Working in France: jobs, contracts and the micro-entrepreneur route
The short version
- Your visa decides your work rights: salarié ties you to an employer, entrepreneur to your declared activity, visitor to none
- The CDI is the gold-standard permanent contract; it unlocks apartments and loans as much as income does
- Micro-entrepreneur is the light self-employment regime: free online registration, cotisations as a flat cut of revenue
- The US-France totalization agreement means you pay one country's social security, not both
Working in France is really two questions. Whether you may work is decided by your immigration status, before any employer or client enters the picture. How the work is set up, contract or self-employment, is decided by a labor system with its own vocabulary and surprisingly strong guardrails.
This guide covers both halves: what each visa allows, what French employment looks like from the inside, and the micro-entrepreneur regime that most American freelancers end up using.
What your visa allows
| Status | Work rights |
|---|---|
| Visitor | None, including remote work for US clients |
| Student | Part-time, around 20 hours a week across the year |
| Salarié (worker) | Yes, tied to the sponsoring employer |
| Entrepreneur or profession libérale | Self-employment in your declared activity |
Changing lanes later, say from visitor to entrepreneur, is a changement de statut, a status change you request from your préfecture with a file justifying the new activity. It is routine but slow, so plan it around your renewal rather than mid-year. The long-stay visa guide covers how the types differ at application time.
The remote work myth: working from your French apartment for a US employer or US clients is still working in France, whatever the currency on the invoice. Visitor status does not allow it, and renewals and citizenship files read tax returns. If work is part of the plan, get a status that says so.
Getting hired: contracts decoded
The CDIcontrat à durée indéterminée, the permanent contract is the default permanent contract and the country's favorite piece of paper: landlords and lenders treat it as proof of stability, sometimes ahead of the salary on it. The CDD is its fixed-term cousin, with an end date and a small bonus when it expires. Both usually open with a période d'essai, a trial period during which either side can walk away easily.
Expect payslip shock in both directions. Roughly a quarter of gross pay leaves as employee cotisations, the social contributions that fund healthcare, pensions and unemployment, and in exchange the benefits are real: five weeks of paid vacation by law, and an employer mutuelle with at least half the premium paid by the company. Job hunting runs through the usual boards plus France Travail, the national employment agency.
Micro-entrepreneur: freelancing the light way
For consultants, developers, translators and most solo work, France has a genuinely simple on-ramp. The micro-entrepreneur regime is a sole proprietorship with training wheels: no company to found, no accountant required, bookkeeping that amounts to a ledger of what you invoiced.
Registration is free and online via the guichet uniquethe single government portal for business formalities. A couple of weeks later you receive a SIRET, the business ID number clients will ask for, and from then on you declare revenue monthly or quarterly and pay cotisations as a flat percentage of it. The rate depends on the activity type and lands roughly between a fifth and a quarter of revenue. The regime stays available below annual revenue of around 78,000 euros for services, and below a further threshold you invoice without TVA at all. Every one of those numbers moves, so check the official simulator rather than a forum thread.
Register on the guichet uniqueRates and simulators on autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr
Set aside from day one: between cotisations and income tax, around a third of every payment is not yours. Move it to a separate account the day the invoice is paid and the December surprises disappear.
The American wrinkles
Social security is the good news. The US-France totalization agreement means self-employment cotisations paid to URSSAF replace US self-employment tax rather than stacking on top of it; ask URSSAF for a certificate of coverage and keep it with your US return. You still file the American side every year, Schedule C included, and the exclusions and credits that make it painless live in the US taxes guide.
One French housekeeping rule: once micro-entrepreneur revenue passes around 10,000 euros for two years running, a bank account dedicated to the activity becomes mandatory. Opening one from the start is easier than untangling it later, and the banks that take Americans all offer a second account or space.
Checklist
Can I freelance for my US clients on a visitor visa?
The strict answer is no. Visitor status excludes professional activity, and clients being in the US is not an exception France recognizes. Some people do it quietly anyway, but your first renewal and any future citizenship file will include tax returns that tell the real story. The clean routes are the entrepreneur visa from the start, or a status change once you are here.
Do I add French TVA to invoices for US clients?
Below the franchise threshold you invoice without TVA entirely and note the exemption on the invoice. Above it, services sold to businesses outside the EU are generally outside the scope of French TVA, but the rules turn on what exactly you sell and to whom. This is the one question where an hour with a French accountant pays for itself.
What is ACRE?
A first-year reduction in cotisations for new entrepreneurs, roughly half off, subject to eligibility conditions. Newcomers to the regime often qualify. Check the current rules on the URSSAF site when you register, since the discount is claimed at the start, not retroactively.