Your Lyon lease is ending, your Paris clients want you closer, and you run the whole company from London, New York or Singapore. Moving a French company from one city to another is not a matter of forwarding the mail: the registered office, known in France as the siège social, is the legal address of the company, and changing it means amending the articles of association, publishing a legal notice, filing with the business formalities gateway and obtaining a new company ID card. Every step can be completed remotely, but the order of the steps and the one-month deadlines leave no room for improvisation. This guide explains how a foreign-based founder moves a French SARL or SAS to a new city, which majority votes the move, which address the court registrar will accept, and what changes the day the move is registered: the competent court, the enforceability of the move against employees, tax registrations and banking files.

French company law treats the registered office as the anchor of the company: it determines the court registrar (greffe) that keeps the file, the commercial court with jurisdiction over the company, and the address printed on the Kbis, the official extract that proves the company exists. The Kbis is to a French company what a certificate of incorporation plus a live company profile is elsewhere: banks, clients and administrations ask for a copy less than three months old before they sign anything. A company whose Kbis still shows the old address after a move will see payments frozen, filings rejected and contracts questioned. The good news is that the procedure is entirely standardised on the official guichet des formalités des entreprises, the single online gateway run by the INPI (the French intellectual property and companies office), and a founder living abroad can sign everything electronically or through a written power of attorney. The traps described below come from real court decisions and from the exact wording of the statutes, so that you can check each statement against the official source linked in the text.

I. Vote the move correctly before you sign anything

A transfer of the registered office amends the articles of association, and an amendment voted by the wrong body or with the wrong majority can be annulled. Before booking the movers, secure the corporate decision. French courts annul decisions taken in breach of the statutory majority, and a challenger, typically a minority shareholder or a former business partner, has every interest in attacking the move if the paperwork is sloppy. The rules differ sharply between the two vehicles foreign founders use most: the SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, a private limited company with rigid statutory rules) and the SAS (société par actions simplifiée, a simplified joint-stock company whose articles can allocate powers as the founders wish).

A. Who can decide the transfer in a SARL and in a SAS

In a SARL, the statute sets the majority for you. Article L223-30 of the Commercial Code provides that “le déplacement du siège social est décidé par un ou plusieurs associés représentant plus de la moitié des parts sociales”, meaning the move is decided by one or more shareholders holding more than half of the shares. This is deliberately lighter than the rule for other amendments to the articles, which require shareholders holding at least three quarters of the shares. In practice, a founder who holds 51 percent of a SARL can move the company alone, while a 50-50 deadlock cannot move it at all without going to court. The decision must be recorded in written minutes, and the articles are then updated with the new address before any filing.

In a SAS, the answer is in your own articles, and that is exactly where foreign founders get caught. Article L227-9 of the Commercial Code states that “Les statuts déterminent les décisions qui doivent être prises collectivement par les associés dans les formes et conditions qu’ils prévoient”, meaning the articles determine which decisions must be taken collectively by the shareholders and under which conditions. The law imposes no specific majority for moving the registered office of a SAS: the articles may give the power to the president alone, to the shareholders collectively, or to another body created by the articles. The official business information service confirms that if the articles say nothing, the decision must be taken unanimously by the shareholders. Founders who downloaded template articles years ago should therefore re-read the powers clause before acting: a transfer signed by the president alone is perfectly valid when the articles allow it, and voidable when they require a collective decision that never happened.

Three practical consequences follow for a founder living abroad. First, organise the vote in writing with the same care as a share transfer: convene the shareholders according to the articles, record the resolution and the majority, and keep proof of dispatch of the convening notices. Second, if you are the sole shareholder of a SASU (single-member SAS) or the sole member of a single-member SARL, record a unilateral written decision, dated and signed, because the registrar will ask for it. Third, never backdate minutes to fit the one-month publication deadline described below: a dated shareholder decision is the starting point of every time limit, and an inconsistent date across the minutes, the legal notice and the online filing is the classic trigger for a rejection by the registrar, which the French call the greffe, the clerk’s office of the commercial court that keeps the trade and companies register.

