OPENING A BANK ACCOUNT
In France, there are two types of banks : offline (traditional) and online.

  1. Offline banks (like Crédit Agricole, LCL, Société Générale) have physical offices. They usually charge fees, but it’s easier to open an account with them if you are new to France. You just need to go to a branch with your documents.
  2. Online banks (like Boursorama, Revolut, Fortuneo) are often free (under certain conditions), but they usually require you to already have a French bank account. Some people share referral codes that give you €50–150 as a welcome bonus, so ask around.

In case you are not european it is not likely that you can open a bank account online. Probably you will have to go in person.

In either case, you will need :

  1. Your work contract and proof of student status
  2. ID and VISA
  3. Proof of address

RIB
For many other procedures (including being paid), a “RIB” is asked (what is RIB). A RIB is close to an IBAN — you get your personal one when your bank account is created.

Feedbacks

Charitra’s feedback
Generally, the procedure to open a bank account is to go to the bank and make an appointment to open your account. But this appointment might take a few days/weeks depending on how many slots they have available, but you need the bank account urgently to finish other tasks like getting a contract, rental contract, salary, etc. So, the sooner, the better. When your account is opened, you get the contact of a bank employee who can be considered as your “manager”.

In my case, a friend wrote an email to his manager and got me an appointment for the next day (usually managers give preferences to their customers) The name of this manager is Monsieur Charles Simonetta. He sent me the list of documents I needed to bring to the bank. I was also asked to send a copy via email and they had it all printed when I arrived in the bank. The list of documents are (to the best of my memory) :

1. Passport
2. Visa
3. French phone number (is better, but I guess other active phone numbers would work too but take it with you when you go to the bank. I’m not sure if this number can be changed later.)
4. Address/residence proof (rental contract or hotel bookings. Your name needs to be on the mailbox so that they can deliver your card and/or other documents. If you are staying at a hotel/Airbnb, make sure the reception agrees to receive your mail. If you don’t have your own residence, you could ask your boss for a rental letter for instance, and later change the address. There is also the possibility to collect the card from the bank itself. So don’t worry.)
5. Host convention or convention d’accueil
6. If you have, certificate of scolarité and/or contract from university/Fresnel.

The whole process takes maybe an hour or an hour and a half. They ask you a bunch of questions and fill in the details for you on their computer. Charles Simonetta does not speak English, but he made sure to have a translator in the room present and they both were very nice. They gave me printed notes of how to download the SG app, how to sign in and use it, how to activate the debit card, how to do netbanking, etc. In the end, they sent me the card to my residence. I think it took me like 8-10 working days, although initially they said 5 working days but it was fine as I had some cash with me. After this, I had to go to the bank to get the secret pin to activate my debit card (this can be done by yourself – it requires you to send them an SMS but for some reason it didn’t work for me and I couldn’t speak French on the phone). It can be activated in any SG ATM machine. There is one just outside the bank. I highly recommend this branch of SG at 62 La Canebière, 13001 Marseille. Here are the directions to the bank –
https://goo.gl/maps/6yZJKbR7dVTJcKVu5