Leaving a permanent job in France to start a business: the 4 options compared

The way you leave your permanent contract (CDI, contrat à durée indéterminée) decides three things that no choice of legal structure will make up for: your right to unemployment benefit, the capital or income your project will have to live on, and whether you can turn back. Since 1 September 2026 the balance between these routes has shifted, because a negotiated termination now opens a shorter benefit period. This article compares the four exit routes; the overall project timeline is covered in our complete path from employee to founder.

Quick answer. Leaving a French permanent contract (CDI) to start a business involves four routes: a plain resignation (no benefit), a career-change resignation (benefit if 1,300 days worked over 60 months, prior career advice and project certified by Transitions Pro), a negotiated termination (benefit capped at 15 months under 55 since 1 September 2026) or business-creation leave (guaranteed return, no benefit).

The four ways to leave a French permanent contract and start a business are a plain resignation, a career-change resignation, a negotiated termination and leave (or part-time work) for business creation or takeover. They differ in whether the employer must agree, in access to the unemployment benefit known as ARE (allocation d'aide au retour à l'emploi) and in whether you can get your job back.

• A plain resignation (démission) is the termination of the CDI at the employee's initiative, with no reason to give and no employer approval needed.
• A career-change resignation (démission-reconversion) is a resignation for a professional project that opens ARE rights when the regional joint committee Transitions Pro recognises the project as "genuine and serious" (réel et sérieux).
• A negotiated termination (rupture conventionnelle) is a termination of the CDI agreed between employer and employee and approved by the labour administration (DREETS).
• Business-creation leave (congé pour création ou reprise d'entreprise) is a suspension of the employment contract that lets you launch your business and then return to the company.

A resignation to start a business opens unemployment benefit only through the career-change resignation scheme, in force since 1 November 2019. A plain resignation, even one motivated by a business project, is not an involuntary loss of employment: France Travail, the public employment service, does not pay ARE.

After 121 days of unpaid unemployment, a resigning employee can ask the regional joint body of France Travail (instance paritaire régionale, IPR) to review their situation. The IPR looks at efforts to find work, short-term jobs or training, and may grant the benefit from day 122.

A safety net exists if the business fails: a resignation followed by a business whose activity stops for reasons beyond your control is treated as a legitimate resignation. The business must have completed the legal publication formalities, you must not have claimed ARE after resigning, and you must register as a jobseeker within twelve months extended by the length of the business activity, up to a maximum of three years after the end of the employment contract that preceded the business.

A plain resignation also means serving the notice period set by the collective agreement, the contract or local practice, unless you are released from it; our article on the length of resignation notice sets out these rules.

Our view. Do not build your financing plan on the 121-day review. The IPR looks first at efforts to return to employment, which fits poorly with a business-creation project. If you resign without the career-change scheme, assume your personal savings must cover the launch phase.

The career-change resignation is the only way to resign from a CDI to start a business while receiving ARE, under three cumulative conditions: 1,300 days worked in the 60 months before the contract ends, career development advice (CEP, conseil en évolution professionnelle) requested before resigning, and a project certified as "genuine and serious" by Transitions Pro. The order of the steps is a substantive condition, not a formality.

1. Count your days worked. The 1,300 days are assessed over the last 60 months, with one or several employers, and you must hold a CDI when you resign.
2. Request the CEP before sending any resignation letter. Career development advice is free support provided by a regional operator appointed by France Compétences; requested after resigning, it makes the project inadmissible.
3. Build the business-creation file. For a creation or takeover project, Transitions Pro reviews in particular the market characteristics, the market study, the three-year financing plan and the summary document drawn up by the CEP adviser.
4. Obtain the certification. If refused with reasons, you have two months from notification to file an informal appeal (recours gracieux) and complete the file.
5. Resign, then register with France Travail within six months of notification of the favourable decision.
6. Choose between continued ARE and ARCE once your rights are open, like any benefit claimant starting a business.
7. Keep evidence of your steps. France Travail checks that they are real no later than six months after your rights open; without justification or legitimate reason, the penalty is removal from the jobseeker register for four months and loss of benefit for the same period.

In practice. The three-year financing plan Transitions Pro asks for is the same document your bank and any partners will expect. Building it once, properly, with a detailed financial forecast, avoids presenting two conflicting versions of the same project.

Since 1 September 2026, an individual negotiated termination opens a maximum ARE duration of 15 months (456 days) under age 55, against 18 months (548 days) under the standard rules. For a founder eligible for both routes, the career-change resignation therefore offers up to three more months of benefit than a negotiated termination.

This rule comes from amendment no. 2 of 10 April 2026 to the unemployment insurance agreement of 15 November 2024, approved by ministerial order (arrêté) of 19 June 2026. Law no. 2026-470 of 11 June 2026 transposed amendment no. 3 of 25 February 2026 to the framework agreement of 10 November 2023, which sets the same maximum durations of 456 and 624 days.

The date that counts is the contract end date set in the termination agreement, not the signature date. Collective negotiated terminations (rupture conventionnelle collective) are not affected by this cap.

These durations are ceilings: the actual duration depends on your contribution period, applied with a 0.75 coefficient, and cannot be less than 182 days.

Points to watch in 2026. For executives, benefit tapering (dégressivité) comes on top of the cap: under 55, a daily ARE above €92.57 (former salary above roughly €4,940 gross per month) is reduced by up to 30% from the 7th month of benefit, without falling below €92.57 per day. These amounts have not changed since 1 July 2025, as there was no uprating on 1 July 2026. The unemployment insurance agreement of 15 November 2024 runs until 31 December 2028, but the April 2026 amendment shows its rules can change mid-term: check the parameters in force at your contract end date.

