Auto-entrepreneur (officially: micro-entrepreneur) is the simplest legal route to invoicing clients in France. Freelance developers, designers, consultants, content creators, copywriters, and most artisans use it. Registration is free, online, and gives you a SIRET — the number you'll put on every invoice — in one to four weeks.
It's a tax and social regime, not a company. You pay URSSAF cotisations as a percentage of revenue: roughly 22% for services (BNC), 12% for trade (BIC vente), with annual ceilings (€77,700 for services, €188,700 for trade in 2026). Revenue declarations are filed monthly or quarterly through autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr.
The single decision that matters most is your activity category. Liberal services (BNC), commercial services (BIC), and trade route to different caisses with different rates. Changing later means closing and reopening the business, so think about it before you submit.
Photo or PDF. The sender, the deadline, and what to do, in plain English. No account needed.
Yes, if your titre de séjour authorises self-employment. VLS-TS étudiant has a 60% time cap, passeport-talent and salarié allow it as a secondary activity, vie privée et familiale and most asylum titles allow it without restriction. EU citizens register without a titre.
Roughly 22% of revenue for services (BNC liberal), 21% for commercial services (BIC), and 12% for trade (BIC vente) in 2026. There's also a small contribution to formation professionnelle (0.1-0.3%). You can opt into versement libératoire to add a flat tax payment that closes income tax for the year.
€77,700 for services and liberal professions, €188,700 for sales of goods (trade) per calendar year, 2026 amounts. Cross either ceiling for two years running and you're forced out of the regime onto the réel. The VAT exemption ceiling is lower: €36,800 for services, €91,900 for trade.
On guichet-unique.inpi.fr — the single national portal that replaced the old Centre de Formalités des Entreprises (CFE) network in 2023. Pick 'créer une entreprise', choose 'micro-entrepreneur', and follow the wizard. Free, all-online.
One to four weeks. You'll receive the SIRET first, then the SIREN, then the NIC by post. You can invoice the day the SIRET arrives — don't wait for the paper to be in hand.