Free employment application template

How to fill it in

The applicant completes every section; the employer only supplies the position details and the contact point for accommodation requests before handing out the form. Answer each field directly, and do not leave sections blank. If a question does not apply, write "N/A" so the employer knows it was not skipped by accident.

• Enter the position, the type of work you want, when you can start, and your pay expectation.
• Fill in your name, address, phone, and email, and answer the work-authorization and age questions.
• List your education and your jobs with the most recent first, including dates and reason for leaving.
• Add any licenses or certifications the role needs, with the state and expiration date.
• Give at least 2 professional references who are not relatives.
• Read the certification carefully, then sign and date it.

What a lawful application does not ask

This is where most downloadable forms go wrong. The questions an employer may not ask on an application have grown over the last decade, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is clear that an application should not request information that reveals a protected characteristic. That rules out date of birth, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, disability or medical history, and genetic or family medical information. The EEOC says pre-offer questions about disability are off limits entirely, and questions about genetic information, including family medical history, are barred by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. This template asks whether the applicant is at least 18 rather than asking for a birth date, and it leaves out the categories above on purpose. The federal bans attach once an employer reaches a size threshold: Title VII, the ADA, and GINA at 15 employees, the ADEA at 20. Many state and local anti-discrimination laws reach smaller employers, so a 5-person shop is rarely off the hook. Two more restrictions trip up older forms. Roughly 20 states plus Washington, D.C., ban asking about pay history, including California (Labor Code 432.3, in force since 2018) and New York (Labor Law 194-a), so this form asks for expected pay, not what you earned before. And more than a dozen states plus over 150 cities and counties restrict asking about criminal history on an initial application under "ban the box" and fair chance laws, which is why there is no criminal record question here. Check your own state and city before adding one back.

Application vs. offer letter vs. employment contract

These three documents sit at different points in hiring, and mixing them up causes real confusion. The employment application is what the candidate fills out to apply. It is a request to be considered, signed by the applicant, and it is explicitly not a promise of a job. An offer letter comes next and moves in the opposite direction: the employer writes to the candidate to offer the role, with the title, start date, pay, and any conditions. An employment contract is the full agreement that spells out the terms of the working relationship, often for salaried or senior roles, and both sides sign it. A clean way to remember it: the application is the candidate asking, the offer letter is the employer answering, and the contract is both sides agreeing. If you need the offer or the agreement rather than the intake form, use the offer letter or employment contract template instead.

The certification and the at-will line

The paragraph the applicant signs is the legally important part of the form. It does three things. First, it certifies that the answers are true and complete, and states that a false answer or a material omission is grounds to reject the application or to end employment later, which is what lets an employer act on a lie discovered after hire. Second, it authorizes the employer to contact the references and former employers listed and to verify what the applicant wrote, and it releases those parties for giving honest information. Third, it includes an at-will acknowledgment: applying is not an offer, and if the person is hired, either side can end the employment at any time unless a signed written agreement says otherwise. At-will employment is the default in every state except Montana, which under its Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act limits terminations once a probationary period ends. Keep the at-will wording if you operate under at-will rules, and adjust it if a union contract, an offer letter, or your state changes the default.

Background checks are a separate form

Do not fold a background check consent into this application. If an employer uses a third party to run a background or credit check, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the disclosure to be its own standalone document. The statute, 15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)(2)(A), says the disclosure must be "in a document that consists solely of the disclosure," and courts have read that strictly: a disclosure buried in a job application, or combined with a liability release, violates the law and has produced class-action exposure for large employers. The stakes are concrete: a willful violation carries statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per applicant under 15 U.S.C. 1681n, plus possible punitive damages and attorney fees, which is how a single bad form turns into a class action across thousands of applicants. So the application tells the applicant that a separate disclosure and signed authorization will come later if a report is ordered, and it stops there. When you reach that step, use a dedicated background check authorization form, not this one.

Work authorization and the I-9

You can ask on an application whether a candidate is legally authorized to work in the United States, and this form does. What you cannot do is demand specific immigration documents at the application stage or treat applicants differently based on citizenship or national origin, which the Immigration Reform and Control Act prohibits. The document check happens after hire, not before. A new employee completes Form I-9 and presents documents that prove identity and work authorization, and the employer must complete its part within 3 business days of the first day of work for pay. Asking for a Social Security number or I-9 documents on the application itself is unnecessary and best avoided, so this template collects neither; you gather those after an offer is accepted.

Common mistakes to avoid

A few errors show up again and again on homemade applications. Asking for date of birth to confirm the applicant is an adult, when the lawful version is a simple "are you 18 or older" question. Keeping a salary history box on a form used in a state that has banned it. Leaving a "have you ever been convicted" question on the first form in a ban-the-box jurisdiction. Collecting Social Security numbers at the application stage, which creates a data-security burden for people you may never hire. And treating the signed application as if it were an employment contract, when its own text says it is not. If you reuse an old company form, read it against the three restrictions above before you hand it out again.

Signing it

An employment application is complete once the applicant signs and dates it. It does not need a witness or a notary. The applicant can print it and sign by hand or fill it in and sign online, and an electronic signature is valid for this kind of form under the ESIGN Act and state UETA. The employer keeps the signed application with the candidate's file. If the person is hired, the signed application usually becomes part of the personnel record, which is a good reason to keep the questions clean: whatever you asked is now on file.