Working in France: no permit, no compulsory card — but the smic, the micro-entreprise and the diploma

Yes, as a Dutch national you may work in France without a permit, employed or self-employed, and you need not complete any residence formality for it: Service-Public says the card you may apply for is "not compulsory". What it yields at minimum is the smic: € 12.31 gross an hour, € 1,867.02 gross a month for a full week. The find for whoever starts for themselves: the micro-entrepreneur regime calculates your social contributions as a fixed percentage of turnover, no turnover no contributions. The trap is the regulated profession, which needs a recognition procedure before you may start — and that is something other than the € 120 attestation de comparabilité an employer sometimes asks for.

What do you earn at least, and what is the smic worth?

Smic (June 2026)	Gross	Net, indicative
Per hour	€ 12.31	€ 9.74
Per month, 35 hours	€ 1,867.02	€ 1,477.93
Per year	€ 22,404.20	€ 17,735.19

An employer paying below the smic risks a fine of € 1,500 and damages to the employee. Lower amounts apply to minors. What the table does not say: collective agreements (conventions collectives) often set higher minima per sector, so the smic is the floor, not the norm.

Do you need a residence card to work?

No. As an EU citizen you may settle in France after the first three months to work, and a residence card only "materialises" rights you already have. Whoever wants one anyway — some employers and banks ask for it — applies online through ANEF for the card citoyen UE/EEE/Suisse – Toutes activités professionnelles. It is free and issued by the prefecture of your place of residence; validity is five years on a permanent contract, and on a fixed-term contract the term plus six months. After five years of uninterrupted legal residence you have a permanent right of residence, which you can prove "by any means": employment contracts, registration in the trade register, benefit statements.

How do you start for yourself?

With the same steps as a French national: choosing a legal form, registration through the guichet unique, and articles of association for a company. For an EU citizen there is "no formality at all" to obtain a residence title that permits business. For whoever starts alone or small, the micro-entreprise is the usual form: no profit-based bookkeeping, but social contributions as a fixed percentage of turnover, declared monthly or quarterly to the Urssaf. The first declaration can only be made after at least 90 days.

Activity	Contribution on turnover
Sale of goods	12.3%
Services (BIC)	21.2%
Liberal profession, not regulated (BNC)	25.6%
Liberal profession under the Cipav	23.2%
Letting furnished residential accommodation	21.2%

If you opt for the versement libératoire, the Urssaf also collects income tax and the rate is one to two points higher. If turnover is nil, the contribution is nil — with the flip side that you then build up nothing either, unless you voluntarily pay the minimum. Whoever exceeds the regime's turnover limit two years running falls back onto the ordinary scheme for the self-employed.

Self-employed from day one also means self-insured from day one. Whoever takes a job is in French healthcare straight away through the employer; whoever starts self-employed arranges the CPAM registration themselves, and that clock is the longest of the whole corridor.

Must your degree be recognised?

That depends on your profession. If it is not regulated, the employer assesses for themselves what your degree is worth; they may ask for an attestation de comparabilité. The ENIC-NARIC France centre issues that when the foreign degree is comparable to a French level. It is an opinion, not a right: Service-Public says literally that the attestation "has no legal value and is not compulsory". You apply for it online, it costs € 120 — € 20 on submission and € 100 on processing — and the centre answers within at most four months after payment. One degree per file; degrees that only prove language knowledge are excluded.

If your profession is regulated — Service-Public names two kinds: the liberal professions and offices such as lawyer, architect and doctor, and the commercial and craft trades such as mechanic and hairdresser — the attestation is not enough: you go through the recognition procedure of the competent authority, which differs by profession and which you can trace through ENIC-NARIC. Do that before you accept a job, not after.

In the roadmap for France work belongs to the first phase: whether you are going to work in France determines how you get into healthcare, and whether the income requirement for non-workers applies to you — what France may ask in that respect is explained separately.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to France or go straight to step 1.1 in the open plan.