How to Register a Company in France as a Foreign Entrepreneur: SAS vs SARL

If you are setting up a company in France as a foreign entrepreneur, the first real decision — before any paperwork — is which legal structure to use. Get this wrong and you will spend the next few years dealing with the consequences. Here is what actually matters.

SAS or SARL: the two structures that matter

For foreign founders, the choice almost always comes down to two options:

• SAS (société par actions simplifiée) — the default choice for startups, holding structures, and foreign subsidiaries. Its bylaws are largely freeform, which means you can design governance, voting rights, and share classes to match an investor term sheet or a parent company's structure. If you plan to raise funding or already have a foreign parent company, this is almost always the right vehicle. A single-shareholder version (SASU) exists if you are the sole founder.
• SARL (société à responsabilité limitée) — a more rigid, code-defined structure, still common for family businesses, regulated professions, and simpler operations where flexibility matters less than a well-trodden legal framework. Its single-member version is the EURL.

Both structures require a minimum share capital of just €1, so capital requirements are not the deciding factor — governance flexibility and investor expectations are.

The registration process: Guichet Unique

Since 2023, every company registration in France goes through a single online portal run by the INPI, the Guichet Unique. In practice, you will need to:

• Draft and sign the company bylaws (statuts)
• Open a business bank account and deposit the share capital
• Publish a legal notice of incorporation
• Declare the company's beneficial owners
• File everything through the Guichet Unique to receive your SIREN, SIRET, and K-bis (the French equivalent of a certificate of incorporation)

Standard processing takes roughly 10 to 30 working days once a complete file is submitted — but almost every delay we see comes from an incomplete file or a document that does not meet French formatting requirements, not from the administration itself.

What it actually costs

Official government fees are modest — typically in the €260–€320 range depending on the structure (registry fees, the beneficial-owners declaration, and a mandatory legal notice). The real cost variable is professional support: bylaws drafted to protect you rather than expose you, a business bank account that does not reject non-resident applicants, and someone who catches the small errors before they become a two-month delay.

The part most guides skip: what happens after incorporation

Getting your K-bis is the beginning, not the end. You will immediately need: a French accountant to handle statutory bookkeeping (required by law, not optional), VAT registration if you are trading, and — if you plan to live in France to run the business — the right visa (see our guide on the Talent Passport vs Entrepreneur visa). Founders who treat incorporation as a standalone task often end up unregistered for VAT months after their first invoice, which is an expensive mistake to unwind.

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