Immigration consultant's notes. Startup in France.

French Tech Visa is a simplified, accelerated program for obtaining a residence permit in France for third-country nationals - employees, owners and investors of Startup projects.

The authorities themselves say that a very interesting situation is developing in France: the technological ecosystem is growing rapidly and, in order to accelerate the launch of its products on the market, many French startups decided to choose English as the main language. This allowed us to start successfully attracting foreign qualified personnel. Visa holders are becoming the global talent pool, so necessary to increase growth.

In order for the startup owner to receive French Tech Visa, the following documents must be provided:

• innovative business project to be developed in France,
• confirmation of the recognition of the project as one of the authorized incubators & accelerators. There are currently more than 50 incubators and they are located throughout France,
• confirmation of the availability of sufficient annual financial resources corresponding to the statutory minimum wage in the country (SMIC) of 18.473.04 euro (per year) as of 01.01.2020.

In the case of visa obtaining, its effect extends to the spouse and minor children.

A visa is issued for a period of 4 years and can be extended.

Formally, the advantage of French Tech Visa is the fact that the applicant does not have to provide a diploma or other qualification documents. The qualification of the applicant will be determined by his business project, which is subject to standard requirements: innovativeness, scalability, etc.

French Tech Seed Fund funds are widely used to finance startups. An alternative is to attract a private investor who is interested not only in making a profit from the project, but also in obtaining a residence permit in France.

From this point of view, the following requirements are imposed on the investor:

• invest at least 300,000 euro in the main tangible or intangible assets of a startup,
• make investments either directly or through a company in which the investor owns at least 30% of the shares,
• become a shareholder (at least 10%) of a startup,
• create new jobs within four years of investment.

If the requirements are met, the investor also receives a French Tech Visa.

For questions about organizing Startup projects in France, obtaining a residence permit & work permit, arranging financing, and optimizing taxation, please contact our specialists.