PONTAVIA

Legal hiring for France's shortage occupations

France needs the people The law already lets you hire them

PONTAVIA turns France's shortage-occupation exemption into a working hiring process — sourcing in francophone Africa, the work permit, the visa, arrival and the first months on the job — inside one platform, with one price and one accountable partner

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  • Built on French procedure
  • Servers located in the EU
  • The candidate never pays

Shortage check

See the hiring route before you commit to anything

live

The shortage is not an opinion, it is a published figure

France counts its own labour gap every year, and the count keeps pointing in the same direction — the roles that hold up care, construction, hospitality, farming and transport are the hardest ones to fill

0

home care jobs to be filled by 2030, of which around 98,000 are new positions

DARES and France Stratégie

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positions once elderly-care roles are counted alongside home care

DARES and France Stratégie

0

vacancies a year that have to be filled across the economy because of retirements

DARES and France Stratégie

Home care assistants — share of hiring projects that are hard to fill
France Travail, BMO 2025
80%
Construction — share of hiring projects that are hard to fill
France Travail, BMO 2026
65%

Restaurants and hotels, agriculture, transport and logistics and a range of technical trades sit on the same official list — the cause is structural, and a decade of demographics will not reverse it on its own

The state has already opened the door

Hiring someone from outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland has always been legal — the difficulty was never permission, it was procedure. For occupations on the shortage list, the heaviest requirement of that procedure is simply waived

step 1
Advertise the vacancy for three weeks
The principle of opposabilité de la situation de l'emploi applies in full
step 2
Prove no local candidate was found
The employer carries the burden of demonstrating the search
step 3
Only then apply for the work permit
Filed through the government platform ANEF
step 4
Wait for the prefecture
Administrative processing runs on its own timetable
Before filing: three weeks of advertising Evidence burden: on the employer
waived
step 1
Advertise the vacancy for three weeks
The opposabilité requirement does not apply to shortage occupations
waived
step 2
Prove no local candidate was found
No proof of an unsuccessful local search is required
step 1
Apply for the work permit directly
Filed through ANEF as soon as the dossier is complete
step 2
Prefecture decision
A faster route, with the same legal standing
Before filing: nothing Evidence burden: removed by the exemption

The list is republished every year and differs from region to region — for an ordinary employer that is one more complication, for our engine it is the map. And we are straight about the limit of what we control: the decision stays with the prefecture, so our job is a dossier that leaves no reason to refuse

Four steps, and one partner accountable for all of them

Today sourcing, the permit, the visa and the arrival are handled by four different intermediaries, and the employer is left to stitch the process together — we put the whole span under one roof, with one price

1
Describe the need

Register, pass verification on your Kbis and URSSAF certificate, then describe the role, the region and the contract — the platform tells you straight away which hiring route you are on

2
Meet a vetted candidate

We match people from our own network in francophone Africa, checked in advance on qualifications, experience, level of French and motivation — you interview online and choose

3
Build the dossier

The engine assembles the work-permit file, applies the right exemption, validates every document against three levels of checks and supports the submission through ANEF

4
Arrival and first months

Relocation, language onboarding and structured support after arrival, because a calm start is what keeps a person in the job and keeps your vacancy filled

scenario A
The candidate is abroad

The full introduction procedure applies, with the work permit and the visa handled end to end, and relocation prepared before departure

Dossier preparation3–5 days
Administrative stagearound 3–6 months
scenario B
The candidate is already in France

Where the person already holds the right to work, hiring follows the accelerated path and the same engine builds a lighter dossier

Dossier preparation3–5 days
Administrative stagearound 1–3 months

One product covers both situations, and you always know which one you are in before you commit

Rules as data, never as code

The shortage list is republished every year and differs by region, so any system that hard-codes it is out of date within twelve months. Ours holds French procedure as versioned, effective-dated data — a case opened in March is judged by the rules that were in force in March, and it stays explicable long after the law moves on

