belief that an English-language contract or a UK payroll arrangement removes the French procedure. It does not: once the work is physically performed in France, French authorisation and residence rules apply regardless of where the salary is calculated or paid. The United Kingdom government guidance for Britons travelling to France for work states the starting point from the London side at the official United Kingdom guidance on travel to France for work, and the French visa portal describes the salaried-employment route from the Paris side at the France-Visas salaried employment page.
Paris and Ile-de-France add their own practical layer. Work authorisation applications for Paris-based posts are examined within the Ile-de-France circuit, while residence cards for people living in the capital are issued through the Paris police prefecture, known as the préfecture de police, rather than an ordinary departmental prefecture, and each surrounding department has its own prefecture with its own appointment rhythm. Waiting times lengthen noticeably in September and January, when student and graduate hiring peaks collide with renewals, so autumn starters should count backwards from the intended start date and press the employer to file the ANEF request in early summer. Keep the ANEF filing receipt, the employment contract, payslips once work begins, and proof of address in one folder from day one: if anything is later refused, that folder becomes the evidence bundle for every remedy discussed in the second part.
II. When the paper is missing or refused: dismissals, sanctions, removals and how to challenge them
A. Working without the title: what happens to the contract, the wages and the employer
Some British hires discover the problem only after starting: the authorisation was never filed, it was refused mid-process, or the residence card expired without renewal. French labour law treats this situation with unusual strictness toward the employer and surprising protection toward the worker. The prohibition is absolute. Article L. 8251-1 of the Labour Code states 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.” No one may hire, keep in service or employ for any length of time a foreign national who lacks the title authorising salaried work in France, nor keep such a worker in a different occupation, profession or geographical area from any shown on the title. The contract is therefore necessarily affected, but the consequences are distributed carefully between dismissal mechanics, the money owed, and the sanctions aimed at the employer.
On dismissal, the Cour de cassation, which is the supreme court for labour matters, has settled the analysis in a ruling every Paris employment lawyer knows. In its judgment of 23 November 2022, appeal number 21-12.125, the Social Chamber held that: “si l’irrégularité de la situation d’un travailleur étranger constitue nécessairement une cause objective justifiant la rupture de son contrat de travail exclusive de l’application des dispositions relatives aux licenciements et de l’allocation de dommages-intérêts pour licenciement sans cause réelle et sérieuse, elle n’est pas constitutive en soi d’une faute grave.” In plain terms, the irregularity of the foreign worker necessarily gives an objective ground for ending the contract, outside the ordinary dismissal rules and without damages for dismissal without real and serious cause, but it is not in itself serious misconduct, known in French as faute grave. The same ruling adds the practical sting: “Seule la faute grave peut justifier une mise à pied conservatoire et le non-paiement du salaire durant cette période.” Only serious misconduct can justify a precautionary suspension, known as a mise à pied conservatoire, and the withholding of wages during it. An employer who suspends without pay and then dismisses solely for the missing paper therefore owes the wages for the suspension period, and any serious misconduct relied upon must be stated separately in the dismissal letter.
Money earned during irregular employment stays owed. The worker keeps the right to full payment of wages and accessory sums for the illicit employment period under the applicable legal, collectively agreed and contractual terms, minus sums already received, and failing contrary proof the sums due correspond to a presumed three-month relationship which the worker may supplement by proving the actual work by any means. On top of that, when the relationship ends, the worker is entitled to a flat-rate indemnity equal to three months of salary unless ordinary dismissal and notice indemnities give a better result. The Cour de cassation restated the rule on 9 April 2026, appeal number 25-12.603, holding that: “l’étranger non muni du titre l’autorisant à exercer une activité salariée en France a droit, au titre de la période d’emploi illicite, en cas de rupture de la relation de travail, à une indemnité forfaitaire égale à trois mois de salaire, à moins que l’application des règles figurant aux articles L. 1234-5, L. 1234-9, L. 1243-4 et L. 1243-8 ne conduise à une solution plus favorable.” The statutory home of these rights is article L. 8252-2 of the Labour Code. One boundary matters for workers changing contractors on Paris service contracts: the Cour de cassation held on 17 April 2019, appeal number 18-15.321, that: “il résulte des dispositions combinées des articles L. 8251-1 et L. 8252-1 du code du travail qu’un étranger non muni du titre l’autorisant à exercer une activité salariée en France n’est pas assimilé à un salarié régulièrement engagé au regard des règles régissant le transfert du contrat de travail”, so an incoming service provider is not obliged to take on a worker who lacks the work title.
