{"id":2123479,"date":"2026-09-17T21:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/17\/foreign-company-france-convert-branch-succursale-sas-subsidiary-close-abroad\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T21:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:00:20","slug":"foreign-company-france-convert-branch-succursale-sas-subsidiary-close-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/17\/foreign-company-france-convert-branch-succursale-sas-subsidiary-close-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Your French Branch Is Holding You Back? How a Foreign Company Converts a Succursale into an SAS Subsidiary or Closes It from Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

You opened a branch in France two years ago because it looked fast and cheap. Today that succursale<\/em> worries you: a Paris client threatens to sue the branch and seize payment from your foreign head office, your bank asks questions every time the branch manager signs, your accountant warns that the French tax office treats the branch as a permanent establishment, and you wonder whether a proper French subsidiary would be safer. Or the reverse: the branch never took off, it costs money every month, and you want to shut it down from abroad without leaving debts, staff disputes or tax filings behind. This guide answers both questions in one place, because they are the same decision seen from two sides: what a branch really is under French law, what a filiale<\/em> in the form of an SAS gives you that a branch never will, how to move the business from one to the other while keeping your employees and contracts, and how to deregister cleanly when you leave. Every French acronym is explained, every decisive rule is quoted from its official text, and the procedure is described the way it works in practice at the Paris commercial court registry, the single filing portal and the tax office.<\/p>\n

I. Branch (succursale) versus subsidiary (filiale SAS): what really changes for your liability, tax bill and hiring power<\/h2>\n

A. What is a French branch (succursale) of a foreign company, and why does it give you no legal shield?<\/h3>\n

A succursale<\/em> is a secondary establishment of your existing foreign company on French soil. It has premises, staff and activity in France, but it has no legal personality of its own: there is no new company, no separate patrimony, no share capital. The French Ministry of the Economy describes it plainly as a structure with no legal autonomy and no assets of its own, halfway between the simple liaison office, which may not conduct commercial activity, and the subsidiary, which is a full legal entity in its own right. That single fact drives everything else. When the branch signs a contract, hires an employee or fails to pay a supplier, the debtor is your foreign company itself, on all of its worldwide assets. French clients and landlords know this, which is why some of them like contracting with a branch; for you as the owner, it means the branch never works as a shield.<\/p>\n

