How to register and domicile your company in France online — 2026 guide

In 2026, registering and domiciling your company in France online is fully accessible from a laptop. But online does not mean instant: all formalities now go through the guichet unique (single business formalities portal) managed by INPI, France's National Institute of Industrial Property, and the speed of your registration depends almost entirely on the quality of the file you submit. The step that founders are most often unprepared for is domiciliation — the registered office address, the supporting documents, and the consistency between the address, the articles of association, and the legal notice.

This guide walks you through each stage, compares all domiciliation options, and identifies the specific mistakes we see cause delays in practice.

Short answer: choose a legal structure (EI, SASU, EURL, SAS or SARL), confirm your registered address (personal home for up to 5 years, commercial premises, or a licensed domiciliation provider), assemble articles of association, identity documents, proof of address, and a beneficial ownership declaration, then file at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr. A complete, coherent file is processed in 3 to 7 working days.

Since 1 January 2023, the old sectoral registration centres — chambre de commerce, chambre des métiers, URSSAF, commercial court — have all been replaced by a single digital entry point: the portal formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr, operated by INPI.

In practice, you submit one digital file. INPI then distributes it to the relevant bodies depending on your legal structure and activity:

• the greffe du tribunal de commerce (commercial court registry) for registration on the RCS (Trade and Companies Register);
• INSEE for the SIRET number and the APE activity code;
• URSSAF for social security affiliation;
• the SIE (local business tax office) for initial tax obligations.

This centralisation simplifies the process, but it has not reduced documentary standards. Each recipient body still checks the documents that concern it.

Choosing the right legal structure is the most consequential decision you make before filing. It determines your social security regime, your tax treatment, and your ability to bring in external investors. It must be settled before you start filling in the guichet unique form, because correcting a structural error later requires a paid amendment.

A few practical benchmarks:

• The micro-enterprise regime is available up to 203 100 € turnover for trading activities and 83 600 € for services (2026 thresholds). Above those figures, the standard accounting regime applies.
• The SASU is typically preferred by consultants and freelancers who anticipate growth or plan to draw dividends within a corporate wrapper.
• The EURL offers a similar single-shareholder framework but under the self-employed (TNS) social security regime, with different cost implications.

For a structured decision framework, see our guide on choosing the right legal structure — 2026 decision tree and the dedicated comparison SASU vs EURL.

Registration follows a logical sequence. Skipping or reversing steps is the most common cause of delays.

Step 1 — Draft the articles of association (for companies)#

For any company (SASU, EURL, SAS, SARL), the articles of association are the founding document. They must state the company name, legal form, registered purpose (objet social), registered office address, share capital amount, and the allocation of shares or stock.

An objet social that is too vague or too narrow can trigger a query from the greffe. This document binds the company for the long term and deserves careful drafting.

Step 2 — Deposit the share capital#

For any company, the share capital must be deposited in a blocked account (with a bank or a notary) before filing with the guichet unique. The capital deposit certificate is a mandatory filing document.

For a SARL, at least one-fifth of the cash contribution must be paid in at incorporation, with the balance due within 5 years. For a SAS, the articles freely set the payment terms.

Step 3 — Publish the legal notice#

Incorporating a company requires publication of a notice of formation in an authorised legal announcements publication (JAL or SHAL). The proof of publication is a mandatory document. The cost varies by département and publication.

Step 4 — Prepare the domiciliation file#

This is the step founders most often leave until the last moment. Yet an incorrect or incomplete proof of registered office is the leading cause of rejection. See the dedicated section below.

Step 5 — File through the guichet unique#

Filing is done at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr. The portal guides you through the form according to your chosen legal structure and lists all required documents. Once submitted, an acknowledgement of receipt is issued automatically.

Step 6 — Declare beneficial ownership (RBE)#

Every company must declare its beneficial owners — the individuals who ultimately hold more than 25% of capital or voting rights, or who otherwise exercise effective control. This declaration is filed with the greffe via the guichet unique at incorporation and must be updated whenever ownership changes.

Omitting this declaration triggers automatic rejection of the file.

The registered office address determines the Kbis extract, the tax office assigned to you, the competent court in disputes, and the signal you send to commercial partners and banks.

Using the director's personal home address#

A director may register the company's siège social at their personal home address. For a company, this is permitted for a maximum of 5 years, unless the landlord or the co-ownership association (syndicat de copropriété) objects, under Article L. 123-11-1 of the Code de commerce. For a sole trader (EI), there is no time limit.

Before using this option, always check:

• the residential lease: a clause prohibiting professional or commercial use blocks the domiciliation;
• the co-ownership regulations: some buildings prohibit any company registration at the address.

Using a licensed domiciliation company (Article L. 123-11-3 Code de commerce)#

Licensed domiciliation companies provide a registered address and handle your mail. The arrangement is governed by Articles L. 123-11-1 et seq. of the Code de commerce.

The advantages are a stable, often prestigious address — Paris 8th rather than a suburban flat — full privacy for your personal home, and predictable costs. The contract duration is capped at 2 years, renewable.

