A Moroccan employee applying for a bank loan. A remote developer renewing a residency card in Rabat. A foreign company's HR lead getting an unexpected request from their EOR provider. All three eventually run into the same short document: the Moroccan certificate of employment, known locally as an attestation de travail.
An attestation de travail is a short document a Moroccan employer issues confirming that an employee currently works for the company, including job title and start date. It excludes salary details and differs from the certificat de travail, which is issued only once a contract ends.
What is an attestation de travail in Morocco?
The attestation de travail is a brief letter, printed on company letterhead, confirming that someone holds (or held) a specific position with a given employer. It typically states the employee's name, job title, start date, sometimes the contract type (fixed-term or permanent), and closes with a standard administrative phrase, followed by the company stamp and an authorized signature.
Employees request it most often while still employed, not at the end of a contract. That distinction trips up a lot of people, including some employers, and it's exactly what the next section untangles.
Attestation de travail vs certificat de travail: what's the difference?
The two terms get used interchangeably, even by HR staff, though they cover different needs. An attestation de travail is issued while the contract is still active. A certificat de travail closes out the employment relationship and summarizes the period worked.
| Criteria | Attestation de travail | Certificat de travail |
|---|---|---|
| When it's issued | During active employment | At contract end (resignation, dismissal, end of fixed-term contract) |
| Legal basis | No dedicated article; an implied employer duty | Article 72 of the Labour Code |
| Required content | Job title, dates, sometimes contract type | Start date, end date, positions held |
| Issuance deadline | Not fixed by law, "reasonable" | 8 days after contract end |
| Penalty for refusal | Contractual fault on the employer's part | MAD 300 to 500 fine per employee (Article 78), capped at MAD 20,000 |
Morocco's Labour Code regulates the certificat de travail precisely, not the in-employment attestation de travail. Article 72 requires the employer to hand over the certificate within 8 days of contract termination, under penalty of damages, and Article 78 sets a fine of 300 to 500 dirhams per affected employee for non-compliance, with the total capped at 20,000 dirhams (source: Moroccan Labour Code, Law 65-99).
For the attestation requested mid-contract, no article sets a specific deadline or a fixed penalty. A repeated refusal can still be treated as a breach of the employer's contractual obligations, particularly if it blocks an employee from accessing credit or housing.
What must the document include?
The minimum content stays simple: the employee's identity, job title, start date, and sometimes the stated purpose (bank, visa, government office). Salary doesn't appear by default. When a third party needs the pay amount, typically a bank reviewing a loan application, a different document applies: the attestation de salaire, which details gross and net pay.
A valid attestation de travail always carries these elements: company name and address, the employee's full name, exact job title, start date, a closing administrative phrase, and the company stamp with signature. Without an original company stamp, most banks and embassies reject the document even when it's signed.
Attestation de travail, attestation de salaire, attestation de non-emploi: don't mix them up
Three similarly named documents cause most of the confusion for anyone who has never needed one before. Each answers a different question that an administration or a bank is actually asking.
| Document | Answers the question | Shows salary | Who usually asks for it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attestation de travail | Does this person currently work here? | No | Bank, embassy, landlord |
| Attestation de salaire | How much does this person earn? | Yes, gross and net | Bank reviewing a loan |
| Attestation de non-emploi | Is this person unemployed? | Not applicable | Government office, social aid, CNSS |
| Certificat de travail | Did this person work here, and for how long? | No | New employer, HR file |
Sending the wrong one almost always delays a file. An employee who hands an embassy an attestation de salaire when it only asked for an attestation de travail ends up disclosing exact income that wasn't actually requested.
Who issues it under an umbrella company or EOR arrangement?
This is where things diverge from a standard employment setup. Under an umbrella company (portage salarial) arrangement, the contractor isn't employed by the client business they invoice for work, but by the umbrella company itself. So it's the umbrella entity that issues the attestation de travail, not the end client. The full mechanism is covered in our guide on how umbrella company payroll works in Morocco.
The same logic applies under an Employer of Record setup. A Moroccan developer working for a startup in San Francisco through an EOR provider remains legally employed by that provider, not by the startup itself. The EOR provider issues the attestation, usually within a few business days, since it already manages the Moroccan employment contract and CNSS filings. Our checklist for choosing an EOR provider in Morocco covers what to check before signing, including how responsive a provider is to this kind of administrative request.
One thing worth flagging here: a self-employed contractor (auto-entrepreneur) can't get an employee's attestation de travail at all, since there's no employer involved, only clients. A bank asking a freelancer for this exact document is usually making an error, or actually looking for a self-employed registration certificate, a different document entirely.
What is it actually used for?
Three uses come up most often: a visa application, opening or updating a bank account, and a rental housing file. A Moroccan bank, for instance, almost always asks for this document before reviewing a consumer loan or mortgage application, alongside the latest payslip and sometimes an attestation de salaire.
An attestation de travail works as proof of stable employment for a third party, whether that's a bank, an embassy processing a visa request, a landlord for a lease, or a Moroccan government office. It only carries weight with the original company stamp; a scanned copy without a fresh stamp is usually rejected outright.
For a foreign employee based in Morocco through an EOR, this document also comes up in residency card renewals and related paperwork, alongside the employment contract and payslips.
A standard template
An attestation de travail follows a fixed structure, with no embellishment. Here's the layout Moroccan employers typically use, to adapt as needed.
Header: company name, address and stamp.
Body text: "I, the undersigned, [name and title of signatory], hereby certify that [employee's full name], holder of national ID number [number], has been employed by our company since [start date] as [job title]. This certificate is issued to the concerned party for whatever legal purpose it may serve."
Footer: date, location, signature of an authorized representative, company stamp.
The document fits on a single page. Padding it with extra details, like a salary figure nobody asked for, only slows down HR processing without adding anything for the recipient.
How to request one in Morocco
The process stays straightforward in most cases. The employee sends a written request (email works at most companies) to HR or their direct manager, stating what the document will be used for, which helps HR include the details the recipient expects.
At an umbrella company or an EOR provider like WEEPO, this request usually goes through a dedicated client portal or directly by email to the account manager, with turnaround measured in a few business days since contract data is already centralized.
Two practical details save a second round trip. First, timing: most Moroccan banks and embassies reject an attestation older than three months, so it's worth requesting close to the deadline rather than well ahead of it. Second, quantity: when several processes run in parallel, a bank and a landlord at the same time, for instance, asking for two or three stamped originals up front avoids going back to HR the following week for a duplicate.
And what if the employer drags its feet for no good reason? A written follow-up usually settles it. A persistent, unjustified refusal, documented in writing, can then be reported to the relevant labor inspectorate, particularly when the delay blocks something time-sensitive like a visa application with a hard deadline. That same friction, stacked on top of a poorly handled contract termination, tends to cost more than it looks: our guide on how severance pay is calculated in Morocco covers the other documents worth requesting at the same time.
Checking the received attestation against the signed employment contract remains the best safeguard against an administrative slip, especially for someone under an umbrella company or EOR arrangement juggling more than one HR contact.