Al Qantara Institute orchestrates the business side of a move to France. We create your company, SAS or SARL, install its registered office at a premium Paris address, align the investor or talent visa file with the incorporation, and set up the banking, tax and accounting around it. One senior interlocutor follows the project from Paris and Dubai, on the same calendar as your family's move. Figures on this page are as of 2026. For dedicated company counsel beyond the family move, see Al Qantara Enterprises.
We run your company project end to end: incorporation, registered office, banking, tax and accounting, held to one calendar by one senior interlocutor.
As in every Al Qantara Institute engagement, one senior interlocutor answers for the whole project. We take on a limited number of families and mandates each year, so each project gets close attention. Here is how a business mandate runs, and the four workstreams we hold to one calendar underneath it.
You explain the project once. The same senior advisor drives every workstream, holds incorporation, domiciliation, visa and move to one written calendar, and reports to you at every step.
Whether a file goes to a bank, the register or a consulate, we assemble it to the standard of its reader and review it once more before it is lodged.
Al Qantara is a boutique practice and accepts fifteen families and mandates a year at most, so your company project receives the full attention of a senior advisor.
France places no nationality condition on founding or owning a company, and the entire incorporation can be prepared from abroad. Here is how the path actually runs in 2026.
Most founders choose the SAS (société par actions simplifiée) for its flexible governance; the SARL suits family businesses that want a stricter, more protective frame. Both accept 100% foreign ownership and direction from abroad. We prepare the comparison before counsel drafts the statuts.
The law sets no minimum: a SAS or a SARL can be registered with share capital from 1 euro, as of 2026. Banks and partners read the capital as a signal of substance, so we size it to the project and document its deposit properly.
A realistic count is 2 to 4 weeks end to end: drafting and signing the statuts, opening the capital deposit account (the slow step for non-resident founders), publishing the legal notice and filing through the guichet unique, the state's one-stop portal.
Registration produces the extrait Kbis, the company's official identity card. Banks, insurers, landlords and the visa file all ask for it; from that day the company exists in law and can contract and hire.
When the company is part of a family move, both files run on one calendar from the first week: see our 360° family relocation engagements.
Every French company must declare a registered office, its siège social, from day one. The address appears on the Kbis and in public registers, so it says something about the company before you do.
Licensed partners host your registered office at a premium Paris address, under the prefectoral licence the law requires of domiciliation providers as of 2026. The company gains a serious address without carrying a lease it does not yet need.
Statutory mail is received, scanned and forwarded to you wherever you are, so registered letters from the tax administration or the greffe never sit unread.
Domiciliation runs as a yearly service whose terms depend on the address and the volume of mail. We quote it on request, alongside the incorporation mandate.
A company does not by itself confer residence in France. The residence card is a separate file that we prepare in parallel, and two categories of the multi-year Talent card serve business projects as of 2026.
The investor category asks for a direct economic investment of €300,000 in France as of 2026, personally or through a company you control, with a commitment to create or preserve jobs. One application covers the household and the card runs up to 4 years.
The business creation category admits founders who bring a real, viable project and an investment from €30,000 as of 2026, with a graduate degree or 5 years of comparable experience. The company we incorporate becomes the anchor of that file.
Both categories open the French labour market to your spouse through the Talent (famille) card; the mechanics and renewals sit with our Residency & Visas practice.
A company needs a bank account and proper books from the start. We prepare the files to bank standard and set both up with the company, so nothing waits.
French banks examine non-resident founders closely, and the capital deposit account is usually the slowest step of the incorporation. We prepare the file to bank standard and present it to the right desk; if the bank is slow, we route the capital deposit through another channel so the registration never waits.
From its first invoice the company needs books, VAT returns and, once it hires, payroll. We set the accounting up for international shareholders from day one, sized to the business.
We draft the statuts, the shareholders' agreements, the commercial contracts and the first employment matters, align them with the visa file and hold it all to one calendar.
When the move includes the family's wealth, our Wealth & Tax Advisory practice handles the personal side, tax position, banking and structuring, on the same calendar.
From the Journal: opening a French bank account.
We run your company project end to end: incorporation, registered office, banking, tax and accounting, held to one calendar by one senior interlocutor.
Yes. France places no nationality condition on holding the shares of a SAS or a SARL: the company can belong entirely to foreign shareholders, no local partner is required, and the director may live abroad. The constraint that matters in practice is banking, which is why we prepare that file first.
No. A French company can be created, owned and directed from abroad, and many of the founders we serve begin exactly that way. Living in France is a separate file, which our Residency & Visas practice prepares in parallel when the family moves.
Plan for a realistic 2 to 4 weeks end to end as of 2026. The registration itself takes only days once the file reaches the guichet unique; the real time sits in drafting the statuts, depositing the capital and the bank's checks on non-resident founders.
No, not by itself. Incorporation and residence run as two files on one calendar. The Talent card's investor category (a €300,000 direct investment) and business creation category (from €30,000 with a real project) are the usual routes as of 2026. We prepare and orchestrate both; the consulate decides.
Two costs sit side by side. Forming a SAS or SARL is inexpensive in itself: share capital can be as low as €1, and registration and legal notice run to a few hundred euros as of 2026. Our mandate to structure the company, its domiciliation, banking and accounting begins at €10,000, quoted precisely after the first consultation.
Business mandates begin at €10,000, and domiciliation is quoted on request alongside them. Third-party costs, such as state fees and banking, are billed to you separately. We quote precisely after the first consultation, and we decline engagements we are not sized for.
Tell us about your company project. A senior advisor will reply within one business day, in confidence and without obligation.
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