France ICT permit: intra corporate transfer and its three years that do not extend
The French ICT permit requires 6 months of group seniority, caps the stay at 3 years and the prefecture decides within 90 days under the CESEDA.
The French ICT residence permit, salarié détaché ICT, lets an international group move a manager, a specialist or a trainee from an entity outside the European Union into a French entity of the same group. The scheme comes from directive 2014/66/EU of 15 May 2014, transposed by law 2016-274 of 7 March 2016, and sits in articles R.421-38 to R.421-58 of the CESEDA, the French code on entry and residence. It requires 6 months of group seniority and caps the stay at 3 years.
That three year ceiling is what separates ICT from every other route into France. It cannot be pushed further by renewal, and it is counted across the Union: time already spent under ICT status in another member state is deducted from the period granted in France. A manager who served eighteen months in Poland under that status does not bring three years to the French subsidiary, he brings eighteen months.
The four categories and the entry conditions
The CESEDA sets four categories inside one scheme: ICT posted employee, mobile ICT posted employee, ICT trainee and mobile ICT trainee. The mobile categories cover a person who already holds an ICT permit issued by another member state and comes to work in France in an entity of the same group. The other two cover direct entry from a third country.
Access rests on three cumulative conditions. The worker must show at least 6 months of seniority in the group that employs him before the transfer. He must keep an employment contract with the sending entity, which remains the substantive difference from a local hire. And the host entity in France must belong to the same group, with the ownership link examined as part of the file.
| Permit category | Who it covers | Maximum duration | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICT posted employee | Manager or specialist from a third country | 3 years | Time under ICT status in another member state is deducted |
| Mobile ICT posted employee | Holder of an ICT permit from another member state | 3 years across the Union | The counter does not restart at the border |
| ICT trainee | Trainee from a third country | 1 year, extension included | No automatic switch to the employee category |
| Mobile ICT trainee | Trainee already holding an ICT permit | 1 year in total | A training agreement is required with the file |
The decision deadline and the implied refusal
The file is examined by the foreign labour platform and then by the prefecture. The CESEDA gives the administration a maximum of 90 days from a complete file to notify its decision. This point is worth reading twice: silence beyond that period counts as an implied refusal, not as tacit approval. A company that has heard nothing on day ninety one does not hold an approval, it holds a refusal to challenge or to refile.
The CESEDA also sets mandatory grounds for refusal. The application is refused where the company was set up mainly to facilitate the entry of foreign workers, which targets host structures with no real activity, and it is refused where the employer has been convicted of human trafficking or of employing a foreign national without a permit. These are not weighed case by case. They close the ICT route for the group concerned.
The posting side of the file remains in force throughout. The DREETS checks the working conditions that apply to a worker posted in France, and the prior declaration comes before the start date as it does for any posting, as set out in the SIPSI posting declaration.
What ICT buys, and where the switch has to happen
The most concrete advantage is family related. Under the service-public sheet F35600, the family accompanies the worker for the duration of the stay without going through family reunification and its income and housing conditions. On a two or three year transfer, that simplification often weighs more in the worker's decision than the permit itself.
The limit reads the other way. ICT is a scheme for passing through, not for settling. A group that wants to keep an engineer in France prepares, during the third year, a switch to another permit, usually the Talent residence card covered in the Talent residence permit, or a local hire subject to work authorisation, set out in the introduction procedure and the employer tax. That switch means a French contract, so a renegotiation with the sending entity, and it is prepared at least six months before expiry.
ICT therefore fits a precise situation: an established group, a worker already in post for at least six months, and a French assignment bounded in time. Outside that frame the route is slower than it looks, because the group link and the seniority are proved by documents. If you are considering a transfer into a French entity, reconstruct the worker's ICT history across the Union before fixing a start date. Talk to a consultant.
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