France student to worker status change and the file the employer files first

The status change starts with the employer, not with the student. The company files the work authorisation request on the ANEF portal, and only then does the student file the residence application with the prefecture. Doing it the other way round is the most common reason a file comes back unprocessed.

Who files what, and in what order

Since the move online in April 2021, the work authorisation request goes through the ANEF portal rather than a paper filing at the prefecture. It is examined by the plateforme interrégionale main-d'oeuvre étrangère with jurisdiction over the place of work, under the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Labour. The employer attaches four documents that form the core of the file: the company Kbis extract, the job description, the employment contract signed by both parties, and a valid URSSAF certificate of compliance.

Once the work authorisation is granted, the student files the status change application on the ANEF. The prefecture then decides on the residence permit itself, not on access to employment, which has already been settled upstream. That split is why a student who arrives at the prefecture holding a job offer, but with no work authorisation requested by the future employer, leaves with nothing.

The filing window is narrow and it is counted backwards. The status change application is filed between 4 and 2 months before the student permit expires, according to the ANEF notices and prefecture instructions. Filing earlier risks rejection as premature. Filing later creates a gap in rights: the student permit lapses, an extension certificate is not automatic, and the new employee has no right to work even though the contract has started. In practice an employer should open the subject with the candidate at least five months before the permit end date, because collecting the Kbis, the job description and the URSSAF certificate rarely takes less than two weeks.

The labour market test, and the two cases that escape it

As a rule the administration examines the employment situation: the employer must show that no local candidate was found. Two situations lift that examination.

The first is the degree. A holder of a master's degree obtained in France escapes the labour market test if the salary offered reaches 1.5 times the SMIC, under articles L.421-2 and following of the CESEDA. Since the SMIC was raised on 1 June 2026 by the arrêté of 22 May 2026, that threshold is 2,800.53 euros gross per month. Below that threshold the degree is not enough and the examination applies again.

The second is the occupation. A job listed in the shortage occupation list of the arrêté of 21 May 2025 opens the work authorisation with no labour market test, whatever the degree. That list has been regional since the arrêté, so the same job title can be in shortage in one region and not in the neighbouring one. The detail is in the guide to the France shortage occupation list.

The permit follows the contract, and the tax follows the permit

The contract type decides the card. A permanent contract opens the salarié residence card, a fixed term contract opens the travailleur temporaire card, under articles L.421-1 and L.421-3 of the CESEDA. The difference is not cosmetic: the travailleur temporaire card is aligned on the length of the contract and has to be renewed at every extension, which brings the employer back into the portal at every term.

The status change also triggers the employer tax on foreign labour, payable to the DGFiP since 1 January 2023. On a contract of twelve months or more it is 55 percent of the gross monthly salary capped at 2.5 SMIC, about 2,506.67 euros per hire in 2026 under the tax administration doctrine BOI-TPS-EMOE. The amounts and the filing deadlines are set out in the note on the French employer tax on foreign workers. For profiles above 2 SMIC the multi year talent card for qualified employees is often a steadier route than the salarié card, as the guide to the French talent residence permit explains. Employers preparing a first French hire will find the wider frame on the employers page.

The classic failure mode is one line of calendar. The company signs the contract in June for a September start, the student permit expires at the end of October, and nobody files the work authorisation before late August. By then the window of 4 to 2 months is already running, the plateforme decision and the prefecture decision follow each other with no margin, and the employee works through September on a student permit whose authorised hours do not cover a full time post. The file eventually clears, but the employer has created a period of irregular work that a labour inspection reads exactly as such. The date to plan against is not the start date, it is the expiry of the student permit.