Acquiring a residence permit in France
If you’re a foreigner who wants to work in France, one of the things you’ll need to get is a residence permit.
Asking for a residence permit
All you have to do is submit your demand to the French embassy or the appropriate French Consulate in your home country.
Keep in mind, the administration won’t necessarily agree to grant you your card! Whether they will or not depends on the economic viability of your project, and on whether or not you’ll be able to generate more than the minimum wage.
Receiving the residence permit:
- If you’re a foreigner, and you want to create your company:
The administration will ask you to give them some documents proving the viability of your project. Of course, eve, if they’re convinced, they won’t give you a residence permit if your activity’s illegal, or if it could disturb public order.
Once that’s done, you’ll have to go to the prefecture to receive a residence permit receipt that will allow you to start your company. As such, you’ll only receive your card when you register your company in the Commerce and Companies Register. - If you want to join an existing company:
Here, you’ll have to prove that you’ll be able to make more than the minimum wage to receive your residence permit. The rest of the procedure is exactly the same as when creating your company.
You won’t have to apply for a residence permit if you have:
- A “derogation convention” (this requires to live in the Andorran, the Principality of Monaco, or People’s Republic of Algeria)
- A residence card
