Six steps that settle your first months working in France

Moving to France for a job comes with a reputation: paperwork. The reputation is not entirely undeserved, but it hides a simpler reality. Most of the administration follows a known order, and a good part of it is your employer's responsibility, not yours. Here are the six steps that matter in your first months, in the order they usually arise:

1. obtaining your French social security number;
2. ordering your carte Vitale;
3. confirming your right to work;
4. reading your contract and its trial period;
5. enrolling in the company health plan, the mutuelle;
6. checking whether the impatriate tax regime applies to you.

Your social security number, then the carte Vitale

Working in France means joining the French social security system, and the process starts on the employer's side: it is your employer's responsibility to complete the procedures that open your rights. Once that is done, you receive a French social security number, can create your personal account on ameli and order your carte Vitale, the card that identifies you to the health system.

If you were born outside France, the number is issued through the Assurance Maladie, with your civil status certified by INSEE. Expect to provide proof of identity (passport or residence permit) and a birth certificate; a provisional number, the NIA, is issued while your definitive number is being certified, after which the carte Vitale can be produced. Keep a copy of everything you send.

The right to work, verified before day one

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need no work authorization. Everyone else needs a residence document that authorizes work: some permits carry the right to work by themselves, others require a separate work authorization. One detail expatriates rarely know: your employer must verify your document with the prefecture at least two working days before your start date. If your HR contact asks for your permit very early, that is why.

Your contract, the trial period, the mutuelle

A French employment contract deserves more than a quick skim. The trial period of a permanent contract is capped by law: two months for most employees, three for supervisors and technicians, four for managers, the cadres, renewable once only and under strict conditions. Your employer must also tell you in writing, within a month of hiring, which collective agreement applies: it is the branch-level text that supplements labour law in your sector, and its title appears on your payslip.

Then comes the mutuelle: every private-sector employer must offer collective complementary health coverage and fund at least 50 percent of it. Enrolling is usually a matter of one form. Do it early: this coverage completes what social security reimburses.

The impatriate regime, worth knowing before your first tax return

France operates a specific tax regime for impatriates, set out in article 155 B of the French tax code. In headline terms: it is open to employees who were not tax residents of France during the five calendar years before taking up their position and who move their tax residence to France. It can exempt the impatriation premium (or, on option, a flat 30 percent of total remuneration) as well as the share of pay for days worked abroad, and it applies until 31 December of the eighth calendar year following the start of the role. You do not need to master the details on arrival; you need to know it exists, mention it to your employer and your tax adviser, and keep evidence of your previous tax residence.

In France, a surprising amount of your administration starts on your employer's desk. Your role is not to do everything yourself: it is to verify that everything has been done.

What your employer must do for you

Several formalities are legal obligations of the employer, not favors. Before you even start, your hiring must be declared to Urssaf through the DPAE, filed within the eight days preceding the hire; that single declaration covers, among other things, your registration request with social security, your affiliation to unemployment insurance and the employer's membership of an occupational health service. After you start, you are entitled to an initial occupational health visit within three months of taking up the post. If any of these steps seems not to have happened, ask: a serious employer will show you the paper trail.

Next steps

Work through the six steps in order, keep one file with every document you send and receive, and ask your HR contact to confirm the steps that belong to the employer. If your employer is a small foreign structure without an HR function in France, that is precisely the situation OMAC Consulting supports, in English, on the employer's side and the employee's side alike.

This is general information, not legal advice.