ICT seconded employee: coming to France on a group assignment
The ICT card covers a manager or specialist sent by a group to one of its French entities while keeping the original employment contract.
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ICT transferee: the pay condition
Above the minimum by
€2,633
| Gross monthly minimum | €1,867.02 |
| Stamps | €350 |
The multi-year "salarié détaché ICT" card (intra-corporate transfer) is for a non-EU manager or specialist who keeps their employment contract with the company that employs them abroad and comes to work in a company of the same group in France. You need at least six months with the group and pay of at least €1,867.02 gross a month, the level of the French minimum wage. For an assignment of more than three months and up to one year, a VLS-TS visa is enough, validated online with a €300 tax. Beyond that, the card covers the assignment up to three years, minus the time already spent on the visa: after one year on a VLS-TS, two years at most remain. It costs €350 in tax stamps and cannot be renewed. The employer does not need a work authorisation for the assignment. If the prefecture does not answer within 90 days, the application counts as refused: for a filing on 16 November 2026, on 14 February 2027.
Who the ICT card is for
The official page lists five conditions, all required: being a non-EU national other than Algerian; holding a long-stay visa or a VLS-TS marked "salarié détaché ICT"; coming to France for a senior management post or to bring expertise; having an employment contract with the company that employs you abroad; and at least six months' service with the group. The assignment must take place in a company of the same group as the original employer. These are the conditions on the official ICT seconded-employee card page (in French), which refers to sections L421-26 to L421-29 of the CESEDA immigration code.
Visa or card: it all depends on length
For an assignment of more than three months and up to a year, the consulate issues an ICT VLS-TS, a long-stay visa that serves as a residence permit: you only need to validate it online within three months of arrival and pay the €300 tax. For a longer assignment, the multi-year card takes over. It is issued for the length of the assignment, three years at most, minus the time spent on a long-stay visa.
| Planned assignment | Document | Stamp cost |
|---|---|---|
| Over 3 months, up to a year | ICT VLS-TS | €300 |
| 30 months, 12 of them on a VLS-TS | VLS-TS then an 18-month card | €300 + €350 |
| 36 months, applied for in France | Card of up to 3 years | €350 |
The pay condition
The file includes proof of resources of at least €1,867.02 gross a month. The mini calculator at the top of the page compares your pay with that minimum. In practice, the managers and experts concerned often earn far more, so it is worth comparing with the talent card for employees on assignment, which has no three-year cap. On €4,500 a month, the engineer in our example earns €54,000 a year, above the €39,582 talent threshold.
Documents to provide
Besides the valid visa or permit, the prefecture asks for form cerfa no. 15619 and its supporting documents, the employment contract with the foreign company, proof of six months' service (employer certificate and payslips), proof of resources, evidence that both companies belong to the same group, degrees matching the managerial or expert role, proof of meeting the rules of a regulated profession where relevant, and the signed commitment to respect the principles of the Republic. From abroad, you apply at the consulate; from France, at the prefecture where you live within the two months before your visa or permit expires.
Refusal grounds specific to ICT
The prefecture refuses the card if the host company was set up mainly to ease the entry of seconded foreign staff, if the employer was convicted of fraud to obtain a permit, or if the three-year maximum has been reached. It may refuse if the employer or host company was penalised for illegal work or employing foreign nationals without authorisation, or failed its social-security, tax or labour-law obligations. Without an answer within 90 days, the application counts as refused; you can then appeal for two months. No prefecture publishes an average processing time.
A dated example
Take the engineer in our example, arriving on 7 September 2026 with a one-year VLS-TS for a thirty-month assignment. She must validate the visa online by 7 December 2026 and pay €300. Because her assignment runs beyond a year, she then applies for the multi-year card at the prefecture where she lives: the window opens on 6 May 2027 and the application must be in by 6 July 2027. The card, eighteen months at most since twelve months were already spent on the visa, costs €350. In total, her stamps come to €650 for the whole assignment. Because her permit lets her work without a work authorisation, the employer tax that applies to hires needing an authorisation does not apply to her secondment. Note that the dates are counted from the day of arrival and the day the visa ends, not from the start of the assignment in the employment contract: keep your boarding pass and the visa sticker, which the online validation asks for.
Work, tax and family
The ICT card authorises the salaried work of the assignment: the employer needs no work authorisation, as the work authorisation page confirms. The family follows without family reunification: the spouse and adult children receive a "family" card for the remaining period, with the right to work. For reference, a talent-family card would cost €350; the ICT page states no separate fee for the ICT family card, so we publish none. Your spouse applies at the prefecture where you live if the family already holds long-stay visas, with your card, the marriage certificate and an e-photo code. The talent card, described on its official page, remains the alternative for a longer move.
Information, not legal advice: your group's mobility team and the prefecture remain the contacts for your file. If the assignment is extended beyond the three-year ceiling, plan the switch to another permit well before the card ends, since an ICT card cannot simply be renewed.