Set 04 · Resignation · Resignation Letters
Certificate of Employment, requested.
The experience certificate is the document that proves you did the job, and every future employer, embassy and licensing body will ask for it. Employers delay it, issue vague versions, or forget entirely — and by then you have left and have no leverage. Three samples: the request at resignation, the follow-up after silence, and a request years later.
SamplesThree, complete
FormatsDOCX and PDF
ReadingFree, no signup
Also calledExperience certificate, COE
Sample OneSent with the notice letter
The right moment to ask is while you still work there. This letter goes with the resignation and specifies exactly what the certificate should contain.
12 August 2026
The Human Resources Manager
Nishat Textile Mills
Lahore
Request for experience certificate — Bilal Ahmed, Employee ID 4471
Dear Sir/Madam,
Further to my resignation letter dated 12 August 2026, I would be grateful to receive an experience certificate on company letterhead before my final working day of 11 September 2026.
For your convenience, the details are: Bilal Ahmed, Employee ID 4471, employed from 4 April 2022 to 11 September 2026 as Senior Accountant in the Finance Department, reporting to the Finance Manager.
If it is possible for the certificate to note my principal responsibilities — month-end close for three entities, accounts payable, and sales and income tax filing — that would be helpful for future applications. I understand if your standard format does not allow it.
I would also be grateful for confirmation of my final settlement, including leave encashment, and the date on which it will be processed.
Yours faithfully,
Bilal Ahmed
Why this one works
- It asks before leaving, not after. While you are still an employee, HR is responsive. Two weeks after you go, you are an administrative task.
- All the details are supplied. Name, ID, exact dates, title, department, reporting line. A certificate is issued faster when nobody has to look anything up.
- It asks for responsibilities to be included. A bare certificate confirms only dates. One naming your duties is far more useful for embassies and licensing bodies.
- It gives them an exit. "I understand if your standard format does not allow it" prevents the request being ignored as impossible.
- The settlement is raised in the same letter. Both go through HR and both are easier to chase together.
Sample TwoSix weeks after leaving · Nothing received
Left, waited, heard nothing. Firm, factual, with a reason for urgency and a clear next step.
12 August 2026
The Human Resources Manager
Packages Limited
Lahore
Second request — experience certificate, Nadia Aslam (ID 8871), left 28 June 2026
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wrote on 24 June 2026 requesting an experience certificate for my employment with Packages Limited, and again by email to Ms. Farah Iqbal on 15 July 2026. I have not yet received a response and am writing once more.
The details are: Nadia Aslam, Employee ID 8871, employed 12 July 2016 to 28 June 2026 as Assistant Manager, Finance. My final settlement was received on 10 July 2026, so I understand my file to be closed.
I need the certificate for an ongoing job application which requires proof of employment history, and for an ACCA membership verification with a deadline of 30 September 2026.
I would be grateful for the certificate, or for an indication of when it can be issued, within the next two weeks. If there is a form I should complete or a fee payable, please let me know and I will attend to it immediately.
Yours faithfully,
Nadia Aslam
Why this one works
- Previous attempts are dated and named. Two prior contacts with dates and a person. This establishes a record and makes the request harder to lose again.
- The settlement is mentioned. Confirming her file is closed removes the most common reason certificates are withheld — an unresolved account.
- The reason has a deadline. "ACCA verification by 30 September" converts a request into something with a consequence, which moves it up the queue.
- It offers to complete a form or pay a fee. Some organisations have a process nobody told her about, and offering to follow it removes the last excuse.
- "Second request" is in the subject line. Factual, and it signals persistence without hostility.
Sample ThreeFour years on · For a visa application
Needing proof of employment from a job you left years ago, where nobody remembers you and your manager has gone.
12 August 2026
The Human Resources Department
Ziauddin Hospital
Karachi
Request for experience certificate — Faisal Mehmood, Physiotherapist, 2017 — 2021
Dear Sir/Madam,
I was employed at Ziauddin Hospital as a Physiotherapist in the Department of Rehabilitation from 6 March 2017 to 14 May 2021. I am writing to request an experience certificate covering that period.
I require it for a Dubai Health Authority licence renewal, which asks for verified employment history for the past ten years. The submission is due by 15 October 2026.
I appreciate that some time has passed. My employee ID was 22-6614, my supervisor was Dr. Nasir Ahmed (Head of Rehabilitation at the time), and I have attached a copy of my appointment letter and my final salary slip from May 2021 to assist in locating the record.
If the certificate can be issued directly to me by email in the first instance, with the original to follow by post, that would be very helpful given the deadline. I am happy to pay any administrative charge and to complete any form required.
Yours faithfully,
Faisal Mehmood
Enclosed: copy of appointment letter (2017) · copy of final salary slip (May 2021)
Why this one works
- Evidence is attached. Appointment letter and final salary slip. After four years the record may be archived, and these make it findable rather than a research task.
- The former supervisor is named with his title at the time. Departments change; naming the person and their then-role helps whoever is searching.
- The regulatory reason is specific. DHA licence renewal with a date. Institutional HR responds far better to a named external requirement than to a personal one.
- Email first, original to follow. A practical two-step that respects the deadline without asking them to skip their process.
- It offers to pay. Some hospitals charge for archived record retrieval, and offering first avoids a delay while they decide how to raise it.
Why it matters more than you think
An experience certificate feels like a formality until the moment you cannot produce one. Then it blocks things.
- Employers verify employment history, and increasingly ask for documentation rather than a phone call.
- Embassies and visa processes — particularly Gulf employment visas — require certified proof of employment for specified periods.
- Professional bodies — PEC, PNC, PMDC, ACCA, ICAP, DHA, SCFHS — require verified experience for registration, renewal and category upgrades.
- Higher education admissions frequently ask for it where work experience is a criterion.
- Banks ask for it for certain loan and account categories.
And it becomes progressively harder to obtain. People leave, departments reorganise, records are archived, companies close. The certificate you did not collect on your last day may take three months to reconstruct in five years, and sometimes cannot be.
What it should contain
A useful certificate has six elements. Many employers issue only the first three, so ask for the rest explicitly.
- Company letterhead, with an authorised signature, designation and company stamp.
- Your full name as it appears on your CNIC or passport, and employee ID.
- Exact employment dates, day-month-year for both start and end.
- Job title or titles, with the dates of any change.
- Principal responsibilities, two or three lines.
- Nature of separation — "resigned" or "left on completion of contract" — and ideally a line confirming satisfactory conduct.
If your title changed during your employment, ask for both to be listed with their dates. A certificate showing only your final title loses the progression, which is often the most valuable thing about the record.
How to actually get it
The single most useful piece of advice: ask while you are still employed there. Send the request with your resignation letter and ask for the certificate before your final day. Once you have gone, you are outside the system and every request is a favour.
If that moment has passed:
- Supply every detail yourself — name, ID, exact dates, title, department, supervisor. Never make them research you.
- Attach evidence if time has passed. Appointment letter, salary slip, payslips, old email, ID card copy.
- Give a specific external reason and a deadline. Visa, licence renewal, membership verification. Institutional HR moves for external deadlines.
- Write to HR, not your old manager, who has probably moved on and has no authority to issue it anyway.
- Offer to pay any charge or complete any form.
- Keep a copy forever, scanned, in more than one place. And collect one from every job as you leave it, even when you have no immediate use for it.
Ask for it before you leave.
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The people above are illustrative examples written for teaching purposes.
Names, employers, registration numbers and figures are invented and should not be copied
into a real application — use them as a shape to pour your own verified numbers into.