B. Choose a new address the registrar will accept, with Paris and Ile-de-France specifics

The new address must be real premises the company is entitled to occupy, and the registrar checks this point systematically. Article L123-11 of the Commercial Code requires that “Toute personne morale demandant son immatriculation au registre du commerce et des sociétés doit justifier de la jouissance du ou des locaux où elle installe, seule ou avec d’autres, le siège de l’entreprise”, meaning every legal entity must prove it is entitled to occupy the premises where it installs its registered office. On a transfer, the company must therefore attach to its filing a lease, a sub-lease, a domiciliation contract with an authorised domiciliation company, or a title deed. A simple letter from a friend in Paris lending their flat is not enough, and a fictitious address exposes the company to removal from the register and, in serious cases, to criminal liability for the manager.

Three types of address dominate foreign-founder practice, each with its own proof. A commercial lease (bail commercial) is the strongest file: attach the signed lease and the last rent receipt. A domiciliation contract with a licensed domiciliation company works well for founders who need a prestigious Paris address without offices, provided the provider holds the prefectural approval number that must appear on the contract. Installing the registered office at the legal representative’s home is possible but capped: the law allows it, yet many residential leases and co-ownership rules prohibit professional use, and some municipalities object, so check the lease and the building rules before filing. Shared premises occupied with other companies are expressly allowed by the same article, which covers premises occupied “seule ou avec d’autres”, alone or together with others, as long as the equipment and services proving the real presence of the company meet the regulatory standard.

Moving to Paris or the Ile-de-France region adds local checkpoints worth anticipating. The Paris commercial court registrar is the busiest in France and applies documentary checks strictly: powers of attorney signed abroad must clearly identify the company, the decision and the representative, and any document in a foreign language should be filed with a certified French translation. Rents and domiciliation fees in Paris are markedly higher than in most regional cities, so founders sometimes keep back-office operations elsewhere and domiciliate only the registered office in Paris; that split is lawful as long as the Paris address is genuinely available to the company and correspondence is actually received there. Finally, a move into Paris changes the competent commercial court to the Paris court and shifts the local business tax (cotisation foncière des entreprises, the CFE, an annual local tax on business premises) to the Paris roll, with a new tax office (service des impôts des entreprises, the SIE, the corporate tax office) for VAT and corporate income tax correspondence. Notify the bank relationship manager of the new address the same week the new Kbis arrives, because bank compliance departments compare the address on payment files with the registered address and block transfers on mismatch.

For founders weighing where to land, the companion pillar guide to setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, from bank account and Kbis to VAT and the first hire explains the building blocks, bank account, company ID extract, VAT number and first employee, that every later corporate change, including a transfer of seat, must keep consistent.

II. Register the move from abroad within the one-month chain

Once the shareholders have voted, three filings must follow in the right order and within one month: publish a legal notice, file the amendment on the single gateway, and update the beneficial-owner register. Miss one link and the chain breaks: the registrar rejects the file, the old address stays on the Kbis, and every contract signed with the new address can be questioned. The whole sequence can be handled from abroad through the online gateway with an electronic signature, or by giving a written power of attorney to a person in France, typically a lawyer or a formalities agent. Keep a single dated folder with the minutes, the updated articles, the legal notice certificate, the gateway receipt and the new Kbis: in a later dispute, the dates prove the company complied.

A. Publish, file and update the beneficial-owner register in the right order

The legal notice comes first, and its content depends on whether the company stays within the district of its current court or leaves it. France is divided into court districts (ressorts), each commercial court keeping the register for companies seated in its area. A move from Lyon to Villeurbanne stays within the same district; a move from Lyon to Paris changes district, and the file itself migrates from one registrar to another. In both cases the decision recorded in the minutes must be published in an authorised legal notices medium (support habilité à recevoir les annonces légales, formerly the journal d’annonces légales) for the area of the registered office within one month of the decision, with the company name, legal form, capital, old and new addresses and registration number.