Registration is nevertheless compulsory. Article L123-1 of the commercial code<\/a> requires registration for commercial companies whose registered office sits outside a French department but which have an establishment in one of those departments. In practice you file with the single portal, the guichet unique<\/em> run by the INPI, which forwards the file to the registry of the commercial court, the greffe du tribunal de commerce<\/em>. Article L123-33 of the commercial code<\/a> states the principle: “toute entreprise se conforme \u00e0 l’obligation de d\u00e9clarer sa cr\u00e9ation, la modification de sa situation ou la cessation de ses activit\u00e9s aupr\u00e8s d’une administration, d’une personne ou d’un organisme mentionn\u00e9s \u00e0 l’article L. 123-32 par le d\u00e9p\u00f4t d’un seul dossier comportant les d\u00e9clarations qu’elle est tenue d’effectuer. Ce dossier est d\u00e9pos\u00e9 par voie \u00e9lectronique aupr\u00e8s d’un organisme unique d\u00e9sign\u00e9 \u00e0 cet effet.” The Paris court registry publishes the exact checklist for a branch whose head office is abroad: proof of the parent company’s existence in its home register with a recent certified extract, the parent’s articles translated into French by a sworn translator, the board resolution deciding to open the French branch, proof of the French business address, called domiciliation<\/em>, identity documents for the person who will run the branch in France, the responsable de la succursale<\/em>, and, for regulated activities, the licence or qualification. Once registered, the branch appears in the trade and companies register, the registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s<\/em> (RCS), gets its own SIREN number, and receives its own Kbis extract, the extrait Kbis<\/em>, which is the official identity card of a French business, plus a publication notice in the official civil and commercial announcements bulletin, the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales<\/em> (BODACC). If you want the full formation sequence from bank certificate to Kbis to VAT number, our step-by-step pillar guide walks through setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, from bank account to Kbis, VAT and first hire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tax follows activity, not the label you chose. As soon as the branch trades in France, it is an enterprise operated in France. Article 209 of the general tax code<\/a> provides that corporate income tax takes into account only “des b\u00e9n\u00e9fices r\u00e9alis\u00e9s dans les entreprises exploit\u00e9es en France, de ceux mentionn\u00e9s aux a, e, e bis et e ter du I de l’article 164 B ainsi que de ceux dont l’imposition est attribu\u00e9e \u00e0 la France par une convention internationale relative aux doubles impositions”. The Cour de cassation applies this strictly to foreign companies operating through a French permanent establishment. In a published ruling of 15 February 2023, Commercial chamber, appeal no. 21-13.288<\/a>, the Court held: “Une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de droit \u00e9tranger est tenue, lorsqu’elle exerce une activit\u00e9 en France par l’interm\u00e9diaire d’un \u00e9tablissement stable, aux obligations r\u00e9sultant des articles 54, 209 et 286, I, 3\u00b0, du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, qui exigent la passation d’\u00e9critures comptables permettant de justifier des op\u00e9rations imposables en France, de sorte que lorsqu’elle a m\u00e9connu ses obligations d\u00e9claratives, elle peut \u00eatre pr\u00e9sum\u00e9e avoir omis sciemment de passer ou de faire passer des \u00e9critures ou avoir pass\u00e9 ou fait passer sciemment des \u00e9critures inexactes ou fictives dans des documents comptables dont la tenue est impos\u00e9e par le code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts.” In plain English: a foreign company trading through a French stable establishment must keep French accounts capable of justifying its taxable operations in France, file the corresponding returns, and faces a presumption of deliberate accounting omission if it does not. The branch must therefore register for VAT when its activity requires it, file corporate tax returns on its French profits, pay the local business tax, the cotisation fonci\u00e8re des entreprises<\/em>, and register as an employer with URSSAF, the body that collects French social security contributions, before its first hire. Many foreign owners discover this two years late, during a tax audit or a URSSAF inspection, and the adjustment then covers the whole period of undeclared activity.<\/p>\n

The second structural weakness of the branch is the authority of the person who runs it locally. Because the branch is you, anyone who deals with the branch manager can, in the right circumstances, bind your whole company. French courts apply the doctrine of apparent authority, the mandat apparent<\/em>, even where the powers of company officers are subject to public registration. On 9 March 2022, Commercial chamber, appeal no. 19-25.704<\/a>, the Cour de cassation stated: “le seul fait que la nomination et la cessation des fonctions de g\u00e9rant de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e soient soumises \u00e0 des r\u00e8gles de publicit\u00e9 l\u00e9gale ne suffit pas \u00e0 exclure qu’une telle soci\u00e9t\u00e9 puisse \u00eatre engag\u00e9e sur le fondement d’un mandat apparent.” The Court recalled the test, drawn from article 1985<\/a> and article 1998 of the civil code<\/a> in their current numbering, that “une personne peut \u00eatre engag\u00e9e sur le fondement d’un mandat apparent lorsque la croyance du tiers aux pouvoirs du pr\u00e9tendu mandataire a \u00e9t\u00e9 l\u00e9gitime, ce caract\u00e8re supposant que les circonstances autorisaient ce tiers \u00e0 ne pas v\u00e9rifier lesdits pouvoirs.” For a branch, the lesson is direct: if your Paris manager negotiates alone, signs emails in the company’s name and is the only contact the client ever sees, a French court can hold your foreign company bound by commitments you never approved. Powers of attorney must therefore be written narrowly, notified to banks and major clients, and mirrored in the registered details of the branch so that a check at the registry shows the limits.<\/p>\n

