First step should be to consult the French consulate website for the consulate covering your area of residence. Different consulates have different ways of dealing with "entrepreneur visas" depending (I suppose) on the precise nature of your business.

Some consulate sites have you apply for a long-stay visitor visa (for one year) and then you set up your business when you get to France and change your status to one of a "commerçant" or something similar. I've seen procedures on other consulate websites where you can apply directly for a carte commerçant. But I suspect that you need to work with the consulate and that it may depend on the current size and scale of the business and precisely the statut it comes under in France.
Cheers,
Bev

 

Some consulate sites have you apply for a long-stay visitor visa (for one year) and then you set up your business when you get to France and change your status to one of a "commerçant" or something similar. I've seen procedures on other consulate websites where you can apply directly for a carte commerçant. But I suspect that you need to work with the consulate and that it may depend on the current size and scale of the business and precisely the statut it comes under in France.

Bev

This situation quite mirrors my own. That is, I have an existing business in the US through which I provide services to US clients that I will continue to provide from France. Can you tell me which US consular sites describe the carte commerçant you mentioned above? I can't find any reference to it on the Boston French Consulate site and I'd like to be informed, even if Boston eventually tells me to apply for commerçant status in France.

I have one other question that I'd love some general advice on if possible. It's about having US clients while working from France. At present, my clients send me US dollar checks that I deposit in my US bank. They could do a direct deposit once we're in France. I receive a 1099 from each client for tax purposes and fill out my US taxes.

However, I believe it's normal in France to deduct the cotisations regularly and taxes (at year end) directly from one's business account.

1. Should I set up a business-only current account into which I deposit "earnings" so that it will be clear which account holds my taxable income?
2. Should I also create a separate personal checking account that we might use to bring over non-earnings related funds? For example, when we sell our US house, we'll have a fair bit of money in our US account. I wouldn't want it to be viewed as earnings.

Or will I need to do something else entirely? Anything you can recommend would be very happily received.

Thanks.

Ray

 

Thanks very much - will do. Glad to have found this forum.

 

You can start doing business in France without necessarily residing there (i.e., having a carte de séjour). You can first incorporate your company, and then apply for a carte de séjour.

If you are a non-French resident and wish to manage the company personally, you will have to file a prior notification with the prefecture of the department in which you are planning to set up your business. You will not be applying for an authorization to carry business in France (but submitting a simple notification that you will do this), and the prefet must accept it and deliver an acknowledgement of receipt of this notification within a period of 15 days. This acknowledgment of receipt will be required by the commercial court for the registration of the company.

It is sometimes considered that having an already established business in or with France gives additional grounds to the prefecture to deliver a carte de séjour. Having a company in France is however not a guarantee that you will obtain a carte de séjour and the powers of the French administration in this respect are discretionary.

Regarding the documents which you must submit to obtain a carte de séjour commerçant étranger (which will enable you to not only manage a French company but also to do it from France, i.e., to stay there) they are set forth in "Arrêté du 12 septembre 2007 relatif aux documents à produire pour la délivrance de la carte de séjour temporaire autorisant l'exercice d'une activité commerciale, industrielle ou artisanale". The most important document is your business plan, in order for the préfecture to assess whether it is viable or not.

Information on all this in English, as well as on the differences between a SAS, SARL and SA, may be found on the site of French Business Law [dot] com. I would recommend that you consider incorporating a SAS (which requires very little share capital), and is very flexible in terms of management. If you are the only / majority shareholder of the French company, I would not recommend incorporating a SARL, which will cost you a lot in terms of not only taxes but also social contributions as soon as it starts generating income. A SA is much heavier in structure (at least 7 shareholders, no less than 37.000€ share capital, etc.) and therefore unnecessary.

I am wishing both of you good luck!

 

Wow, what a lot of great information! I'm in the same situation, I have a web design business here in the US and have no problem with foreign clients here but living in France and having foreign clients (including US clients) sounds like a different animal! I'd like to move to France in the next 5 years and continue my business there working from home. Ray or Colorado do you have any tips on where I should start? I live in Tx and my French consulate is in Houston. My head is spinning! Thank you!

 

Talk with the consulate in Houston. Find out if they're approving Competencies & Talents Visas or if they recommend a Long Sejour Visa and setting up as an Auto Entrepreneur in France. Or something else. Each Consulate is different.

Your difficulty will be that you're not leaving for some time and things may change in the interim.

And keep reading the Forum. You'll find most everything you need here.

Best of luck.

Ray

 

Thank you Ray! That helps! Anything else you might think of is appreciated too!