Availability of the official
Verified 01 January 2025 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
If you are permanent official, you can request availability for the following reasons.
FYI
- If you are a probationary public servant, you are not entitled to take an availability.
- If you are contractual, you may be granted unpaid leave for reasons similar to those which allow a regular official to be made available.
You can request availability for personal convenience.
Warning
If you are subject to an undertaking to serve in the Public Service for a minimum period and you plan to exercise, while you are available, a professional activity, whether employed or not, in the private sector, you must have a minimum length of service.
This minimum length of service is set at 4 years since your tenure in the corps for which you made this commitment to serve.
How long is the availability for personal convenience?
Availability for personal convenience is granted for a maximum of 5 years.
No text sets a minimum duration.
Availability is renewable up to a maximum of 10 years for your entire career.
However, since march 29, 2019, if you spend 5 consecutive years on personal availability, you can renew your availability on condition of reinstate first public service for at least 18 months.
Warning
Accumulation of availability for personal suitability with availability for company creation or takeover cannot exceed 5 years if it is 1re period of availability.
How do I request availability for personal convenience?
You must request your lay-off by mail.
A template is available:
Request for the lay-off of an official
It is recommended to make the request by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.
There is no text setting out the time limit within which you must submit your request in advance.
Your employer authority can only object to your request for lay-off because of the service requirements or, possibly, an opinion delivered by the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP).
However, it may require you to meet a 3-month notice before leaving on standby.
If your administration does not reply to your request for lay-off within 2 months of the date of receipt of your request, it shall be deemed to have been accepted.
Is availability for personal convenience compensated?
You are no longer paid by your employer's administration for the duration of your availability.
However, you can carry out a professional activity while you are available.
The professional activity may be any gainful activity, whether employed or self-employed, carried out on a full-time or part-time basis.
This may be a contract activity in the public service (with an employer administration other than your employer administration as a public servant) or an activity in the private sector.
If the activity is carried out in the private sector, you must inform your employer administration.
This activity must be compatible with your functions in the previous 3 years.
What are the career effects of availability for personal suitability?
Progress
While you are available, you cease to enjoy your rights to advancement in step or grade.
However, if you are or have been on standby for personal convenience since september 7, 2018 and if you are or have been in a professional activity, you retain your rights to advancement in step and grade for up to 5 years if one of the following 2 conditions is met:
- If you are in paid employment (in the private or public sector), it represents a working time of at least 600 hours per year.
- If you are self-employed, it provides you with an annual gross income of at least €7,128.
If you were on personal leave prior to September 7, 2018, your leave periods were not considered for advancement.
In order to retain your rights to advancement in step and grade, you must submit to your administration the supporting documents for your activity by 31 May of each year following 1er the day you lay off.
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Employed activity
You must provide your administration with copies of your salary slips and your employment contract.
If you are working abroad, these documents must be accompanied by their translation into French by a certified translator.
Self-employed activity
You must submit the following documents to your administration:
- Proof of registration of your activity in the National company Register or in theUrssafUrssaf : Union for the recovery of social security contributions and family allowances
- A copy of your tax notice or any certified accounting evidence that your business provides you with gross annual income of at least €7,128.
If you are working abroad, these documents must be accompanied by their translation into French by a certified translator.
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Employed activity
You must provide your administration with copies of your salary slips and your employment contract.
If you are working abroad, these documents must be accompanied by their translation into French by a certified translator.
Self-employed activity
You must submit the following documents to your administration:
- Proof of registration of your activity in the National company Register or in theUrssafUrssaf : Union for the recovery of social security contributions and family allowances
- A copy of your tax notice or any certified accounting evidence that your business provides you with gross annual income of at least €7,128.
If you are working abroad, these documents must be accompanied by their translation into French by a certified translator.
If the advancement in your rank is subject to the prior occupation of certain jobs or to the prior exercise of certain functions, your period of activity may be taken into account to fulfill this condition.