Hiring through a branch has one more consequence owners underestimate: the employer is the foreign company. Every employment contract, every dismissal, every URSSAF debt and every workplace accident attaches to the head office. A French court that orders back pay or unfair dismissal damages enforces against the foreign parent, and a bailiff, the commissaire de justice<\/em> formerly called huissier<\/em>, can act on French assets of the branch first. This is exactly the moment when many owners decide the branch experiment should end and a subsidiary should take over.<\/p>\n

B. What does an SAS subsidiary (filiale) give a foreign parent that a branch never gives?<\/h3>\n

A filiale<\/em> is a French company in its own right, most often an SAS, the soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e<\/em>, whose sole shareholder is your foreign company. Article L227-1 of the commercial code<\/a> opens with the decisive sentence: “Une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e peut \u00eatre institu\u00e9e par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’\u00e0 concurrence de leur apport.” Losses are borne only up to contributions. And article L210-6 of the commercial code<\/a> fixes the birth moment of that protection: “Les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s commerciales jouissent de la personnalit\u00e9 morale \u00e0 dater de leur immatriculation au registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s.” From the day the SAS is registered, it owns its assets, signs in its own name, sues and is sued in its own name, and its shareholder, your foreign company, is normally liable only for the capital it subscribed. Creditors of the SAS cannot seize the parent’s foreign accounts simply because the parent owns 100 percent of the shares. That separation is the core commercial reason to convert.<\/p>\n

The SAS also gives you contractual freedom a branch cannot offer. The articles, the statuts<\/em>, can create classes of shares, unequal voting rights, a veto for the foreign parent on defined decisions, an inalienability clause locking a French minority partner in for an agreed period, and a tailored governance with a president, the pr\u00e9sident de SAS<\/em>, plus optional general managers. Capital starts at one euro, contributions can be cash or, with an auditor’s report above set thresholds, in kind, and later increases are a routine filing. Banks prefer it: an SAS has its own Kbis, its own balance sheet and its own credit file, so the endless questions about the foreign parent’s accounts calm down, even if the bank still asks the parent for a guarantee in the first year. Landlords, public buyers and large corporate clients prefer it too, because they read French company documents fluently and know exactly who they contract with.<\/p>\n

On tax, the subsidiary is a French tax resident company. Article 206 of the general tax code<\/a> lists the companies liable to corporate income tax whatever their purpose, including joint-stock companies, which covers the SAS, and the SAS then falls under the same article 209 territoriality for its French profits. The practical difference with the branch is not the rate but the clarity: the SAS has its own accounts, its own tax returns and its own VAT number from day one, so there is no more argument about which part of the foreign company’s worldwide margin belongs to France. Dividends the SAS pays up to the foreign parent follow the parent-subsidiary rules and the applicable double tax treaty, with French withholding reduced or eliminated where the treaty and the European directives allow and the paperwork is filed before payment. Within a French group, the SAS can later join a tax consolidation, the int\u00e9gration fiscale<\/em>, which a branch can never do. None of this removes French tax; it makes it predictable, documented and capable of being financed by the profits of the French business alone.<\/p>\n

For hiring, the subsidiary becomes the employer instead of your foreign company. Dismissal risk, URSSAF audits, supplementary pension with AGIRC-ARRCO, workplace accident liability and the mandatory single personnel register all sit inside the SAS. If the French business fails, you liquidate the SAS with its own procedure and its own creditors’ meeting, instead of exposing the head office to direct enforcement. For founders who plan to bring in a French partner, a manager with equity or an investor, only the subsidiary allows it: you cannot sell shares in a branch because there are no shares. That single point often settles the choice for growing businesses.<\/p>\n

The honest counterweight is cost and formality. Creating an SAS means drafting real articles, depositing the capital in a blocked bank account and obtaining the deposit certificate, publishing a formation notice in a legal announcements journal, the journal d’annonces l\u00e9gales<\/em>, filing on the single portal, registering the beneficial owners in the registre des b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires effectifs<\/em>, and keeping annual accounts approved and filed every year. A branch is lighter to open and lighter to run, which is why it suits a testing phase of twelve to eighteen months with one or two people and a small turnover. The conversion question therefore arrives on schedule: once revenue, headcount or litigation risk grows, the branch has done its job and the SAS should take over. The next part explains how to execute that move from abroad without breaking employment contracts, client relationships or tax continuity.<\/p>\n

