Payroll for foreign embassies and consulates in France

Who we are

Ambassades Paies is the embassy payroll service of GCFFS, a French limited company (SARL) that produces payroll, social security filings and HR administration for employers in France. This page is about foreign missions established in France, not French embassies abroad, which is a different subject with different rules.

We should be clear about what we are not. GCFFS is not a firm of chartered accountants and it is not a law firm. We do not keep the mission's books and we do not represent anyone in court. What we do is the payroll itself, the declarations that go with it, the day-to-day administration of staff, and practical advice on French employment law: working time, leave, disciplinary matters, terminations, staff representation. When a dispute is heading for the employment tribunal, we refer the mission to a lawyer and prepare the payroll figures the lawyer will need.

Who we work for

Paris alone hosts more than 160 embassies, and many countries also run consulates-general in the regions. Our clients are the employers that sit around that diplomatic network:

• embassies, for staff at the chancery, the ambassador's residence and the attachés' offices;
• consulates-general and consulates in Paris, the regions and the French overseas departments;
• cultural institutes, schools, tourist offices and trade or investment agencies run by foreign states;
• offices of federated states, provinces and regions;
• diplomats who employ a nanny, a housekeeper or a driver privately (see household staff of diplomats).

Why embassy payroll in France is different

A foreign state that hires staff in France is an unusual employer, and most general payroll providers are not set up for it. Six points come up in almost every file we open.

The Vienna exemption is personal

The Vienna Conventions exempt diplomats and staff sent from the capital from French social security. They do not exempt the mission as an institution. A locally engaged driver, secretary or accountant who is a French national or a permanent resident of France is covered by the French general scheme, and the embassy has the same obligations as any other employer. The details, including the bilateral agreements that change the picture for some countries, are on our page on social security for local staff.

No sector-wide collective agreement

No French collective agreement covers embassies and consulates. The French Labour Code is the baseline, and a mission can choose to apply an agreement voluntarily. Internal staff regulations do not displace French law: in a 2021 ruling on the Paris office of the League of Arab States, the Cour de cassation held that staff regulations are not a “law” for conflict-of-laws purposes.

Unemployment insurance is compulsory

Since 1 April 2020, staff of embassies and consulates who are covered by French social security must be insured against unemployment, with contributions paid to URSSAF. See unemployment insurance for embassy staff.

Supplementary pensions are voluntary, and all-or-nothing

Embassies and consulates fall outside the territorial scope of AGIRC-ARRCO, the French supplementary pension scheme. They can join it, but only for all of their staff on the general scheme at once, and membership never covers years before it starts. A mission that has never joined has left its staff without supplementary pension rights, and those years cannot be bought back later. Our French page on AGIRC-ARRCO membership explains the rule in detail.

Income tax collection is an open question

No official source we have read says whether an embassy in France must withhold income tax through payroll or whether its staff pay by instalments. We do not guess: we confirm the method with the relevant tax office when we set up the file.

Immunity does not remove the risk

French courts apply a functional test. A state can only rely on immunity where the employee's duties involved the exercise of sovereign authority, which rules out most drivers, secretaries and accountants. Enforcing a judgment against a mission's bank accounts is very hard, but that is a poor reason to run a non-compliant payroll.

What we do

Service	What it covers
Employer registration	Employer account, unemployment insurance, the decision on AGIRC-ARRCO membership and any other cover the mission chooses
Employment contracts	Contracts for locally engaged staff, drafted in French with an English translation
Monthly payroll	Payslips compliant with French law, with an explanatory note in English where the capital needs one
DSN filings	The monthly nominative social declaration, event-driven filings and follow-up of rejections
Leavers	Final pay statement, certificate of employment, the employer certificate for France Travail
Regularisation	Staff never declared, missing periods, arrears: a costed plan to put things right
Payroll and HR audit	A compliance review of the local workforce, with the risk quantified and an action plan
Takeover	Moving from another provider, or from an accountant who is leaving, without a break in payroll

The full description of these services is on our French page on outsourced embassy payroll.

How we work with a mission

The mission stays the employer. It signs the contracts, sets salaries and decides on memberships; we produce the payroll and the filings in its name. Each mission has a named payroll officer who knows its staff, its calendar and the quirks of its file, rather than a ticketing system.

Reporting to the capital is part of the job. Head office rarely reads French payslips, so we explain the figures in English: gross to net, employer cost per post, the effect of a pay rise or a new hire on the budget.

Why not an employer of record?

Employer-of-record services make a third party the legal employer. For a company without a French entity, that can work. For an embassy, it means the people working in its offices, under its authority and sometimes on confidential matters, are employed by someone else. The real employer and the legal employer no longer match, which muddles responsibility on the day something goes wrong. A payroll provider avoids that.

Getting in touch

Use the contact form and tell us roughly how many staff you employ, where they work and what state the file is in. We reply within one working day. If you are an employee rather than an employer, our page on working at an embassy in France is the better starting point.