A negotiated termination keeps two advantages: it requires no project validation, and it comes with severance pay at least equal to the statutory dismissal indemnity (article L1237-13 of the French Labour Code). The procedure includes a 15-calendar-day withdrawal period after signature, then a 15-working-day approval period; the contract ends at the earliest on the day after approval. The full procedure and the tax treatment of the indemnity are covered in our article on negotiated termination of a CDI.

Benefit does not start the day after you leave: a 7-day waiting period applies, plus a deferral for untaken paid leave (30 days at most) and, if the indemnity exceeds the legal minimum, a specific deferral capped at 150 days. Our article on unemployment benefit after a negotiated termination details this calculation.

On the employer's side, the specific employer contribution on negotiated termination indemnities rose from 30% to 40% for terminations whose end date falls after 1 January 2026 (article 21 of the 2026 Social Security Financing Act). Asking for a negotiated termination therefore costs your employer more than a year ago, which weighs on the negotiation.

In practice: worked example (illustrative). Take a 38-year-old employee whose daily ARE would be €60 and who starts the business as soon as rights open. With 548 days of rights, the rights capital reaches €32,880 and ARCE (60% of remaining rights, before the 3% deduction towards supplementary pensions) €19,728. With the 456-day cap on negotiated terminations, rights fall to €27,360 and ARCE to €16,416, i.e. €3,312 less (about 17%). With continued ARE, the gap is 92 days of benefit, i.e. €5,520 at most. The negotiated severance pay should therefore be weighed against this gap, not treated as a net gain.

Business-creation leave, provided for in articles L3142-105 et seq. of the French Labour Code, suspends the CDI for one year, renewable once in the absence of a collective agreement, and guarantees a return to your previous job or a similar one with at least equivalent pay. It opens no ARE rights, since the contract is not terminated, and the employer in principle pays no salary during the suspension.

In the absence of a collective agreement, the rules are as follows:

• 24 months' length of service in the company, consecutive or not;
• a request sent at least two months before departure, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or hand-delivered against a receipt;
• a reply from the employer within 30 days, failing which agreement is deemed given;
• a possible deferral of the departure of up to six months from the request.

In companies with fewer than 300 employees, the employer may refuse the leave or part-time arrangement, after consulting the works council (comité social et économique), if it considers that the absence would harm the proper running of the business. This reasoned refusal can be challenged directly before the employment tribunal (conseil de prud'hommes) under the expedited procedure on the merits.

The employee informs the employer, at least three months before the end of the leave, whether they intend to return or to terminate the contract. If they choose to leave, they are released from notice. Part-time work for business creation follows the same logic while keeping part of the salary, with a return to full time and at least equivalent pay at the end.

During the first year of activity, the employer cannot enforce an exclusivity clause against you (article L1222-5 of the French Labour Code), but the duty of loyalty remains; our article on the exclusivity clause and the duty of loyalty for employee founders explains its limits.

The underestimated risk. Terminating your contract at the end of business-creation leave amounts to resigning: no ARE is due at that point. In addition, days of leave are not days worked; following business-creation leave with a career-change resignation can take you below the threshold of 1,300 days over 60 months. Have this count checked before choosing the leave if you plan to rely on ARE afterwards.

The right exit route depends on three variables: your employer's attitude, your eligibility for the career-change resignation and your project's cash needs. The table below is a starting point, not an automatic decision.

Our view. A negotiated termination is no longer automatically the most comfortable route. For a founder under 55 eligible for both schemes, the career-change resignation brings three more months of ARE, at the cost of a solid file and a longer preparation time. A negotiated termination remains relevant when the negotiated severance pay exceeds the benefit gap, or when the project timeline cannot wait for a Transitions Pro decision. We recommend costing both scenarios in euros, over twelve to eighteen months, before opening the discussion with your employer. This article is for information; a decision requires a review of your contract, your rights and your project against the rules in force.

The choice between continued ARE and ARCE comes next. ARCE (aide à la reprise ou à la création d'entreprise) pays 60% of your remaining rights in two instalments (half at the start, the balance six months later if the business is still running) and requires you to have obtained ACRE, the start-up contribution relief. For contracts ending since 1 April 2025, combining ARE with self-employed activity is limited to 60% of the rights remaining at the creation date, extendable by decision of the IPR if the business has generated no pay, dividends included. The detailed trade-off between continued ARE and ARCE has its own article.

• Your days worked over the last 60 months are counted from payslips and employer certificates.
• Your contract and collective agreement have been reread: notice, exclusivity clause, non-compete clause.
• The CEP is requested before any resignation letter if you are aiming for the career-change resignation.
• The market study and three-year financing plan are ready.
• The continued-ARE and ARCE scenarios are simulated with the right rights duration (15 or 18 months under 55).
• The severance pay you hope for is compared with the benefit gap, in euros.
• Your social protection as a future company director is planned, since ARE will no longer cover you afterwards; see our article on unemployment cover for company directors, GSC and ATI.
• The steps after incorporation are planned with a checklist for the first 30 days after registration.

• Only the career-change resignation and the negotiated termination open ARE to an employee leaving a CDI to start a business.
• Since 1 September 2026, ARE after an individual negotiated termination is capped at 15 months under 55, against 18 months under the standard rules.
• The career-change resignation requires 1,300 days worked over 60 months, a CEP requested before resigning and a Transitions Pro certification.
• Business-creation leave guarantees a return to the company but opens no ARE rights.
• The employer contribution on negotiated termination indemnities has been 40% since 1 January 2026: anticipate your employer's reaction.