II. How do you convert your French branch into an SAS subsidiary, or close it, when you run everything from abroad?<\/h2>\n

A. How do you move the business, the staff and the contracts from the branch to the new SAS?<\/h3>\n

Legally there is no transformation of a branch into a company, because there is nothing to transform: the branch is not a person. Conversion always means two coordinated operations: create the SAS subsidiary, then transfer the branch business into it, then deregister the branch. Running them in the wrong order is the most common and most expensive mistake. Founders who deregister the branch first lose the Kbis counterparties check, interrupt the VAT number and break the employment contracts with no new employer ready. Keep the branch alive until the SAS is registered, staffed and banked, and only then close the branch.<\/p>\n

Creating the SAS from abroad is routine if the file is complete. The foreign parent company resolves to incorporate, appoints the SAS president and approves the draft articles. Identity documents of the parent’s legal representative, a recent extract of the parent from its home company register with an apostille where the issuing country is party to the Hague convention, and a French translation by a sworn translator are attached. The capital is wired to a French bank or notary, which issues the deposit certificate, the certificat de d\u00e9p\u00f4t des fonds<\/em>; founders who were refused an account at the first attempt should reapply with the full incorporation pack and, if needed, use the right-to-account procedure rather than wiring capital to a personal account, which the registry will reject. The formation notice is published, the file goes through the single portal under article L123-33, and the SAS receives its SIREN, its Kbis and its VAT number. From that day, under article L210-6, the subsidiary exists as a person and can sign.<\/p>\n

Employees move with the business by operation of law, not by negotiation, whenever the conditions are met. Article L1224-1 of the labour code<\/a> provides: “Lorsque survient une modification dans la situation juridique de l’employeur, notamment par succession, vente, fusion, transformation du fonds, mise en soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de l’entreprise, tous les contrats de travail en cours au jour de la modification subsistent entre le nouvel employeur et le personnel de l’entreprise.” The transfer of a branch activity into a newly created SAS subsidiary is a textbook case of a change in the employer’s legal situation. The Cour de cassation confirmed the breadth of this rule on 10 December 2025 in Social chamber, appeal no. 23-11.819<\/a>, holding, in a case about staff assigned to an autonomous unit: “lorsque l’activit\u00e9 exerc\u00e9e dans une entreprise appartenant \u00e0 un groupe et constituant une entit\u00e9 \u00e9conomique autonome est transf\u00e9r\u00e9e \u00e0 une entreprise ext\u00e9rieure au groupe, les salari\u00e9s qui, au jour du transfert, sont affect\u00e9s de mani\u00e8re permanente \u00e0 cette entit\u00e9 pour l’ex\u00e9cution de leur t\u00e2che habituelle, passent au service du cessionnaire.” For your conversion, the employees permanently assigned to the French branch activity therefore pass automatically to the SAS with their seniority, their qualification and their contractual benefits intact. You may not use the transfer to cut pay, reset seniority or impose a trial period, and dismissals pronounced to avoid the transfer are treated as without real and serious cause. The mirror provision, article L1224-2 of the labour code<\/a>, adds that “Le nouvel employeur est tenu, \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard des salari\u00e9s dont les contrats de travail subsistent, aux obligations qui incombaient \u00e0 l’ancien employeur \u00e0 la date de la modification”, which means accrued paid leave, pending bonuses and ongoing sick-pay top-ups travel with the employees into the SAS.<\/p>\n

