Registering with France Travail as a jobseeker: steps, documents and first appointment

Step by step

1. Register without waiting for all your documents. Your registration date is the day you register: if you delay, your benefit may start later. You can register from the day after your contract ends, even before you receive your employer certificate, and keep the form as a draft for 15 days.
2. Fill in your personal details. On francetravail.fr, click Register, re-register, then enter your civil status, address, family situation and social security number. You need an email address: France Travail sends you a link to confirm it, gives you your France Travail ID number and asks you to choose a password.
3. Claim your benefit in the same form. The second step is the benefit claim: declare all your contracts and events (training, parental leave, sick leave, pension), then your bank details. If you are re-registering, what France Travail already knows is pre-filled: check it and add any missing periods of work.
4. Answer the questionnaire about your situation. Your answers about your plans and personal situation are used to choose the organisation that will support you: France Travail, Cap emploi, the Mission locale or the département council. Then check the summary before confirming: it also sets out your rights and obligations.
5. Book your first appointment. If you are referred to France Travail or Cap emploi, you choose the date and time of your first interview yourself at the end of registration; otherwise, the organisation supporting you will contact you. This interview must take place no later than 30 days after you register.
6. Send the documents requested. At the end, France Travail tells you which documents to send. Send them quickly, scanned or photographed, from your personal space (Mes échanges et documents, then Transmettre et suivre un document) or the Mon espace app: a missing document slows down the review of your benefit.
7. Sign your commitment contract. The commitment contract is prepared at the first interview: it sets out your plan, your actions and the support you will get, with an indicative target of around 15 hours of job-search activity a week, adjusted with your adviser. You will find it in your personal space, under Mon projet.
8. Update your situation every month. Your registration is renewed every month through the monthly update (actualisation), from the 28th to the 15th of the following month, and the first one covers the month you registered: if you register on 21 January, for example, you do your update between 28 January and 15 February. If you have no benefit entitlement and are waiting for your first commitment contract, you don't need to do it yet.

Documents to prepare

• Your carte Vitale or social security number (essential)
• An ID document and proof of address; for non-Europeans, a residence permit that allows you to work
• Your employer certificates and latest payslips (activity certificates if you were self-employed)
• Any sick notes covering the period
• Your CV and diplomas
• Bank details (RIB) in your name to receive your benefit

Pitfalls to avoid

• Waiting for the employer certificate before registering: you push back your registration date, and so the start of your benefit.
• Letting more than 12 months pass after the contract ends: you may no longer be able to claim benefit for that contract (the deadline can be extended, for example for illness).
• Missing an appointment without a valid reason: you risk a sanction, up to removal from the register. France Travail agrees to postpone two appointments without proof if you ask before the time.
• Getting your social security number wrong or leaving out a situation (sick leave, disability pension, company directorship): your benefit claim is delayed or handled incorrectly.
• Performing arts workers (intermittents du spectacle): register once you have reached 507 hours in the sector, otherwise you may fall under the general scheme.