For a move outside the current court district, the statute dictates the exact content of the notice. Article R210-11 of the Commercial Code provides that “En cas de transfert du siège social hors du ressort du tribunal au greffe duquel la société a été immatriculée, l’avis, publié dans un support habilité à recevoir des annonces légales du département du nouveau siège, indique que le siège social a été transféré et reproduit les mentions prévues aux 1°, 2°, 4° et 9° de l’article R. 210-4”, meaning the notice, published in an authorised medium of the department of the new seat, states that the seat has been transferred and repeats the core company particulars. It must also identify the former seat with its registration references and name the trade and companies register where the company will now be registered. Order the notice from abroad through any authorised online legal-notices platform, which issues the publication certificate within a day or two; without that certificate the gateway filing cannot proceed.

The gateway filing comes second, and the one-month clock is statutory. Article R123-66 of the Commercial Code requires “une inscription modificative dans le mois de tout fait ou acte rendant nécessaire la rectification”, meaning every registered legal entity must request an amending entry within one month of any event requiring a correction of its registered particulars. In plain terms, the company has one month from the shareholders’ decision to file the transfer online, attaching the minutes, the updated articles, the lease or domiciliation proof and the legal-notice certificate. For a move within the same district, the current registrar updates the file; for a move to another district, the new registrar registers the company, the old registrar is notified automatically, and publication in the official gazette follows.

That official gazette publication is the BODACC, the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, where company registrations and amendments are announced to the public. Article R123-155 of the Commercial Code states that “Toute immatriculation donne lieu à l’insertion d’un avis au Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales”, meaning every registration gives rise to a notice in the gazette. After a cross-district transfer, the new registration appears in the BODACC, and that publication date is the public proof of the move: courts, banks and counterparties check it. Download the BODACC notice and the new Kbis showing the new address and the new registrar, and circulate them to the bank, the insurer, the accountant and major clients.

The third link in the chain is the beneficial-owner register, the RBE (registre des bénéficiaires effectifs), which identifies the natural persons who ultimately control the company and is now the most frequent cause of rejected filings. The duty to declare is set by Article L561-46 of the Monetary and Financial Code, under which the companies concerned “déclarent au registre du commerce et des sociétés, par l’intermédiaire de l’organisme mentionné au deuxième alinéa de l’article L. 123-33 du code de commerce, les informations relatives aux bénéficiaires effectifs”, meaning they declare information on their beneficial owners to the trade and companies register through the single gateway. The implementing rule is strict on timing: Article R561-55 of the Monetary and Financial Code provides that “La société ou l’entité immatriculée demande une inscription modificative dans les trente jours suivant tout fait ou acte rendant nécessaire la rectification ou le complément des informations déclarées”, meaning the company must request an amending entry within thirty days of any event requiring correction of the declared information. A cross-district transfer always requires a fresh beneficial-owner filing on the gateway, because the declaration states the company address: Article R561-56 of the Monetary and Financial Code lists among the declared particulars “sa dénomination ou raison sociale, sa forme juridique, l’adresse de son siège social et, le cas échéant, son numéro unique d’identification complété par la mention RCS suivie du nom de la ville où se trouve le greffe où elle est immatriculée”. For a same-district move, a new filing is required only if the move comes with a change concerning the beneficial owners themselves. Founders living abroad should prepare this filing together with the transfer filing, because a mismatch between the company address on the Kbis and the address on the beneficial-owner declaration is a standard ground for bank compliance alerts.

