Guide: How to Register a Micro-Entreprise via INPI
This guide is informational. It explains how the process works and helps you prepare for a conversation with a professional, or for filing on your own. It is not legal, tax, or accounting advice.
What you'll get
- what the guichet unique is — the system run by INPI — and why it’s the only free, official way to register
- the list of documents to prepare in advance
- a walkthrough of all five steps of the form: Préparer, Saisir, Signer, Payer, Suivre
- how long it actually takes to get a SIRET, and what to do if your file gets sent back for corrections
- where this guide ends and where a lawyer or accountant’s job begins
INPI and the guichet unique: how it actually works
When people search for how to register a micro-entreprise, they usually type “via INPI”, not “guichet unique” — INPI is a recognisable name, guichet unique isn’t. It’s the same path either way: since 2023, INPI (Institut national de la propriété industrielle), a French public body, has run the single system for receiving all business formalities — setting up, changing, or closing a business. That system is called the guichet unique, the “single window”. Before that, different CFE offices (centres de formalités des entreprises) handled this depending on the type of activity: the chamber of commerce, the chamber of trades, URSSAF. They were abolished and folded into one portal run by INPI.
INPI runs two sites for this. formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr is the informational side: it explains the process but doesn’t collect any data. The actual form lives on procedures.inpi.fr, reached via the “Accéder au Guichet unique” button. These are two screens of the same path, not two separate services.
Registering a micro-entreprise through the guichet unique is free — the state doesn’t charge for the formality of creating the business itself. That matters, because search results turn up sites that present registration as a paid service: some are middlemen charging for something that’s free by default, others are outright fraudulent copies. The only official domains are formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr and procedures.inpi.fr.
Who this guide is for
This guide covers the path for an entrepreneur individuel on the micro-entrepreneur regime (the simplified micro-social scheme and, optionally, micro-fiscal). If you’re registering a company with share capital (SASU, EURL, and similar), the guichet unique form differs in part: it adds sections on the company’s articles and capital that don’t exist for a sole trader (entreprise individuelle). The five-step logic (Préparer → Saisir → Signer → Payer → Suivre) is the same, but the documents and fields aren’t.
What to prepare in advance
Uploads happen while you fill out the form, so it’s easier to gather everything before you start rather than hunt for documents halfway through:
- Proof of identity — a CNI (French national ID card) or passport, a colour scan of both sides (either in one file or two — the portal accepts PDF or image files, up to 10 MB each).
- Proof of address less than 3 months old on the submission date: an electricity, gas, or landline phone bill, or your latest property/residence tax notice (avis de taxe foncière/d’habitation). A mobile phone bill doesn’t count — the portal won’t accept it as a justificatif de domicile.
- A déclaration sur l’honneur de non-condamnation — a handwritten or printed and signed statement confirming you have no convictions that would bar you from running a commercial business (interdiction de gérer). The state doesn’t require an official form, but a sample wording is available under “Modèles” on formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr — easier to copy than to draft from scratch.
- Proof of qualification — only if the activity is regulated (some trades, construction-related professions, and so on): a diploma or certificate proving you’re allowed to carry out that activity.
If you’re domiciling the business at your home address, check before filing whether your lease or your building’s co-ownership rules allow it. That’s covered separately in our guide on domiciliation: as a rule, the law allows domiciling a business at your main residence even against lease clauses, but only temporarily and with caveats worth knowing beforehand.
Account: FranceConnect+ or INPI Connect
The first screen after the “Accéder au Guichet unique” button is where you choose how to sign in.
- INPI Connect — a regular email-and-password account, open to everyone. At the last step (Signer), you sign the file with a confirmation code sent by email — a simple electronic signature, which is enough for a sole trader (entreprise individuelle).
- FranceConnect+ — signing in with a means of identification with a higher assurance level (La Poste’s Identité Numérique, France Identité, and similar). It gives you a built-in advanced electronic signature — at the Signer step, no extra identity confirmation is needed. Faster, but it assumes you already have that identification method set up.
For most readers of this guide, INPI Connect is the simpler starting point: nothing to set up beforehand, and the only difference at the signing step is one extra click with a code from your email.
The five steps of the form
The guichet unique itself splits the process into five steps and shows your progress at the top of the screen: Préparer, Saisir, Signer, Payer, Suivre.
Préparer — choosing the type of formality
The first step inside the form is choosing “Créer une entreprise”, then the type of structure. For a micro-entreprise, that’s “Entrepreneur individuel” with the régime micro-entrepreneur option (sometimes labelled micro-social in the form). The same screen lets you tick the tax option you want (versement libératoire de l’impôt sur le revenu) if your income from year N-2 falls under the threshold — if it doesn’t, the system simply won’t offer the option, no need to sort that out manually.
Saisir — filling out the form
The bulk of the process, split into sections:
- Identité — your personal details: full name, date and place of birth, home address. Filled in based on the document you’ll attach afterwards.
- Insaisissabilité — protecting your assets from being seized over business debts. Your main residence is automatically protected by law, no action needed on your part; here you can additionally protect other real estate you own, if any.
- Établissements — the business’s address and activity. This is also where the APE/NAF code goes — the system suggests one based on your activity description, so it’s worth checking that the wording matches what you’ll actually be doing: a mismatch between the description and the code is a common reason the reviewing authority comes back with questions.
