You formed your French company from London, New York, Montreal, Dubai or Singapore, and now the company has to move. The lease on the Paris office is ending, the domiciliation contract is too expensive, the business is relocating from Lyon to Paris, or the group wants every French entity at a single address in Ile-de-France. From abroad you ask three immediate questions: who has to vote for the move and how do I vote without flying to France, which filings prove the new address within the legal deadlines, and what does the move change for tax, employees, the bank and current contracts. French law treats the registered office, called the siege social, as the legal and administrative address of the company, the place where its management bodies operate, and any change of that address must follow a fixed sequence: decide according to the rules of your company form, publish the decision in a legal announcements outlet, declare the transfer on the online business formalities portal, and then update every administration and counterparty that works from the old address. This guide is written entirely for the foreign founder, foreign director or foreign shareholder who runs a French SAS (societe par actions simplifiee, the flexible French joint-stock company) or SARL (societe a responsabilite limitee, the French limited liability company). It explains the vote in each form, the remote voting tools that work from abroad, the one-month publication and filing deadlines, the difference between a move inside the same court district and a move to another district, the new Kbis (the official extract that proves a company’s registration, issued by the greffe, the court registry office), the beneficial-owners update, and the practical consequences for the tax office, VAT (value added tax, called TVA in French), social bodies, staff, banks and suppliers, with a full section on moves to or inside Paris and Ile-de-France. Every French acronym is explained on first use and every decisive legal statement is anchored to an official source you can open yourself.<\/p>\n
The first step is a decision of the shareholders, and the majority rule depends on the legal form of your company, because moving the registered office amends the articles of association, called the statuts. If you have not yet fixed your structure or if your group holds several French vehicles, our hub guide on choosing between a SAS, a SARL, a branch or a subsidiary in France<\/a> explains what each form implies for liability, management and taxation, and it remains the reference point for this doing-business-in-France series. In a SAS, the law leaves the decision-making machinery to the articles themselves: article L227-9 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “Les statuts d\u00e9terminent les d\u00e9cisions qui doivent \u00eatre prises collectivement par les associ\u00e9s dans les formes et conditions qu’ils pr\u00e9voient”, which means your own statuts say who votes on the transfer, with which majority and in which form. Most SAS articles give the power to the collective body of shareholders with a simple or qualified majority, and many allow the president of the SAS (president, the legal representative of a SAS) to move the office within the same department with later ratification, so read that clause before convening anyone. In a SARL, the statute fixes the rule directly: article L223-30 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “le d\u00e9placement du si\u00e8ge social est d\u00e9cid\u00e9 par un ou plusieurs associ\u00e9s repr\u00e9sentant plus de la moiti\u00e9 des parts sociales”, which is a lighter threshold than the three-quarters majority required for most other amendments to a SARL’s articles. The same article adds that any clause demanding a higher majority is deemed unwritten, so a clause requiring unanimity for a SARL seat transfer cannot be enforced against you.<\/p>\n Living abroad does not prevent you from voting or from chairing the process, provided the articles allow remote decision-making. Shareholders outside France typically vote through three channels: written consultation, videoconference or telephone meeting where the statuts authorize them, or a special power of attorney, called a pouvoir special, given to a person present in France. Draft the proxy with surgical precision: name the company and the meeting, state expressly the power to vote the transfer of the registered office, to amend the article of the statuts that states the address, to appoint any person to carry out the filings, and to sign the updated statuts. If the proxy is signed outside France, arrange a sworn translation into French and, depending on the country of signature, an apostille or consular legalization, because the registry officer will read that document and a defective proxy is one of the most frequent causes of rejected transfer files. The minutes of the meeting, called the proces-verbal, must record the old address, the new address, the effective date of the transfer, the amended article of the statuts, and the identity of the person authorized to complete the formalities. Commercial law confirms that a statutory amendment follows the same regularity control as the formation of the company, since article L210-7 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “Les dispositions des alin\u00e9as qui pr\u00e9c\u00e8dent sont applicables en cas de modification des statuts”. Keep the signed minutes, the updated statuts and the proxy together: they form the documentary chain that the legal announcements outlet, the portal and later the tax office will each ask to see.<\/p>\n Once the shareholders have voted, two clocks of one month each start running, and both run from the date of the decision. First, the transfer recorded in the minutes must be published in a SHAL (support d’annonces legales, the authorized legal announcements outlet, formerly called a journal d’annonces legales) for the place of the registered office, within one month of the decision, as the official business formalities page Changer le siege social d’une societe<\/a> explains step by step. The notice states the company name, its legal form, the share capital, the old and new addresses, the RCS (registre du commerce et des societes, the trade and companies register) number with the city of the registry that registered the company, and the amended article of the statuts. Order the publication from an outlet authorized in the right department: a Paris transfer needs a SHAL authorized in Paris, a transfer to Nanterre needs one authorized in Hauts-de-Seine, and the outlet issues an attestation, the certificate of publication that joins the filing bundle. Second, the transfer must be declared within one month on the Guichet unique, the