Contrat à durée indéterminée: a French employment contract with no fixed end date, and the normal form of hiring in France.
A CDI is open-ended: it continues until ended by resignation, dismissal, retirement or a rupture conventionnelle, a termination both sides agree, each under its own rules. France’s Service Public calls it the normal and general form of hiring: an employer uses it unless it can justify another contract, such as a CDD or temporary agency work. A full-time CDI need not be in writing, though a contract is usually signed; a part-time CDI must be written.
The CDD is the exception. It must be written, runs for a fixed term and may be used only in cases the law lists, such as replacing an absent employee, a temporary rise in activity or seasonal work. It may not fill a job tied to the business’s normal, permanent activity, and a judge may requalify one concluded outside those cases as a CDI. A CDI may open with a probation period, the période d’essai, only if the contract provides for one.
In job listings
French listings give the contract type near the top, often with weekly hours, as in “CDI, 35h”; translations may call it a permanent contract. Some atelier listings describe an apprenticeship or training contract that leads to a CDI. See current CDI roles.
