You are an employer based in another European Union member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, or Switzerland, sending an employee with member State citizenship who ordinarily performs their job in the State where you are based to France

Posting means that an employer based in a member State in which they ordinarily conduct business temporarily sends an employee to work in another member State. During that period, your employee will continue to come under the social security legislation of their usual State of employment (home State).

For your employee to remain a member of their usual social protection scheme, you and they will need to continue to have an ongoing direct (or employer-employee) relationship.

Posting rules

Postings can last for a period of no more than 24 months. French law grants automatic posted-worker status if the employer and the employee meet the following requirements:

Requirements for the employer

• You are required to:
  • Send your employee to France to engage in business activities on your behalf (art. 12, § 1 of (EC) regulation No. 883/2004);
  • Maintain a direct (employer-employee) relationship with your worker (e.g. authority, contractual relationship, power to determine responsibilities, etc.) (Decision A2 of June 12, 2009, from the Administrative Commission for the Coordination of Social Security Systems, §1);
  • ordinarily work for you in the State where you are based. You are required to be engaged in significant business activities outside of administrative management (art. 14, §2 of (EC) regulation 987/2009);
• You must not be sending your employee to France to replace another person who had been posted here to do the same job.

Requirements for the employee

• Your employee is required to be a citizen of a European Union member State (or stateless or a refugee) (article 12, §1 of (EC) regulation 883/2004);
• Your employee can have been hired for the purpose of posting with continued membership in their usual social security system if they had been a member of the social security system in which you want to continue their membership for at least one month before they were hired (art. 14, §1 of regulation 987/2009 and Decision A2 of June 12, 2009, from the Administrative Commission for the Coordination of Social Security Systems).

Your required paperwork

Before your employee goes to France, you are required to take the following steps (art. 15 of (EC) regulation No. 987/2009):

• notify the competent institution to which you belong,
• obtain a certificate of applicable legislation. Your employee will need to carry an A1 portable document, which will be issued for the duration of their posting (with a 24-month cap), with them at all times.

The member States' competent authorities, or their designated institutions, can mutually agree to an exception to the provisions of articles 11 through 15 of (EC) regulation 883/2004. Any exception must be reached for the purpose of furthering the interests of certain employees or categories of employees. The possibility for special agreements is not designed for postings in particular but covers all exceptions to the various social security membership rules. Article 16 allows for the posting length cutoffs under article 12, paragraph 1, of the regulation to be extended for certain categories of workers.

Special agreements pursuant to article 16 are used for the following purposes:

• posting an employee for a period greater than 24 months;
• extending a posting beyond the 24-month cutoff;
• bringing certain situations into compliance (delays in completing posting procedures);
• continuing an employee's membership in their usual social security scheme when they do not qualify as a posted worker (e.g. when an employer-employee relationship is established with the host company).

You will need to submit a request for application of article 16 of (EC) Regulation No. 883/04 to the competent institution for the State where you are based. That institution is competent to process, authorize, and send the application for continued membership in the worker's current social security system to the competent French institution, Urssaf (Service mobilité internationale). Urssaf will then notify the institution from which it received the application of its opinion.

If the two authorities or institutions (Urssaf and that of the State where you are based) agree, an A1 certificate of applicable legislation will be issued for the authorized period of time. As an employer, you will also need to notify the competent institution for the State where you are based of any changes to your employee's status (interruption, return, etc.).

The maximum length of exemption from Social Security membership in the State where work is carried out is determined by each member State.

If the application is rejected, your employee will have compulsory membership in the French social security system, with social security contributions and charges payable in France.

If your company has a place of business in France and you are sending an employee there, they will be required to join the French social security system. All contributions and charges will be paid by your French place of business under the same rules as for the other employees working there.

Workers doing their job in France on behalf of a foreign employer are required to join the French social security system.

You are required to register and pay all compulsory contributions and charges in France.

The National Center for non-French Companies (Urssaf Service Firmes étrangères/ SFE*) is France's single contact for employers with no place of business in France. This is where they declare their company and their employees who are required to join the French scheme. SFE is tasked with notifying the designated social security institutions with which the company is required to register (unemployment insurance, supplementary retirement pension fund, etc.).

* Formerly named CNFE.

Social security contributions and charges are payable to SFE, which also collects unemployment insurance contributions and charges.

• Urssaf Service Firmes étrangères
  (National Center for non-French companies)
  TSA 60003
  38046 Grenoble Cedex
  Phone: 00 33 (0)8 06 80 26 33 (from France or abroad)
  Email: sfe@urssaf.fr

For more information: Entreprise étrangère sans établissement en France (Foreign employers with no place of business in France) and The Foreign Firms' Slip (“Titre Firmes Etrangères”/ TFE)

The Malakoff Humanis group is the competent organization to collect supplementary pension contributions:

• Malakoff Humanis International Agirc-Arrco
  commercial-esef@malakoffhumanis.com

If your company's business activities come under France's agricultural scheme, the National Foreign Firms Center (“Centre National des Firmes Etrangères”/ CNFE) is MSA d'Alsace:

• MSA d'Alsace (CNFE)
  9 rue de Guebwiller
  68023 Colmar Cedex
  (please also refer to: MSA: Foreign companies with no place of business in France)

The MSA fund also administers any contractual contributions.

On the official social declaration website net-entreprises (or msa.fr if your company's business activities come under France's agricultural scheme), you can complete several formalities related to the registration of your company, or to a change in your company's activities, at the same time.

You and your employee can agree for the employee to assume your obligations
as regards the payment of social security contributions and charges to SFE/CNFE. You will need to notify SFE/CNFE of this agreement (article 21, § 2 of (EC) regulation No. 987/09).

Your employee will need a French social security number. This is assigned at birth for those born in France. For individuals born in another country, it is assigned once a pre-hiring declaration (“déclaration préalable à l'embauche”/ DPAE) has been submitted for them via net-entreprises.fr (or via msa.fr if the company's business activities come under France's agricultural scheme).