Points of vigilance: always request proof of the provider's prefectural licence (agrément préfectoral) and confirm it holds the compulsory financial guarantee insurance. An unlicensed provider cannot issue a valid document for the guichet unique file.

An incomplete file results in either immediate rejection or a request for supplementary documents, adding 5 to 15 working days to the timeline. Here is the complete list by entity type.

For a company (SAS, SASU, SARL, EURL):

• signed articles of association (scanned originals);
• share capital deposit certificate;
• proof of legal notice publication;
• proof of registered address (commercial lease, signed domiciliation certificate, or written owner authorisation);
• identity documents for the director and all shareholders;
• beneficial ownership declaration (DBE form);
• certificate of non-conviction and declaration of parentage for the director;
• professional qualification or regulatory authorisation, where the activity requires it.

For a sole trader (EI, including micro-enterprise):

• identity document;
• proof of residential address;
• declaration of non-conviction;
• proof of domiciliation if the registered address differs from the home address.

A strategy consultant wanted to incorporate his SASU quickly before the start of a client engagement. He had drafted the articles, deposited the capital, and published the legal notice. For the registered address, he planned to use his Paris apartment — without checking his lease.

The tenancy agreement contained a clause prohibiting all professional or commercial activity on the premises. The guichet unique rejected the proof of registered address. The result: ten days of delay, an emergency domiciliation contract signed overnight, and a corrected file resubmitted from scratch.

The lesson: verifying your lease and co-ownership rules takes fifteen minutes. Skipping it can cost two weeks at the moment when every day counts.

Real timelines depend on two factors: completeness of the file and the workload of the competent greffe.

• Complete, coherent file: 3 to 7 working days on average.
• File with missing or inconsistent documents: a request for supplementary items is issued within 48 to 72 hours, followed by reprocessing after correction — 10 to 15 working days in total.
• Regulated activities (food service, financial services, healthcare…): additional checks may extend the timeline further.

In our experience, founders who prepare their file carefully — including verifying the lease and drafting the articles properly — are registered in 4 to 5 working days. Those who file in haste routinely wait twice as long.

Receiving your SIRET number is not the end of the process. Several steps must follow quickly to make the company operational.

1. Set up your impots.gouv.fr professional space — essential for VAT (TVA) returns, the annual tax return (liasse fiscale), and business property tax (CFE). You create the account on the tax portal using your SIRET number.
2. Open a business bank account — legally required for companies (share capital is released to this account); strongly recommended for sole traders.
3. Take out compulsory insurance — professional liability (responsabilité civile professionnelle), and a ten-year structural guarantee (décennale) for construction activities.
4. Organise your accounting — choose invoicing software that complies with Article 286 of the CGI (Code général des impôts), or engage a chartered accountant. Electronic invoicing will become mandatory for all companies in reception from 1 September 2026.
5. File the first declarations — notification of existence with the SIE, election of any optional tax regime, and affiliation with complementary health and disability insurance.

For further reading on post-incorporation obligations, see our article on legal obligations when starting a business in France and our guide starting a business in France A to Z.

In our practice, rejections almost always stem from the same causes, in roughly this order of frequency.

1. Non-compliant proof of registered address. A domiciliation certificate without the provider's signature, a residential lease where a commercial lease is expected, or a missing written owner authorisation — each of these blocks processing.

2. Incomplete articles of association. Missing mandatory clauses — a vague objet social, no provision on share transfers, or no clause on director representation — prompt a rejection from the greffe.

3. Missing beneficial ownership declaration. Mandatory for every company. Absence triggers automatic rejection.

4. Inconsistency between the declared address and the supporting document. The town or postcode does not match exactly between the articles, the legal notice, and the address proof. The greffe requires perfect alignment.

5. Forgetting to create the professional tax space. After registration, the director must separately create an account on impots.gouv.fr. Without it, the first VAT and corporate tax returns cannot be filed.

The single portal has simplified the process from the founder's perspective — one interface, one submission, one acknowledgement. But it has also concentrated rejections: where individual CFEs once applied their own tolerances, INPI enforces uniform, strict standards.

The risk most founders underestimate is assuming that a simple interface means simple requirements. The form guides you through the fields, but it does not reconcile inconsistencies between the documents you attach. A correctly completed form paired with a defective proof of address will be rejected just as firmly as before 2023.

We regularly work with founders who started the process alone and got stuck at the domiciliation or articles verification stage. In most cases, a thirty-minute review upstream would have been enough to avoid the delay.

We can manage the entire process: legal structure selection, drafting or reviewing your articles of association, validating the domiciliation, assembling the file, and tracking the submission. Clients who come to us with a properly prepared file are registered in 4 to 5 working days.

See also: Domiciliation options in detail · Online registration vs. working with an accountant · Share capital — amount and payment rules 2026

Updated 2026-06-14. This article is for information purposes only and does not replace personalised professional advice. For your specific situation, contact a chartered accountant (expert-comptable) registered with the Ordre.