The engine answers four questions, in order
1
Does the exemption apply?
Occupation, region and date, checked against the version of the shortage list in force
2
Which permit is sought?
A CDI leads to the salarié permit, a CDD to travailleur temporaire
3
Which scenario are we in?
Candidate abroad, meaning introduction and a visa, or already in France with the right to work
4
What must the dossier contain?
The document requirement list for exactly this combination, and nothing beyond it
The output is not a yes or a no — it is a determination: the applicable regime, the reasons behind it, the requirement list, the expected timeline and the points where a human has to decide

Effective dating

Every rule and every list entry carries a start date and, where it applies, an end date — history stays readable

Decision audit trail

Each determination stores the facts it used, the rule versions it applied and the legal reference it relies on

Human sign-off

A specialist reviews every dossier before submission — automation removes the repetition, not the accountability

Three levels of validation

Presence, validity and consistency, so the names, the SIREN, the occupation and the salary agree across every document

A closer look at the product

Four of the screens an employer works with, from the first determination to the day the worker starts — each one exists so that one person can complete one step without having to understand the whole procedure

app.pontavia-group.com / employer workspace
Résidence Les Oliviers
vacancies / VAC-2481 / determination
Aide-soignant, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Exemption applies
Occupation code
Aide-soignantROME J1501
Applicable regime
Shortage routeopposabilité waived
Permit sought
salariécontract CDI
Legal reference
L.414-13 CESEDAarrêté 21.05.2025
Documents required
6 itemsemployer 3, candidate 3
Rule version
2025.2effective from 22.05.2025
Employment contract or promise of employment
employer · signed by both parties
Verified
Kbis company registration
employer · issued within 3 months
Verified
URSSAF certificate of good standing
employer · no older than 6 months
In review
vacancies / VAC-2481 / shortlist
4 verified candidates matched
Sourced in Morocco and Senegal
A·D
A. Diallo
Aide-soignante, 6 years · French C1 · available from 12.11
94
match score
Y·B
Y. Benali
Aide-soignant, 4 years · French B2 · available from 03.11
89
match score
M·T
M. Traoré
Aide à domicile, 8 years · French B2 · available from 20.11
81
match score
I·N
I. Ndiaye
Aide-soignant, 3 years · French B2 · available from 05.12
76
match score
Every profile is checked on qualifications, experience and level of French before it reaches you
cases / CASE-1174 / dossier
Work-permit dossier — A. Diallo, aide-soignante
1 item blocking
Completeness score

The dossier reaches "ready for submission" only when every requirement is present, valid and consistent, and an operator has signed it off

Employment contract, CDI
presence ok · validity ok · consistency ok
Verified
Kbis registration
SIREN matches the contract
Verified
Candidate passport
valid beyond the intended stay
Verified
Diploma and experience certificates
translation attached
Verified
Candidate consent for this employer
granular · revocable
Verified
URSSAF certificate of good standing
issued 14 months ago · exceeds the 6-month window
Replace
cases / CASE-1174 / timeline
From first enquiry to the first day at work
Stage 4 of 7
Employer verified
Kbis and URSSAF checked · 08.09
Determination issued
Shortage route, salarié permit · 08.09
Candidate selected after interview
A. Diallo · 16.09
Dossier assembly
86% complete · one document to replace
Operator sign-off and submission through ANEF
scheduled once the score is complete
Administrative stage and visa
tracked with acknowledgements and requests recorded
Arrival, onboarding and first day at work
relocation and language plan attached

Screens shown with illustrative data — the platform files nothing to government systems on its own, and a specialist reviews every dossier before it is submitted

What changes for the employer

An empty shift in a care home or a restaurant is a direct loss — unfilled hours, missed revenue and pressure on everyone who stayed. Cutting the hiring effort from months to weeks pays for our fee before the new person works a single day