Your business must be comparable in nature or level of responsibility to those jobs and functions.
It's the special status your body which defines the conditions under which this professional activity can be taken into account.
Leave
While you are available, you can no longer take the following holidays:
- Annual leave and enhanced leave
- Regular, long-term or long-term sick leave
- Leave for temporary invalidity attributable to service (Citis)
- Maternity or adoption leave
- Leave for birth or adoption
- Paternity and childcare leave
- Vocational training leave
- Leave for validation of professional experience
- Skills Check Leave
- Family Solidarity Leave
- Caregiver leave
- Leave for union training
- Parental leave.
Social protection
Your social protection varies depending on whether you are gainfully employed or not:
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You are not engaged in any other activity or you are engaged in unpaid activity
You continue to benefit, for 1 year, in case of sickness or maternity, daily allowances and reimbursement of your medical expenses.
Your administration pays the per diems.
At the end of the one-year period, you must request the universal disease protection (Puma).
You are engaged in another paid activity
If you are gainfully employed, you are covered by the social protection scheme of your new occupation.
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You are not engaged in any other activity or you are engaged in unpaid activity
You continue to benefit, for 1 year, in case of sickness or maternity, daily allowances and reimbursement of your medical expenses.
Your administration pays the per diems.
At the end of the one-year period, you must request the universal disease protection (Puma).
You are engaged in another paid activity
If you are gainfully employed, you are covered by the social protection scheme of your new occupation.
Retirement
Your periods of availability are not taken into account for your public servant retirement.
However, if you are engaged in another gainful occupation while you are available, you will be entitled to a pension from the pension scheme under which that occupation is carried out.
How is the official reinstated when he or she becomes available for personal reasons?
At least 3 months before the end of your current availability period, you must request renewal of your availability or your reintegration into your original body.
If you are seeking reinstatement and your duties require special health conditions, your reinstatement is subject to a medical fitness check by a licensed medical practitioner and, if necessary, by the medical advice.
Your reintegration is by right, i.e. your administration cannot refuse it if you meet the following conditions:
- Your duties require special health conditions and you are fit.
- You have respected during your availability obligations which are binding on a staff member even outside the service.
Your reinstatement conditions vary depending on whether you are fit to perform your duties:
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Ability to resume function
You must be reinstated to one of the first 3 vacancies corresponding to your grade.
If you apply for early reinstatement before the date on which your availability was originally scheduled to end, you shall be kept on standby until your reinstatement at one of the first three vacancies corresponding to your grade.
If you turn down 3 job offers in turn, you can be dismissed after the HEADINGHEADING : Joint Administrative Commission.
If you are kept on leave because there is no vacant job, you are considered to be involuntarily deprived of employment until your reintegration, provided that you have requested your reintegration at least 3 months in advance.
If you have not applied for reinstatement at least 3 months in advance, you are not considered to be involuntarily unemployed until 3 months after the date of your application for reinstatement.
Inability to resume work
If you are unfit to resume your previous duties, you are reclassified on a job adapted to your state of health or office availability or, in the event of permanent incapacity for the performance of any duties, retired.
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Ability to resume function
You must be reinstated to one of the first 3 vacancies corresponding to your grade.
If you apply for early reinstatement before the date on which your availability was originally scheduled to end, you shall be kept on standby until your reinstatement at one of the first three vacancies corresponding to your grade.
If you turn down 3 job offers in turn, you can be dismissed after the HEADINGHEADING : Joint Administrative Commission.
If you are kept on leave because there is no vacant job, you are considered to be involuntarily deprived of employment until your reintegration, provided that you have requested your reintegration at least 3 months in advance.
If you have not applied for reinstatement at least 3 months in advance, you are not considered to be involuntarily unemployed until 3 months after the date of your application for reinstatement.
Inability to resume work
If you are unfit to resume your previous duties, you are reclassified on a job adapted to your state of health or office availability or, in the event of permanent incapacity for the performance of any duties, retired.