The employer side of the same facts is genuinely dangerous. Knowingly hiring or keeping a foreign worker without the authorising title is a criminal offence punishable by five years of imprisonment and a 30,000 euro fine, as stated at article L. 8256-2 of the Labour Code, alongside administrative fines, orders to pay the worker’s owed sums, and possible exclusion from public contracts. Company directors in Paris should therefore treat the ANEF receipt and the residence card as corporate documents, diary the expiry dates, and suspend the start date rather than the procedure when the file runs late. For the British worker, the lesson is symmetrical: never accept an invitation to start “while the papers catch up”, never work on a visitor status, and if the contract is ended for the missing title, collect the suspension-period wages and the three-month flat-rate indemnity rather than walking away empty-handed, while taking advice on regularising the stay through the remedies in the next section.
B. Refusals and removal orders: the remedies, the deadlines and the Paris courts
A refusal of the work authorisation, a refusal of the salarié or travailleur temporaire card, or a refusal of the entry visa each arrives as a reasoned written decision, and each can be challenged. The gentlest step is the recours gracieux, a free-form request asking the authority that decided to think again in light of a completed or corrected file, often combined with a recours hiérarchique to the supervising minister. These administrative appeals cost nothing, interrupt nothing by themselves, and succeed mainly where the refusal rested on a missing document, a misunderstood qualification, or an out-of-date salary threshold. File them immediately anyway: they create a dated paper trail, they sometimes unlock a settlement, and they preserve the worker’s credibility for the court stage. Always send them by a traceable method and keep the proof of posting, because every later deadline is computed from notification dates.
The court remedy is the appeal to the administrative court, known as the tribunal administratif, against the refusal, generally within two months of notification, asking the judge to annul the decision for legal error, flawed reasoning or disproportionate assessment. Where the refusal is accompanied by an order to leave France, known as an OQTF (obligation de quitter le territoire français), the timetable compresses dramatically and the migrant must act within the short deadline printed on the order itself. Article L. 611-1 of the Code on the entry and stay of foreign nationals lists the situations in which the administration may order departure, opening with the words: “L’autorité administrative peut obliger un étranger à quitter le territoire français lorsqu’il se trouve dans les cas suivants : 1° L’étranger, ne pouvant justifier être entré régulièrement sur le territoire français, s’y est maintenu sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour en cours de validité ;” A British worker whose card has expired, or who never held one, falls squarely in the frame the text describes, which is why renewal diaries and early refilings matter more than eloquent appeal letters. Urgent interim relief exists in the form of the référé-suspension, the emergency application asking the judge to freeze the execution of the decision while the main appeal is examined, and it must be filed alongside or immediately after the main appeal with evidence of urgency and of a serious doubt about legality.
The file that wins is built before the dispute. Judges deciding work authorisation cases look for the reality and durability of the job: a genuine contract with a real Paris workplace, a salary consistent with the post and with the applicable collective agreement, known in French as the convention collective, qualifications matching the duties, and an employer with the means to employ. They also weigh the worker’s overall situation: length of presence in France, family ties, prior compliance, language integration, and any medical or humanitarian factors. Assemble the bundle accordingly: the full ANEF file with its receipt, the refusal with its reasons answered point by point, the contract and any hiring correspondence, payslips, proof of address and family documents, diplomas with sworn translations where needed, and evidence of integration such as language certificates or community ties. Mention every previous visa and every previous application, because the prefecture file will contain them and a contradiction destroys credibility faster than any legal argument rebuilds it.
Two Paris practical points close the picture. First, jurisdiction follows the deciding authority and the worker’s address: decisions taken by the Paris police prefecture go to the Paris administrative court, while decisions concerning residents of the inner and outer suburbs go to the courts at Montreuil, Melun or Cergy-Pontoise depending on the department, so check the appeal address printed at the foot of the decision rather than assuming Paris. Second, an appeal does not itself authorise work: until a fresh authorisation and a valid residence title exist, the worker must not resume salaried activity, however confident the appeal looks, or the irregular-employment sanctions analysed above restart from zero. Diaries therefore carry two dates for every refusal: the court deadline and the earliest date a corrected employer application can be refiled, because the fastest victories in this field come from a new complete ANEF filing running in parallel with the legal challenge rather than from the challenge alone.
Conclusion
A British hire in France succeeds when the sequence is respected: the employer files the work authorisation on ANEF before the start date, the worker enters with the correct long-stay visa, the matching salarié or travailleur temporaire card is collected and renewed on time, and every paper is kept in a single dated folder. Working early or on visitor status helps no one: the contract can be ended for objective cause, yet the wages and the three-month indemnity stay owed while the employer faces criminal and administrative sanctions. A refusal is never the last word if the deadlines are met: an immediate administrative appeal, a court challenge within two months, emergency suspension proceedings where removal looms, and a parallel corrected filing give the worker the best combined chance. Check the foot of each decision for the competent Paris-area court, never resume work without a valid title during proceedings, and treat each renewal date as seriously as the first application, because in French immigration law the file you kept yesterday is the case you win tomorrow.