Unemployment insurance for embassy and consulate staff in France

Compulsory since 1 April 2020

Staff of foreign embassies and consulates in France, and of permanent delegations and representations to international organisations located in France, have been compulsorily covered by French unemployment insurance since 1 April 2020, provided they are covered by French social security. France Travail, the public employment service, states this on its page for embassy employees and adds that they follow the same rules as any other jobseeker. The employer pays the contributions to the competent URSSAF.

For a locally engaged employee who is French or a permanent resident of France, that is now the normal position. If your mission's payroll still treats unemployment cover as optional, it is working from rules that ended more than six years ago.

The legal basis

The change came with decree no. 2019-797 of 26 July 2019, which set the unemployment insurance rules and brought staff of embassies and consulates located in France, previously governed by Annex IX, into the general regulations (article 2 bis). Unédic confirmed the 1 April 2020 start date in its circular no. 2020-06 of 29 April 2020.

The reform also closed an odd chapter. The employee's unemployment contribution was abolished for most workers in 2018, yet some staff of non-EU embassies were still charged it because they were treated as expatriates. Two ministerial answers published in November 2019 acknowledged the problem, and an ordinance of 21 August 2019 limited the remaining employee contribution to expatriates insured individually.

A note of caution. The unemployment insurance convention now in force dates from 15 November 2024, and we have not located the article that carries over the old article 2 bis. France Travail nevertheless continues to present affiliation as compulsory, and nothing we have read suggests otherwise.

Before 2020: the old Annex IX

Until 31 March 2020, embassy and consulate staff in France came under Annex IX to the unemployment insurance rules, and the mission was not automatically covered. Many websites, and some payroll files, still describe that system as if it applied. It does not, at least not to missions located in France. The current Annex 9 now deals with two other groups only, listed in the table below.

Employees hired before 2020 and still in post did not have to do anything themselves. Coverage started on 1 April 2020 for everyone covered by French social security, whatever their date of hire. What needs checking is the employer's side: did the payroll actually start declaring and paying the contribution from that month? If it did not, the gap should be closed while the employee is still in post, not after a dismissal, when a claim is already waiting on it.

Who is covered, and who is not

Situation	Unemployment insurance
Employee of a foreign embassy or consulate in France, covered by French social security	Compulsory since 1 April 2020
Employee of a permanent delegation or representation to an international organisation in France, covered by French social security	Compulsory since 1 April 2020
Employee of an international organisation located in France, under French social security by specific agreement	Optional membership by the organisation (current Annex 9, article 1.1.1)
Staff of embassies, consulates or international bodies located abroad, and employees of foreign states or public bodies (civil servants excluded)	Individual membership (current Annex 9, article 2.1)
Employee exempt under the Vienna Conventions, or who has opted for the sending state's system	Not addressed by the official pages; to be checked case by case

The last line matters. Coverage follows French social security, so the first question is always whether the employee belongs to the French general scheme. Our page on social security for local staff explains how to answer it.

What the employer has to do

In practical terms, unemployment insurance is part of the ordinary payroll of a mission that employs staff under the general scheme.

• Declare each employee through the monthly DSN, which carries the unemployment contribution with the others.
• Pay the employer contribution to URSSAF at the standard rate of 4,00 % of gross pay. There is no employee contribution for these staff.
• At the end of any contract, give the employee the employer certificate (attestation employeur) used for the general scheme. For contracts ending after 1 April 2020, that is the document France Travail asks for.
• Keep payroll and DSN consistent: a certificate that does not match the monthly declarations is exactly what stalls a claim.

The French version of this subject, with the references, is on our page on assurance chômage for embassy staff.

When things go wrong

The files we see follow a familiar pattern. A driver or a receptionist is let go after twelve years, registers with France Travail, and the claim stalls because no employer certificate exists or because the mission never declared unemployment contributions. Sometimes the mission is simply unaware that the rules changed in 2020.

For the employee, the sensible first step is to register with France Travail anyway and bring the employment contract and every payslip available. We cannot say how France Travail will handle an individual claim where the employer never paid: that is its decision, and it should be asked directly.

For the mission, the answer is to put its declarations in order: rebuild the missing DSN, calculate the contributions due, and issue a certificate that matches the corrected filings. That is regular work for us, and it is far easier before the employee leaves than after. Missions can reach us through our contact form; employees will find more on their rights on our page about working at an embassy in France. France Travail's own page for embassy employees is here (in French).

For the wider picture of what an embassy has to set up as an employer, see our embassy payroll page.