You have received your career statement, set a departure date, and now comes the most concrete step: gathering the documents for your file. The problem is that the list of documents required for retirement varies depending on your professional background, family situation, and the type of departure chosen. Forgetting a document can delay the payment of your first pension by several weeks.
Check your career statement before gathering any supporting documents
Before even looking for your pay slips, open your personal space on the Assurance retraite website or on info-retraite.fr. Your individual situation statement lists all the quarters recorded by your various schemes.
Why start there? Because this statement reveals any gaps. An undeclared seasonal job, a poorly recorded internship, a missing period of unemployment: each anomaly requires you to provide additional proof to correct your career record.
Specifically, if you spot a missing quarter, you will need to produce the corresponding pay slip or an employer’s certificate. For a forgotten unemployment period, the France Travail certificate (formerly Pôle emploi) will serve as proof. It is better to identify these gaps several months before the planned departure date, as obtaining duplicates takes time.
Most online guides simply list the documents required for retirement without emphasizing this preliminary step. Yet, it is the one that prevents the most back-and-forth with your pension fund.
Civil status and identity documents required by all pension funds
Regardless of your scheme (private sector employee, civil servant, self-employed), a common set of documents is systematically requested when submitting the application form.
- Valid identity document: national identity card or passport. A front-and-back copy is sufficient for most online procedures.
- Complete family record book or, failing that, birth certificates of your children. These documents serve to validate the quarters granted for maternity, education, or adoption.
- A bank account statement in your name, necessary for the payment of the pension.
- Your valid residence permit if you are a non-European Union national.
The unique retirement application form (available online at info-retraite.fr) transmits your file to all your schemes. You do not need to send the same documents to each fund separately, which simplifies the process.
Supporting documents related to professional background and career interruptions
This is where the file gets complicated, as each background is different. Did you serve in the military? Your military booklet or the service record will be part of the file. Were you on maternity leave? Daily allowance certificates from Social Security are expected.
Pay slips and employer certificates
Keep your pay slips, especially those from the early years of work. The funds have the data declared by employers, but in case of disagreement over an amount or a quarter, your pay slip is what counts. Pay slips prior to dematerialization are often the most frequently missing and the hardest to reconstruct.
Unemployment and illness certificates
Periods of compensated unemployment validate quarters, provided you can prove it. Request a summary certificate of your rights from France Travail. For long-term sick leave, Social Security can provide a statement of your daily allowances.
Apprenticeship contracts and paid internships
An apprenticeship contract signed before the year 2000 may have been poorly recorded. The contract itself or a certificate from the training company can regularize the situation. For paid internships after 2015, an internship agreement and a pay slip are sufficient.
Early retirement for disability: new documents required since 2025
The rules have recently changed for insured individuals with disabilities. Since the CNAV circular of August 1, 2025, and then the CNAV circular 2026-18 of June 15, 2026, it is no longer necessary to obtain a prior certificate before submitting a request for early liquidation.
In return, the file must be complete upon submission. You must directly gather the proof of disability covering the entire required period:
- MDPH or CDAPH decisions recognizing a degree of incapacity.
- Notifications of disability pension or work accident annuity.
- RQTH certificates for older periods, with the possibility of requesting duplicates in case of loss.
A decree of April 28, 2025, also set a one-year validity for incapacity documents used in the context of early retirement. Check the date of your documents before attaching them to the file.
Common errors that delay pension payments
The primary cause of delays is not a missing document, but an illegible document. A pay slip scanned in low resolution will be rejected. Prefer a correct resolution and ensure that all mentions (name, amount, period) remain legible.
Another common pitfall: submitting your file too late. The official recommendation is to start the application at least six months before the desired departure date. This timeframe allows for correcting any errors on the career statement and retrieving missing documents.
Finally, do not confuse the personal retirement application form with that for survivor’s benefits. The supporting documents differ: the survivor’s benefit application specifically requires the death certificate of the spouse and a recent proof of income.
Ultimately, compiling the file is the most mechanical part of the process, but it is also the one where a single forgotten document can block the entire chain. Reviewing your career statement line by line remains the most valuable action before starting to photocopy anything.