News : In a report published on 17 July 2026, the French Défenseure des droits documented the deterioration of residence permit processing times: the average time to issue a permit rose from 78 to 110 days between 2019 and 2023, a 41 % increase, and the stock of pending applications grew by 66 % in four years, from around 243,000 in 2019 to around 403,000 in 2023. (Défenseure des droits, 17 July 2026).
Relocating a team to France is an HR operation as much as a legal one: an immigration timeline the employer does not control, a French employment framework, and the arrival of people and their families. It is the part a head office abroad rarely assigns to anyone, because there is no HR function in France yet.
The immigration timeline is what breaks schedules. A work authorisation request is examined within two months, and if the administration has said nothing at the end of that period, the silence counts as a refusal, not as an approval (service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F2728). I am an HR practitioner, not a lawyer: what follows is the law as it stands on 2 September 2026, each rule linked to its official source.
The report above describes the risk that quietly wrecks a relocation planned from abroad. The legal and tax side almost always has an owner: a law firm, an accountant, someone at group level. The HR side has nobody.
The sequence, and the delays that really apply
The immigration category follows the job, so the role, the contract and the salary are settled before anything is filed. Then comes the question that governs the calendar: does this person already hold a permit carrying the right to work, or must one be requested?
Where one is required, the procedure set out by service-public.gouv.fr (fiche F2728, verified on 18 June 2026) runs as follows.
- The request is filed online, by the employer, and examined by the prefecture where the employer is established.
- The job offer must have been published for three consecutive weeks in the six months preceding it.
- The examination period is two months, and silence at the end of it is an implicit refusal.
- The employer must have the permit’s authenticity verified by the prefecture at least two working days before the start date.
Read the third point twice. Elsewhere, silence often ends up meaning consent; here it means the opposite, and you find out by receiving nothing. A start date set two months after filing budgets for the best case : the same report puts the average renewal at 117 days in 2025.
A permanent contract opens a temporary card marked « salarié », one year at most, itself conditional on the work authorisation being obtained first (CESEDA, art. L421-1). Renewal turns it, subject to the integration conditions, into a four-year multiannual card, but must be filed at the latest two months before expiry (fiche F15898) : a deadline missed for one reason: nobody in France owns the diary.
The dividing line is not EU versus non-EU
Foreign employers reason by nationality. French rules do not: what decides is whether the permit actually held carries the right to work, which is why a long-stay visa acting as a residence permit (VLS-TS) appears on both sides of the table, depending on its wording.
| Situation of the person | Work authorisation |
|---|---|
| Nationals of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland | Not required |
| VLS-TS or card marked « vie privée et familiale » | Not required |
| « Talent » card | Not required |
| Students, within 60 % of annual working time, i.e. 964 hours | Not required |
| ICT cards (intra-corporate transfer) | Not required |
| VLS-TS or card marked « salarié » or « travailleur temporaire » | Required |
| Minors aged 16 to 18, including apprentices | Required |
Source: fiche F2728, which lists the other cases. The last line surprises most head offices: a 17-year-old apprentice is not a paperwork-free hire.
The talent card, and the person nobody plans for
For the senior profiles a group moves first, the route is the talent card : the older name « passeport talent » has been dropped. It runs up to four years, aligned on the contract. The thresholds in force are 39,582 € gross a year (qualified employee, innovative company’s employee, intra-group assignment) and 59,373.00 € for the EU Blue Card (fiche F16922, verified on 1 June 2026), indexed on a reference average gross salary set by decree (arrêté of 21 August 2025), not on the minimum wage.
Then comes the person no relocation plan mentions: the spouse. The spouse and minor children of a talent card holder receive a multiannual « talent-famille » card through the simplified « accompanying family » procedure. It « authorises you to carry on a salaried and/or non-salaried professional activity », and for salaried work « the employer does not have to apply for a work authorisation » (fiche F35792, verified on 1 May 2026). It is what most often decides a family’s answer, and what nobody thinks to send.
Onboarding someone who has changed country
A local hire arrives with a life already in place. A relocated employee arrives with none: no bank, no address history, no doctor, no school place, no social circle, no idea which French institution does what. If onboarding stops at the laptop, the person spends the first quarter on administrative problems instead of the job.
What I put in place when nobody here does it is unglamorous: a named contact in France, reachable in French and in English; a written sequence for the first sixty days; the family’s arrival handled separately; and check-ins at day 30, 60 and 90 that are real conversations, not forms.
French social law also moves under a foreign employer’s feet. Since 1 July 2026 a supplementary birth leave is open to both parents: one to two months at 70 % of net salary then 60 %, capped at the social security ceiling, with one month’s notice (Code du travail numérique, 1 April 2026; décret n° 2026-419 of 30 May 2026).