What it costs youToday, handled in-houseWith PONTAVIA
Employer time per foreign hire35–40 hours4–5 hours
Work-permit dossier preparation3–4 weeks3–5 days
Dossiers correct on first submissionunpredictabletarget of 90% and above
Cost of hiring internationallyaround €6,000–12,000 through traditional agenciesaround €3,700 for the full service
Time to fill a shortage vacancythe position stays empty for monthsa predictable, supported timeline you can plan around
Employer hours spent on one foreign hire
In-house today35–40 hours
With PONTAVIA4–5 hours
Days to prepare the work-permit dossier
In-house today21–28 days
With PONTAVIA3–5 days

Our price covers the PONTAVIA service. Government charges are shown to you in full and in advance, because a surprise on an invoice is exactly what employers fear most about hiring from abroad

Where we begin

We would rather do one corridor properly than five badly, so the first version of the service is deliberately narrow — a single sector, two source countries and one French region

sector

Care

Where the shortage is most acute, working with home-services companies operating the prestataire model and with institutions for the elderly

source countries

Morocco and Senegal

Two countries where our sourcing relationships and vetting channels already run, and where French is spoken by the people we place

region

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Chosen for a confirmed shortage in the target occupations, so the exemption applies to our first hires from the outset

The three functions of a legal hire, one owner each

A hire like this needs three things that rarely sit in the same room — someone who knows where to find people, someone who makes it legally clean, and someone who can speak to the state in its own language

Felibien Ndintore.

Director of Sourcing and Integration

Owns where we find people and how they settle in France — the proprietary sourcing network in francophone Africa, candidate verification, relocation and the support that runs through the first months. More than 25 years leading organisations, training and community development across the region, with a record in financial management and multicultural work

25+ years in community developmentSourcing networkKirundi, French, English, Swahili

Ibeawuchi Henrietta Odili

Director of Law and Compliance

Owns the legal framework of the product, the accuracy of every dossier and our compliance and contract work. A practising lawyer with ten years since being called to the bar, specialised in corporate and commercial law, regulatory compliance and dispute resolution, with direct hands-on experience preparing work permits and visa documents for foreign specialists

Barrister at LawCorporate and regulatory complianceWork permits and visas

Akram El Kassad Abdelghaffar

President, Director of Public Affairs

Leads the company and owns how we work with the state and the regions — local authorities, OPCOs and government bodies, and the regional logic that decides which occupation qualifies where. A Doctor of Public Law specialised in administrative law and local-authority finance, with around fifteen years running a prefecture's local-finance and municipal-personnel service

Doctorate in public law15 years in public administrationArabic, French, English, Amazigh

The functions do not overlap, they connect — FeB brings and vets the candidate, Henrietta makes the hire legally clean, and AAEK opens the doors to employers and to the state. What holds the three together is a shared position on legality, transparency and human dignity, and that position shapes the product as much as it shapes the company

What we will not trade away

We move people across a border into work, and the people who do that badly are the reason the whole field is treated with suspicion — so the safeguards are built into the product rather than promised alongside it

The candidate never pays

The basic service is free to the person being hired, and the platform has no mechanism through which a candidate could be charged

Employers are verified first

Kbis registration and a valid URSSAF certificate are checked before any candidate file becomes visible to anyone

Costs are shown in full

Our service fee and the government charges that attach to the hire are both shown before either side commits to anything

Consent belongs to the candidate

A profile is shared with a specific employer only once the candidate has authorised it for that employer, and consent can be withdrawn

Data stays in the EU

Servers are located in the European Union, data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and the protection model is part of the architecture

No special-category data

We collect nothing on health, religion or political opinion, and the product has no fields in which such data could be entered

Tell us about the role you cannot fill

Send us the occupation and the region, and we will come back with the hiring route that applies to you, the documents it would need and a realistic timeline — before you commit to anything

contact@pontavia-group.com
  • We answer in French and in English
  • Servers located in the EU, GDPR built into the design
  • No obligation attaches to an enquiry, and no candidate is contacted until you ask us to