Experience Certificate Format
Experience certificate and work experience letter format for Indian employers — employer-issued sample, employee request template, and what HR must include.
Experience certificate vs experience letter vs relieving letter
These three get used interchangeably in Indian offices and they are not the same document. An experience certificate (or work experience letter) states what you did: designation, dates, and usually a line on conduct. A relieving letter states that you left cleanly and have no dues pending. An offer or appointment letter is about joining, not leaving.
A background-verification agency wants the experience certificate, because it confirms the role and the dates. HR at your next company wants the relieving letter, because it confirms you are free to join. Most Indian employers issue both, sometimes merged into one document — and if yours merges them, make sure the merged letter contains the dates, the designation and the no-dues line, or it will only satisfy half the check.
You are entitled to ask for both. Companies occasionally treat them as a favour to be withheld during a difficult exit; in practice, a written, polite request that cites your last working day and offers to collect it in person resolves it most of the time.
What must be on it for verification to pass
Company letterhead with the registered address, a reference number and the date of issue. Your full name exactly as it appears in the company's records — a middle name present in one document and absent in another is a real and common verification failure.
Your designation, and if it changed, both designations with dates. Date of joining and date of leaving in DD/MM/YYYY. Department or function. A line describing the nature of work, kept general. A closing line on conduct. Then the signature, name and designation of the signing authority, and the company seal.
What should not be on it: your salary, the reason you left, or any performance rating. Salary on an experience letter anchors your next negotiation before it starts, and a stated reason for leaving is a permanent editorial about you written by someone else.
One practical detail people miss — ask that the letter be issued in a form you can email. A scanned PDF of the signed letterhead is what every verification portal accepts. A physical original you keep in a folder in another city is not usable at 9pm when a portal deadline is running.
How to ask for one without it becoming a negotiation
Ask before your last working day, in writing, in the same thread as your handover. The request that works is specific and small: name the two documents, state your dates, and say what format you need. Vague requests get parked; specific ones get forwarded to whoever prints them.
If you have already left and the company is not responding, escalate in a straight line: reporting manager, then HR business partner, then the HR head, one week apart, all in writing, all polite. Attach your resignation acknowledgement and your no-dues confirmation. Most stalls are administrative rather than deliberate, and a paper trail is what moves an administrative stall.
If the company has shut down or the HR function no longer exists, your fallback stack is: offer letter, appointment letter, payslips, Form 16, PF passbook showing employer contributions, and your bank statement showing salary credits. Most verification agencies accept a combination of these. Keep them from every job — that is the actual lesson here.
For employers: issuing one that does not create liability
Keep it factual. Designation, dates, department, a general description of duties. The moment you add a subjective assessment — 'performance was below expectation' — you have created a document that can be disputed and that will be produced in any future proceeding.
Use a standard template with a reference number so issued certificates are traceable, and route it through one signing authority. Certificates signed by whoever happened to be around are exactly how forged ones enter circulation, and a company that cannot confirm what it issued fails its own verification calls.
Issue it even when the exit was contentious, provided the employee actually worked the dates. Withholding a factual record of employment is a common practice and a poor one — it invites complaints, it does not recover dues, and dues have their own remedies.
Two templates — the certificate, and the request for it
The first is what your employer issues on letterhead. The second is what you send to ask for it.
=========== 1. EXPERIENCE CERTIFICATE (employer issues) ===========
[COMPANY LETTERHEAD]
Ref: [HR/EXP/2026/xxx]
Date: [DD Month YYYY]
TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN
This is to certify that Mr./Ms. [Full Name as per records] was employed
with [Company Name] as [Designation] in the [Department] department from
[DD/MM/YYYY] to [DD/MM/YYYY].
During this tenure, [he/she/they] was responsible for [one general line on
the nature of the work — no metrics, no ratings].
We found [him/her/them] to be sincere, hardworking and professional in
conduct. We wish [him/her/them] success in future endeavours.
For [Company Name]
[Signature]
[Name], [Designation]
[Company seal]
=========== 2. REQUEST EMAIL (employee sends) ===========
Subject: Request for experience certificate and relieving letter —
[Your Name], [Employee ID]
Dear [HR contact],
My last working day at [Company] was [DD Month YYYY]. My handover is
complete and my no-dues clearance was confirmed on [date].
Could I request the following two documents:
1. Experience certificate stating designation and dates of employment
2. Relieving letter
A scanned PDF on letterhead by email is sufficient for my purposes. Please
let me know if anything is pending from my side.
Thank you,
[Your Name] · [Employee ID] · [Personal email] · [Phone]Words the shortlister scans for
Use the ones that are genuinely true of you. Stuffing a keyword you can't defend in the interview costs more than leaving it out.
Mistakes that get this format rejected
Templates built for this
Each link opens the real PDF rendered on sample data — no signup, no email.
Step-by-step
- 1.Ask before your last working dayIn writing, in the handover thread, naming both the experience certificate and the relieving letter.
- 2.Give them your exact detailsFull name as per company records, employee ID, designation, department, date of joining, last working day. Make it a copy-paste job for whoever drafts it.
- 3.Specify the format you needScanned PDF on letterhead, emailed. That is what verification portals accept.
- 4.Check it the day it arrivesName spelling, both dates, designation, letterhead, reference number, signature and seal. Corrections are easy this week and hard next quarter.
- 5.Ask for the relieving letter tooIt is a different document and covers a different question — that you left cleanly with no dues pending.
- 6.File it with the rest of the stackExperience certificate, relieving letter, offer letter, appointment letter, last three payslips, Form 16. One folder, per employer, kept forever.
FAQ
The experience certificate states what you did — designation and dates. The relieving letter states that you left cleanly with no dues pending. Verification agencies usually want the first; your next employer's HR usually wants the second. Ask for both.
It happens, usually during a contentious exit or an unserved notice period. Escalate in writing — manager, HR business partner, HR head — attaching your resignation acknowledgement and no-dues confirmation. Meanwhile assemble the fallback stack: offer letter, payslips, Form 16, PF passbook, salary credits.
No. It adds nothing to verification and it anchors your next salary negotiation before you have said a number. Ask for it to be left out.
Offer and appointment letters, payslips, Form 16, your PF passbook showing that employer's contributions, and bank statements showing salary credits. That combination satisfies most background-verification agencies, and the PF record is particularly strong because it is a third-party government record.
Usually yes — it is the standard opening of an Indian experience certificate. What matters is not the salutation but whether the letter carries designation, both dates, letterhead, signature and seal.
Facts only: full name, designation (both, if it changed), department, joining and leaving dates, one general line on the nature of work, and a conduct line. No ratings, no reason for leaving, no salary — subjective content is what turns a routine document into a disputable one.
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