How to create an association in France
Once you have decided to create an association and have figured out what would be the name of your association, you will have to start with preparing a constitution of your association, which will describe how your association will work.
This part is important, and can become a point of conflict if not properly thought, unless it is an association between family members or a couple. As it stands, an association means there have to be at least two people there.
For information, president of an association cannot earn any money from it. Thus, if you are thinking to make an association which will teach, for example, dance or yoga, where you will be the president and earn an income from it, that will not be possible.
To earn money from your work, you can register yourself as an auto-entrepreneur and then act as a service provider for an association.
The other document you will have to prepare is a PV or a procès verbale. A PV is, simply put, a resume of the first meeting you held, where you decided the first steps of your association.
I am attaching guidelines for creating of statuts and PV, to have a support in hand when you will create yours.
Once the two above are ready, you can declare your association either online or by post. To declare online, please follow this link.
If you want to send the information by post, download / fill up / scan / print these two forms: Cerfa n°13973*03 (declaring the association) and Cerfa n°13971*03 (list of members of the management committee).
The above two forms, along with the the constitution of your association (statuts) and the PV need to be send to the Greffe des associations of your department. Follow this link to find out details of the greffe des associations of your locality, including information on how to contact them, in case you are sending the information by post.
You will get a letter after somedays to pay a fees, which at the time of writing this article is 44 euros. And as a last step, you can then check whether your association is visible in the official journal of asssociations.
Lastly, in case your association is taking money from it's members or other donators, think about creating a bank account in the name of your association.
You need someone with you who is proficient in French to help you to do the formalities described above.
Note: it is not mandatory to register an association, and you can act as an unregistered association "de fait". However, such an association will have no legal protection, or right. Hence it is advised to register your asscoation, if you are into any sort of collective activity.
Sourav Choudhury is a social entrepreneur living in France since 2003 and working for the cause of Indian community of France, since 2007. He is founder of multiple projects: the largest social network of the Indian community of France, a French language school for english speaking expatriates, this website, and few other projects.