I have dual Spanish and French nationality (both passports). I have lived my entire life in Spain and currently receive unemployment benefits. However, I would like to move to France now with my girlfriend and start working again. I’ve found a Spanish startup that wants to hire me and is fine with me living in France. I was considering a permanent contract (CDI) or becoming a self-employed auto-entrepreneur, but I’m not sure what kind of paperwork I need to move legally. Any help would be much appreciated.
You’re a french national, so you can move freely. The question is where you will physically be when you are working? If in France then French tax and social security has to be paid. And thats the complex bit.
You could set up as an auto-entrepreneur, but would have to show a totally independent relationship with this spanish company to avoid it being seen as a way to get round employment rules. Better would be to have more than one client. You then pay your own tax and your social security cotisations,
The other options are that Spanish company sets up to have you as an employee in France via this type of system
https://www.tpee.urssaf.fr/tpeewebinfo/cms/lang/fr/page200.html
Or you use a portage salarial company, which is expensive (look it up, loads on web about it).
All doable, but a bit of work to set up.
Thanks a lot for you message!
Yes, I will be living in France, and I have heard many times that French bureaucracy is hell, so that is why I am a bit afraid. That’s why I would like to start with something simple, so either CDI or Auto-entrepreneur. What is the main paperwork that I have to do? I read that I should register in my local CPAM and get a Card Vitale somehow.
Bureaucracy is not hell if you approach it in the French way. But it is if you expect it to be what you are used to in another country. As a French national it will be quite straightforward for you.
Have you ever lived or worked here and have an existing social security number? If you have already been affiliated to the French social security system in the past, or if you were born in France, you need to contact the CPAM by phone at 3646 (FR) or at 09 74 75 36 46 or go directly to your local CPAM branch, in order to get information on how to recover your social security number and create an account on the platform ameli.fr.
Otherwise look at the options I outlined for workî’g here and decide which one fits your situation best.
You are French so just go and see the relevant people in the place where you are moving. Start with the CPAM.
I must say I am a bit confused, not for the first time 
, but I thought that Spain was one of the few countries that doesn’t allow dual nationality, coupled with Spanish of course.
It was “not allowed” though I have always had it because when I was born both nationalities said I should have it. Nonetheless, since 2022 it is now legal to have it.
Okay great! Thanks everyone, I will contact the CPAM and see what they tell me