The manager who arrives from head office
Much of my work is with the manager coming to run a French team. The misunderstanding is rarely cultural, it is legal: a manager from a jurisdiction where the employment relationship ends quickly manages as if that were true here. In France the applicable branch collective agreement can impose terms more favourable than the Labour Code, and the employer does not choose it : which reshapes probation, notice, working time and pay. That is the subject of my article on French labour law for foreign employers. In practice, decisions that felt reversible are not, and a manager warned before their first difficult conversation avoids the incident that costs a year of trust.
What actually breaks a relocation
People rarely leave because the job was wrong. Relocations come apart on what nobody assigned to anyone:
- The spouse without a project. One adult builds a career, the other loses one. Unaddressed, this ends the assignment.
- School. Places are secured on a calendar, and the school year does not move for a start date.
- Housing. A French rental file is demanding without a history here : often the first humiliation of the move.
- The silence between signature and arrival. Weeks without news, while the permit is examined, is when people reconsider.
- Isolation and management culture. A team that greets someone in their language then switches back has integrated nobody; and feedback in the head office register reads, in the French one, as an attack.
Someone badly received does not complain. They stay polite, they deliver, and they resign within the year : and the group pays for the same move twice.
Where my role stops and a lawyer’s begins
I organise the sequence, hold the calendar, prepare the files, brief the managers and look after the people who arrive. I do not give legal advice on an individual immigration situation, and I say so early. As soon as a case involves a refusal or an implicit rejection to challenge, a change of status, or a posting structure that has to withstand an inspection, the right person is a lawyer specialising in immigration law or international mobility : brought in before the deadline, not after.
What this article does not cover
This is the HR and human side of a move, as it stands on 2 September 2026: not a complete immigration manual, and not advice on your case. Moving two hundred people calls for volume providers, not for me.
- Payroll, contributions and the payslip are a separate subject, deliberately left out of this article.
- Posting employees is a different regime: equal treatment with employees of the same branch established in France and, beyond twelve months, submission to the Labour Code applicable to companies established in France, extendable by six months at most on a reasoned declaration (art. L1262-4), plus a prior declaration and a representative in France. On social security, a provisional agreement of 22 April 2026 revising regulations (EC) 883/2004 and 987/2009 would drop the A1 certificate for stays of at most three consecutive days over 30 days, construction excluded (DSV Europavertretung; KPMG, 6 May 2026) : a revision to come, not law in force.
- Read next: the HR function from day one, expanding to France and EOR platform or HR partner on the ground.
- Rules change. Every figure above is dated and linked : reopen the source before relying on it.
FAQ
How long does it take to obtain a French work authorisation?
Two months from the employer’s filing, and silence at the end of that period is an implicit refusal, not an acceptance (fiche F2728). The offer must also have been published for three consecutive weeks in the preceding six months : added time upstream.
Does an EU passport mean there is no paperwork?
Nationals of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland are exempt from work authorisation. The exemption covers the right to work only: the contract, the branch collective agreement and every French employer obligation apply in full.
Can the spouse of a relocated employee work in France?
The spouse and minor children of a talent card holder receive a « talent-famille » card, which authorises salaried and non-salaried activity; for salaried work their employer does not have to apply for a work authorisation (fiche F35792). Other permits follow other rules: check the card actually held.
Do I need HR in France for only three or four people?
You need someone accountable in France, which is not a full-time headcount. Three people generate the same permit deadlines and arrival problems as thirty: what changes is the volume, not the exposure.
Talking it through
If you are preparing a move to France with no HR function here, I would rather look at your sequence before the dates are announced. My HR support for companies works on a shared-time basis for head offices abroad: one person in France, reachable in French and in English, who holds the calendar and prepares the arrivals. Get in touch and let’s arrange a call.
Sources
- Défenseure des droits, rapport, 17 July 2026. View source
- service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F2728 (vérifiée le 18 juin 2026). service-public.fr
- CESEDA, art. L421-1 (Légifrance), 1 May 2021. Légifrance
- service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F15898 (accessed 2 September 2026). service-public.fr
- service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F16922 (vérifiée le 1er juin 2026). service-public.fr
- Arrêté du 21 août 2025, JORF n° 0202 du 31 août 2025. Légifrance
- service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F35792 (page vérifiée le 1er mai 2026 ; ouverte par le rédacteur le 2 septembre 2026). service-public.fr
- Code du travail, art. L1262-4 (Légifrance), 30 July 2020. Légifrance
- Deutsche Sozialversicherung Europavertretung, 22 April 2026. View source
- KPMG International, GMS Flash Alert 2026-120. View source
- Code du travail numérique, ministère du Travail, 1 April 2026. Code du travail numérique
- Décret n° 2026-419 du 30 mai 2026, JO du 31 mai 2026. Légifrance