In practice, execute the staff transfer in this order. First, map exactly who is assigned to the French activity: office staff in France, remote workers whose habitual task serves the branch, and salespeople who spend most of their time on French clients. Inform the staff in writing of the date, the reason and the consequence that their contracts continue unchanged with the SAS. Second, prepare the SAS payroll registrations before day one: URSSAF employer account, supplementary pension, occupational health service, the service de pr\u00e9vention et de sant\u00e9 au travail<\/em>, and professional insurance. Third, hand over the files: employment contracts, pay history, working-time records, leave balances, occupational medical follow-up documents and any ongoing disciplinary or dispute files. If some employees refuse the transfer or if posts genuinely disappear in the reorganisation, run a proper dismissal procedure with reasons stated in French, statutory or contractual severance calculated on full seniority including the branch years, and the mandatory notices; do not present resignations for signature on transfer day.<\/p>\n

Contracts do not transfer automatically the way employment contracts do. Client agreements, supplier terms, the office lease, software licences, insurance policies and distribution contracts must each be assigned or renewed with the counterparty’s consent, unless the contract already contains a change-of-control or assignment clause that covers the move. Write to every material counterparty before the transfer date, attach the new SAS Kbis as soon as it exists, and ask for a signed assignment letter, an avenant de transfert<\/em>, stating that the SAS replaces the foreign company acting through its branch, with deposits, guarantees and payment terms carried over. Banks need a separate visit: the branch account cannot simply be renamed, because the account holder changes from the foreign company to the SAS. Open the SAS account early, move direct debits and standing orders one by one, keep both accounts funded during a one-month overlap, and only then close the branch account with a written confirmation of zero balance. For the commercial lease, check whether the lease is in the branch’s name or the parent’s; a bail commercial<\/em> with its nine-year structure and three-year break options requires the landlord’s written agreement to substitute the SAS, and landlords in tight markets use that moment to renegotiate the rent, so start that conversation first, not last.<\/p>\n

Two tax filings frame the transfer. The branch files its closing position for the activity up to the transfer date, and the SAS opens its own tax life from registration: VAT registration and invoicing under the SAS number, corporate tax instalments if due, and registration for the local business tax. Where equipment, stock or goodwill, the fonds de commerce<\/em>, moves from the branch to the SAS, document the contribution or sale at a supported value with an inventory and, above internal thresholds, a contribution auditor’s report, because the tax office will ask for it later. Keep every transfer deed, assignment letter and valuation for at least the audit limitation period so the conversion file answers questions on its own.<\/p>\n

B. How do you shut the branch down cleanly: deregistration, tax clearance, bank closure and staff files?<\/h3>\n

Closing a branch is a deregistration, a radiation<\/em>, not a liquidation of a company, since there is no company to liquidate. The foreign parent resolves to close the French establishment, sets the effective closure date, settles or transfers the remaining liabilities, and files the cessation on the single portal, which notifies the trade and companies register, the tax office, URSSAF and the statistical register. A closing notice goes to the BODACC, and the registry issues proof of deregistration. The file must show that nothing is left hanging: final invoices issued, supplier balances paid or formally transferred to the SAS with creditor consent, the lease terminated or assigned, and the branch’s French accounting closed. If the branch employed nobody at the end because everyone transferred under article L1224-1, state it with the payroll evidence; if redundancies were needed, attach the dismissal letters, severance calculations and proof of payment, because the registry and URSSAF cross-check.<\/p>\n

Tax clearance is the longest tail. File the final corporate tax return covering the branch activity up to closure, the final VAT return with any regularisation of deducted VAT on assets kept or transferred, the final withholding statements for payments to non-residents where relevant, and the local business tax declaration for the closure year. Request the tax clearance certificates and the URSSAF clearance, the attestation de vigilance<\/em>, only once the final contributions are paid; URSSAF issues nothing while a balance or an unfiled nominative declaration remains. Expect the tax office to review the last three years of branch filings before closing the file, and keep a French correspondence address or a tax representative reachable for the months after deregistration, since reassessment proposals and information requests arrive after the Kbis disappears, not before. The Orefa ruling quoted above is the reason to take this seriously: a branch that traded without full French accounts and returns is exactly the profile that draws a visit and seizure authorisation, and closure does not erase that exposure.<\/p>\n