- Bénéficiaires effectifs — for a sole trader, that’s always you; the section is filled in as a formality.
- Options fiscales — choosing between the standard income-tax regime and versement libératoire (if available), and a VAT regime (franchise en base by default when starting out).
The documents from the “What to prepare in advance” section get uploaded right here, inside the relevant sections of the form — not as a separate final step.
Signer — the electronic signature
The file is signed directly on the portal. If you signed in via FranceConnect+, the signature is built into your account. Via INPI Connect, a confirmation code is emailed to the address on file, which you enter on this page. Without a signature, the file doesn’t move on for review — this isn’t a technicality, it’s a legally binding act, carrying the same weight as a signature on paper.
Payer — payment
For a sole trader on the micro-entrepreneur regime, setting up the business is free — the state doesn’t charge a fee for the formality itself. The Payer screen simply confirms a zero amount and moves you to the last step. Fees do apply to some other types of registration (for example, certain trades that require mandatory registration in the Répertoire des métiers) — but not to a standard micro-entreprise.
Suivre — tracking and getting your SIRET
Once the file is submitted, a review status appears in your personal account. The possible statuses:
- En cours d’instruction — the file is being reviewed, nothing to do.
- En attente de complément — a document is missing or there’s a mismatch in the form; your account will say exactly what to fix. The file hasn’t been rejected, it’s just waiting on your response.
- Immatriculé — the SIRET has been issued.
A realistic timeline for a complete, error-free file is one to four weeks. If a complément is requested, the clock resets once you’ve submitted everything needed — so a clean file the first time round is almost always faster than “submit, then fix”.
One timing detail that’s easy to miss: getting a SIRET and getting access to URSSAF’s services are two separate events. According to URSSAF itself, the SIRET (issued by INSEE) arrives in 15 days on average after a complete file is submitted — faster than the vaguer “one to four weeks” above. But the separate URSSAF affiliation notice, which is what opens your auto-entrepreneur account on autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr and lets you file your first revenue declaration and pay your contributions, takes longer — 4 to 10 weeks. In practice: the SIRET alone is enough to start invoicing clients, while reporting revenue and paying cotisations has to wait for affiliation.
It used to be URSSAF's job: what changed in 2023
Before 1 January 2023, registering as an auto-entrepreneur was handled directly by URSSAF — through its own site, autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr. That’s why you’ll still find old articles and forum posts online saying “register on the URSSAF website”: that was true once, but it stopped being true on that specific date. Since 1 January 2023, the first step — declaring your activity — has moved entirely to the guichet unique, meaning INPI. URSSAF hasn’t gone anywhere, but it now comes in later, at the démarches step (ACRE and social contributions), not at the point of receiving the application itself.
URSSAF shows this itself on its own “Créer mon auto-entreprise” page — its own diagram makes the point clearly: the first step is labelled “Je déclare mon activité au Guichet unique”, not “… à l’Urssaf”.
That diagram also backs up the figures from the “Suivre” section above: SIRET in 15 days on average, and a separate URSSAF affiliation notice taking 4 to 10 weeks. And it shows what comes after the guichet unique: dealing with URSSAF (including the optional ACRE request), then opening your online account, filing your first revenue declaration, and paying contributions. That’s already the subject of the next guide — this is here just to show where the guichet unique sits in the wider chain, not only its own five steps.
Common reasons a file gets sent back
- an unreadable document scan (glare, a cropped edge, resolution too low);
- a proof of address older than 3 months on the submission date;
- the address on the proof doesn’t match the one entered in the form;
- a forgotten déclaration sur l’honneur de non-condamnation;
- the activity description doesn’t match the chosen APE/NAF code.
All of these, except the last one, are fixed by simply swapping out a file in your account — no need to resubmit the whole form.
The official route vs a paid service
The guichet unique is the only official, free way to register a micro-entreprise. Paid services like Indy don’t give you access to some separate “fast” channel — they fill out the exact same form on the same portal, but walk you through it in plain language with reminders about deadlines. It’s a matter of convenience, not necessity: everything a paid service does, you can do yourself; the difference is time, and the confidence that you haven’t missed anything. What that looks like in practice with Indy — a separate guide.
When to bring in a lawyer or accountant
This guide covers the standard case — one person, one activity, no complicated family or property situation. It’s worth consulting an avocat or expert-comptable if: the activity is regulated and the entry requirements aren’t obvious; you’re married under a community-property regime and want to protect more than just your main residence; you’re torn between micro-entreprise and another legal form because of expected revenue or business partners. What comes next isn’t about registration anymore — it’s about what happens after you get your SIRET: ACRE, your URSSAF account, and the first nine months — in the next guide.
Registration is only the beginning. What follows are obligations nobody mentions while you are filing: CFE, the turnover declaration due even at zero, the paperwork that comes with EU clients. We have collected them in our guide to micro-entrepreneur surprises — read it as soon as your SIRET arrives.
Rules and amounts in France change. As of publication on 8 August 2026, the information matched the official sources linked in the text. Webinkub accepts no responsibility for legislative changes, or for decisions made on the basis of this material. Before filing, check the current requirements on the official sites — and if your situation is non-standard, consult an expert-comptable or an avocat.
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