Offer Letter vs Appointment Letter: Key Differences (India)
Offer letter vs appointment letter explained: which is binding, what to check before resigning, and the clause mismatches that trap freshers.
You cleared the interviews, HR called with the good news, and a PDF landed in your inbox titled "Offer Letter". Two weeks after joining, another document arrives - "Appointment Letter". Are these the same thing? Which one is binding? And why does the second one have a clause the first one never mentioned? Almost no fresher knows the difference, and companies quietly rely on that.
The short version: the offer letter is a proposal - "we want to hire you on these terms". The appointment letter is the contract - "you are employed on these terms". The difference decides what you can enforce, what you should check before resigning from your current job, and where companies slip in the clauses that matter. Here is the full picture.
What an offer letter actually is
An offer letter is the company's formal expression of intent to hire you. It typically carries: your designation, the CTC (often with an annexure breaking it down), the joining date, work location, and sometimes the broad strokes - probation length, notice period headline, reporting manager. You sign and return it to accept.
Legally, an accepted offer letter does create a contract - but a thin one. Courts in India have treated accepted offers as binding in principle, yet most offer letters protect the company with conditions: "subject to background verification", "subject to medical fitness", "subject to receipt of documents". Until you actually join, either side can usually walk away with limited consequences. That is why an offer letter alone should never trigger an irreversible move like resigning without reading it carefully - or like paying a notice-period buyout before the new company's onboarding is confirmed.
What an appointment letter is
The appointment letter is issued after you join - sometimes on day one, sometimes weeks later. This is the full employment contract: detailed role and responsibilities, the complete compensation structure, probation terms, notice and termination clauses, leave policy, confidentiality and IP clauses, non-solicitation, transfer policy, and the company's right to make changes. When a dispute happens - over notice pay, termination, variable pay - the appointment letter is the document that governs, not the offer letter.
The side-by-side
| Offer letter | Appointment letter | |
|---|---|---|
| When you get it | After selection, before joining | On or after your joining date |
| What it is | A conditional proposal to hire | The full employment contract |
| Legal weight | Thin contract; usually conditional | The governing document for disputes |
| Typical contents | Designation, CTC, joining date, location | Everything - duties, salary structure, probation, notice, termination, confidentiality, transfers |
| What happens if terms differ | The appointment letter generally prevails - which is exactly why you must compare them |
The trap: when the two letters disagree
Here is the pattern that catches freshers. The offer letter says notice period is one month. You resign from your current job, serve one month mentally mapping to that. After joining, the appointment letter says three months. You signed both. The second document, signed later and labelled the employment contract, is the one that holds.
Companies do not always do this maliciously - templates drift, HR copies an older version - but the effect is the same whether it is malice or sloppiness. The clauses that most often change between the two documents: notice period length, probation duration, variable pay conditions ("100% payout" becoming "up to 100%, at management discretion"), bond or service-agreement terms, and transfer clauses. If you are mid-switch, our guides to salary on job change and negotiation cover the money side; this is the paperwork side.
What to do when you receive each one
On the offer letter:
- Check designation, CTC figure, fixed vs variable split, joining date and location against what HR told you verbally or on email.
- Read the conditions - background check, documents, medical. Ask what happens if a reference is slow, not in panic, just so you know.
- Ask for anything missing in writing before you resign from your current job: the CTC annexure, the notice period, the probation length. A good HR sends these without fuss; reluctance is information.
- Resign from your current employer only after the signed offer is in hand - and even then, keep the relationship clean; your new background check may call them.
On the appointment letter:
- Compare it line by line with the offer letter on the five hot spots: notice, probation, variable pay, bonds, transfers.
- If something material changed, raise it in writing (email, polite, specific) before signing. "The offer letter I accepted on 4 August states a one-month notice period; the appointment letter states three. Which reflects the agreed terms?" gets corrections more often than you would expect.
- If HR says "the appointment letter is standard, do not worry" - ask them to confirm the agreed term by email anyway. Paper beats reassurance.
- Keep both documents forever. Your relieving letter, experience letter and these two contracts are your employment paper trail.
Related documents people confuse these with
Letter of intent (LOI): even weaker than an offer letter - "we intend to make an offer". Campus hiring and delayed-joining situations produce these. Do not resign on an LOI.
Employment agreement or service agreement: sometimes merged into the appointment letter, sometimes separate - this is where bonds and training-cost recovery clauses live. Read anything titled "agreement" twice.
Internship or trainee letters: different beast - you are not a full employee, and PF/gratuity rules differ. Our probation rules piece covers the adjacent trial-period territory for full-time hires.
Frequently asked questions
Can a company withdraw an offer letter after I accept it?
Yes, it happens - hiring freezes, funding pulls, failed background checks. An accepted offer is technically a contract, so withdrawal can be challenged, but the practical remedies are weak and slow. The real protection is behavioural: resign from your current job only on a signed offer, ask about the joining process in the weeks before the date, and keep one backup conversation warm until you have actually joined. Offers withdrawn a week before joining are rare but not mythical.
Is a verbal offer from HR enough to resign on?
No. "You are selected, offer coming Monday" is not an offer. HR intentions are sincere usually and powerless occasionally - approvals slip, headcount freezes. Wait for the signed PDF with designation, CTC and joining date. A polite "I will initiate my notice as soon as I have the written offer" is a completely normal thing to say and no reasonable company objects.
My appointment letter never came. Should I worry?
Ask for it after your first month if it has not arrived - in writing. Working without one leaves the terms of your employment fuzzy in ways that only ever help the employer: notice, variable pay, even your designation on record. Most delays are administrative laziness, not conspiracy, but the follow-up email costs you nothing and the document matters at exit, background checks and loans.
Does the appointment letter override the offer letter?
In practice, yes - it is later, more detailed, and drafted as the complete contract, often with an "entire agreement" clause that explicitly supersedes prior documents. That clause is exactly why the comparison before signing matters: whatever the offer letter promised you is only as good as what survived into the appointment letter.
What if I signed the appointment letter without reading it?
Then its terms govern - but you still have room. Statutory rights (PF, gratuity after five years, minimum notice pay rules where applicable) cannot be signed away. And a clause that is genuinely one-sided or unlawful can be challenged, though that is a last resort. The cheaper fix is the next time: photograph or save every HR document, and give yourself one evening to read before signing anything. Nobody reasonable refuses "I will sign this tomorrow morning."