B. What changes on the day the move is registered: courts, staff, tax and banks

The registration date governs almost everything, and two Paris court of appeal decisions show why the date matters more than the private decision. In the first case, a technology company moved its registered office from the Paris area to the jurisdiction of the Pontoise commercial court and was registered there on 3 February 2021, while its opponent filed a court application in Paris on 2 April 2021. The Paris Court of Appeal, Pôle 1, Chamber 3, in its decision of 26 October 2022, RG 22/04467, held that the date of publication of the transfer fixed jurisdiction, noting “le 3 février 2021 date de la publicité du transfert du siège social de la société ARPS”, and concluded “qu’à la date de sa saisine, le président du tribunal de commerce de Paris était incompétent pour statuer sur la requête présentée le 2 avril 2021 par la société UPCR”, meaning that when seized, the president of the Paris commercial court had no jurisdiction over the application, so “La décision de rétractation sera confirmée”, the withdrawal order was confirmed. The lesson for a founder is direct: from registration at the new registrar, lawsuits must be brought before the new commercial court, evidence-preservation orders must be requested there, and any application filed at the old court after that date can be thrown out for lack of jurisdiction, wasting months and costs.

The second decision concerns employees, the group a foreign founder most often forgets in a move. A Franco-British company transferred its registered office to the United Kingdom, was removed from the Paris trade and companies register on 2 June 2023 with publication in the BODACC on 13 June, and its Paris employee argued the transfer could not be held against him. The Paris Court of Appeal, Pôle 6, Chamber 5, in its decision of 4 April 2024, RG 21/09585, “Rejette la demande de M. [V] [H] tendant à voir déclarer que le transfert du siège social de la société LV Quotidien Le Veinard Quotidien Hippique à l’adresse [Adresse 3], [Localité 6] (Grande Bretagne) lui est inopposable”, meaning it rejected the employee’s claim that the transfer of the registered office to Great Britain was unenforceable against him. A duly registered and published transfer is therefore effective against third parties, including staff. The mirror lesson applies to a domestic move: inform employees in writing of the new registered and working address, update employment records and pay slips, and check whether individual employment contracts or the applicable collective agreement give rights, such as a change-of-workplace clause, when the place of work moves with the seat.

Tax and social filings follow automatically in part, but never entirely. The gateway forwards the new address to the tax administration and to URSSAF, the body that collects social security contributions, yet the company should verify within a few weeks that the corporate tax office, the VAT file and the employer account all show the new address, and that the CFE assessment for the following year comes from the right municipality. Corporate income tax returns, VAT returns and the annual payroll declaration (déclaration sociale nominative, the DSN, the monthly electronic payroll return) must carry the new address from the transfer date. Update the intra-Community VAT number directory entry, the invoicing templates, the general terms and the website legal notice, because invoices bearing the old registered address after the move draw questions in every tax audit. Finally, send the new Kbis and the BODACC notice to the bank: the bank’s know-your-business file must match the register, and the beneficial-owner declaration must match the Kbis, failing which the bank’s financial-crime filters flag the account.

Run the whole operation from abroad with a short checklist in this order: vote and minute the decision with the correct majority; sign the new lease or domiciliation contract; order the legal notice and obtain the certificate; file the transfer and the beneficial-owner update on the gateway within the month; download the new Kbis and the BODACC notice; circulate them to the bank, the accountant, the insurer, the tax office contact and the staff; then update invoices, contracts and the website. If the gateway rejects the file, read the rejection reason literally, most often a missing translation, an unsigned page of the updated articles or a mismatch between the minutes and the notice, correct exactly that point and refile: repeated identical filings with the same defect only add new rejection stamps to the file history.

Conclusion

Moving a French company to a new city from abroad is a three-act procedure: a valid corporate vote under the SARL majority or the SAS articles, a real address proved by lease or domiciliation contract, and a one-month chain of legal notice, gateway filing and beneficial-owner update ending in a new Kbis and a BODACC notice. The registration date then resets the company’s public anchor: the new commercial court becomes competent, the move becomes effective against employees and counterparties, and tax, social and banking files must follow. Founders who treat the transfer as a single online form invite rejections and jurisdictional surprises; founders who date each step, keep the certificates and circulate the new company extract move cities without breaking the legal continuity of their business.