Close the money last, not first. Pay the final payroll and social charges, collect the last client payments into the branch account, transfer any remaining balance to the parent or to the SAS under a documented intercompany movement, obtain the bank’s written account-closure confirmation, and terminate the branch’s mandates, powers of attorney and payment authorities in the same letter. Cancel the insurances, the professional cards and the subscriptions tied to the branch SIREN, archive the full employment, accounting and tax files for the statutory retention periods, and revoke the branch manager’s registered powers so no one can sign in your name after closure. A supplier paid late after deregistration can still sue the foreign parent directly, since the branch never shielded it, which is one more reason to leave no small balance unpaid for the sake of speed.<\/p>\n

For businesses based in Paris and the \u00cele-de-France region, three local specifics change the timetable. First, the competent registry is the registry of the Paris commercial court for a Paris establishment, and its examiners apply the foreign-company checklist strictly: untranslated parent documents and unauthenticated extracts are the first cause of rejection, so have sworn translations and apostilles ready before filing rather than after a first refusal. Second, employment matters concentrate in one place: the Paris labour court, the conseil de prud’hommes de Paris<\/em>, for individual disputes, and the \u00cele-de-France regional directorate for the economy, employment, labour and solidarities, the DRIEETS d’\u00cele-de-France<\/em>, for collective procedures and posting formalities, which means a mishandled transfer or dismissal in Paris is litigated fast and by experienced counsel on the other side. Third, commercial disputes over unpaid branch invoices or contested transfers go to the Paris commercial court or the Paris judicial court depending on the nature of the claim, and both expect the full document chain at the first hearing: branch Kbis, SAS Kbis, transfer deeds, assignment letters, payroll movement evidence and the tax filings. Build that bundle during the operation, not after the summons. Jurisdiction, practical delays of two to six weeks per filing step, the documents each office demands first, and the procedural channel, single portal first and registry second, with attention to the Paris backlog at filing peaks, are the points that decide whether a conversion takes two months or six.<\/p>\n

Owners sometimes ask whether they can simply stop trading and let the branch die quietly. That is the worst option. An inactive branch keeps generating filing obligations, late-filing penalties, estimated tax assessments and URSSAF reminders, and the parent remains liable for all of it. A filed deregistration with clean tax and payroll endings costs a fraction of three years of penalties and one enforcement procedure. If cash is short, transfer the activity first so revenue continues inside the SAS, then close the empty branch; never do the reverse.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

A branch lets you test France quickly, but it never protects you: no legal personality, direct liability of the foreign parent, French taxation of the local profits with full accounting duties, and a local manager whose apparent authority can bind the whole company. An SAS subsidiary costs more to create and run, yet it gives you the three things a growing business needs: a liability shield from registration day, clean and predictable French tax residency, and the capacity to hire, borrow, sign leases and bring in partners in its own name. When the branch has proved the market, convert in the right order: incorporate the SAS from abroad, transfer the staff under the automatic rule of article L1224-1 with their seniority and rights intact, assign each contract and the lease with written counterparty consent, open the SAS bank account before closing the branch one, and only then deregister the branch and clear its final tax and URSSAF position. Done this way, the conversion preserves what you built, customers, team and track record, while moving the risk into a structure designed to carry it. Done backwards, it breaks contracts, loses staff and invites the audit you wanted to avoid. If your branch already shows any of the warning signs, a threatened lawsuit served on the branch, a bank freezing a manager-signed payment, a tax letter asking for French accounts, or a team outgrowing handshake management, treat this quarter as the conversion quarter and start with the incorporation file.<\/p>\n

Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n

Send your branch Kbis, your last French tax or URSSAF letter, or your draft SAS articles for a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an attorney of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write through our contact page<\/a>. We assist foreign founders in Paris and throughout \u00cele-de-France with branch conversions, SAS incorporations, staff transfers and clean deregistrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Branch or SAS subsidiary in France? How a foreign company converts its succursale into a filiale, transfers staff and contracts, or shuts the branch down cleanly from abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80314,80313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2123479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nYour French Branch Is Holding You Back? 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