single online desk for business filings operated on formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr and presented on the Guichet des formalites des entreprises page<\/a>, which transmits the file to the registry. Commercial law sets this rhythm directly: article R123-66 of the Commercial Code<\/a> requires “une inscription modificative dans le mois de tout fait ou acte rendant n\u00e9cessaire la rectification ou le compl\u00e9ment des \u00e9nonciations pr\u00e9vues aux articles R. 123-53 et suivants”, and the registered-office address is one of those registered statements, since article R123-53 of the Commercial Code<\/a> lists “L’adresse de son si\u00e8ge social” among the details a company declares about itself as a legal person. The portal file contains the minutes, the updated statuts, the SHAL attestation, proof of the new address such as a lease, a sublease authorized by the lessor, a domiciliation contract with an approved provider, or the documents for installing the seat at the director’s home, plus the identity documents of the legal representative. Expect registry and publication fees around forty euros for a standard transfer file, with a cheaper isolated filing of about fifteen euros only where the commune itself imposed a mere relabelling of the street address, which is a different and simpler case.<\/p>\n The formalities differ depending on whether the new address sits in the district, called the ressort, of the same court registry or in the district of a different registry, and this distinction drives the rest of the file. A move inside the same ressort, for example from the 8th to the 12th arrondissement of Paris, keeps the same greffe and the same RCS number, and the beneficial-owners declaration only needs a new filing if the move comes with a change in the identity, personal address, capital distribution or control of the beneficial owners, called beneficiaires effectifs; the portal now always asks the question, and ticking that nothing changed is enough where nothing changed. A move outside the ressort, for example from Lyon to Paris or from Paris to Nanterre, changes the competent registry, triggers a new registration with the new greffe, keeps the SIREN (the nine-digit number that identifies the legal person for life) while the SIRET (the fourteen-digit identifier of each establishment, SIREN plus a five-digit NIC) follows the new address, and obligatorily requires a new beneficial-owners declaration, called declaration des beneficiaires effectifs or DBE, on the portal. The company is entered in the RNE (registre national des entreprises, the national business register): article L123-36 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “Il est tenu un registre national des entreprises”, to which French businesses register on declaration, and the INPI (Institut national de la propriete industrielle, the French industrial-property office) guidance on modifying a company<\/a> mirrors the same portal path. Once the new greffe validates the file, it issues the updated Kbis showing the new siege social, and the transfer is published in the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette for company registrations). Until publication, be prudent with third parties: the same opposability logic that governs published appointments applies, since article L210-9 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ne peut se pr\u00e9valoir, \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard des tiers, des nominations et cessations de fonction des personnes vis\u00e9es ci-dessus, tant qu’elles n’ont pas \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement publi\u00e9es”, so sign new contracts on the new Kbis once you hold it and keep the SHAL attestation available in the meantime. Foreign founders who want a light footprint sometimes install the seat at the French home of the legal representative or with a domiciliation company instead of signing a lease: article L123-11-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “Toute personne morale est autoris\u00e9e \u00e0 installer son si\u00e8ge au domicile de son repr\u00e9sentant l\u00e9gal et y exercer une activit\u00e9, sauf dispositions l\u00e9gislatives ou stipulations contractuelles contraires”, which means a lease clause or a co-ownership rule that forbids professional use at home can block that option, and a domiciliation contract requires an approved provider and a real right to receive mail and host audits at the stated address.<\/p>\n A transfer of the registered office never creates a new legal person: the same SAS or SARL continues, with the same SIREN, the same shareholders, the same contracts and the same debts, only its address changes. That single principle answers most of the anxiety foreign owners feel. Commercial leases, loans, supplier agreements and customer contracts continue automatically because the contracting party has not changed; what changes is the registered address printed on invoices, purchase orders and general terms, and the domiciliation clause for formal notices. Notify in writing, in this order: the bank, because payments, guarantees and the authorized signatories file all reference the Kbis address and a mismatch freezes wire validations and checkbooks; the accountant and the statutory auditor if the company has one, because the VAT returns, the corporation tax returns and the annual accounts carry the address; customers and suppliers with a short amendment letter giving the effective date and attaching the new Kbis once issued; the landlord of the former premises, with the end-of-lease formalities and the handover inventory; and every insurer, since professional liability, premises and vehicle policies attach to a declared address and an undeclared move can complicate a claim. Keep one direct contact line noted on the file, for instance +33 6 46 60 58 22, so that the greffe, the tax office or a social body can reach the person handling the move without waiting for international post to travel back and forth. Invoicing discipline matters from day one: French invoices must show the seller’s registered address, so switch the billing templates, the e-invoicing profiles and the online checkout legal pages on the effective date, keep the old Kbis and the SHAL attestation for the transition quarter, and reconcile the first VAT return after the move line by line, because the tax office reads the address on the return.<\/p>\nB. Publish and file within one month: legal announcement, Guichet unique portal, new Kbis and beneficial-owners update<\/h3>\n
II. What the new address changes for tax, staff, contracts and daily business<\/h2>\n
A. Tax office, VAT, social bodies, bank and suppliers: who to notify and what continues by itself<\/h3>\n