Early retirement for a long career of the employee

Verified 11 April 2025 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

If you started working young person, you can retire front the minimum age of departure normal (set between 62 and 64 years of age depending on your year of birth) if you have a certain period of insurance (all plans combined). We present the conditions to be fulfilled to benefit from this early retirement.

Find in pictures the essential information to know about early retirement for long careers:

Vidéo - How to retire early for a long career?
Credits : Pension insurance

Early retirement for a long career can affect you if you started working before 16, 18, 20 or 21 years.

Your early age of departure will be calculated according to your age at which you start working.

To retire before the legal retirement age, you must have proof of 5 quarters at the start of your activity (or 4 if you were born between 1er October and December 31) and have contributed a number of quarters to all plans.

Early in a career, any type of activity, including military service, can be considered. Departure conditions vary depending on your year of birth and age of departure.

To find out if you can benefit from early retirement for a long career, use our online service “Get my retirement age” available in your personal space on the insuranceretraite.fr.

Which quarters are retained in the period contributed? These are the periods for which you have contributed to a French pension plan. Periods contributed abroad may be retained if an international agreement applies.

Certain periods of contributions paid by the State are also taken into account (vocational training, apprenticeship).

The following may also be considered as contributory quarters:

  • periods of maternity insurance
  • insurance premium quarters allocated under the prevention business account
  • periods of receipt of an invalidity pension up to a maximum of two quarters.

And up to 4 quarters for each of the following categories:

  • periods covered by the old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents and the old-age insurance for carers
  • periods of national service
  • periods of unemployment for which compensation is payable
  • periods of sickness and industrial injury compensation for temporary incapacity.

What steps should be taken? First of all, check your career statement on our website lassuranceretraiture.fr to make sure that all the elements of your professional life appear. If you notice an error or an oversight, you can request an update from age 55.

Once your career statement is updated and you meet the requirements, you can download your certificate of early retirement for a long career using the online service "Get my retirement age", available on your personal space.

Depending on your retirement date, you will receive either a temporary or a final proof of departure.

5 months before your retirement, you can use the online service “Request my retirement” to send us your request.

For more information on retiring for a long career, visit the insuranceretratraite.fr.

To qualify for early retirement for a long career, you must meet the following conditions:

  • Starting work before 16, 18, 20 or 21 years of age
  • And have a specified number of pension insurance quarters contributors (all plans combined), a number of which were before 16, 18, 20 or 21 years of age.

You can find the insurance term conditions to be fulfilled according to your personal situation using the following simulator:

Whether you are concerned about early retirement for a long career

Before any request, make sure you qualify for early retirement for a long career by logging into your personal space on the Pension Insurance website (use the service Getting my retirement age).

Pension Insurance - Personal Space

If you don't have internet, you can also contact your pension fund.

Who shall I contact

If you meet the requirements, you can, from your personal space, make a single application pension plan valid with all your pension plans.

Please note

Don't stop working until you get confirming your status with all your pension plans basic and complementary.

Your early retirement for a long career is calculated under the same conditions any retirement granted to an employee.

You can get a simulation of your pension amount using the service Estimate the amount of my retirement :

Pension Insurance - Personal Space

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

  • Pension insurance - 39 60

    To inform you about your situation, ask a question about your file, access personal information (follow-up of the file, latest payments, etc.).

    By telephone

     39,60 (or 09 71 10 39 60 from a mobile, a box or the foreigner)

    Free service + call price

    Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm