You can change your CA articleship firm, but how easy it is depends on one date: the first anniversary of the articleship. Inside the first year, a Form 109 signed by you and your principal, with the principal's consent letter, is enough. No reason is needed and ICAI does not have to approve the move in advance. After the first year, mutual consent stops working on its own. You need one of the grounds ICAI accepts, documents that prove it, and a longer processing time.
Below are both routes for terminating or transferring articleship and what to do when the principal will not sign. After that come re-registration with the new firm without a late fee, and how leave and the move affect your CA Final eligibility. The form-level rules come from ICAI's FAQs on articleship forms (last updated 20 August 2024) and the FAQs on the New Scheme of Education and Training, as checked on 26 October 2026. Under the New Scheme, practical training lasts two years; the wider picture of what those two years involve is in the CA articleship guide.
First year or later: the date that decides your route
Count the first year from the commencement date recorded for the articleship on the Self Service Portal (SSP), not from the day you first walked into the office. If you began on 1 March 2026, your first year runs to 28 February 2027. A Form 109 dated on or before that day can use the mutual-consent route. One dated 1 March 2027 or later cannot.
ICAI's FAQ is direct about the trap here: selecting the "within one year" option when you are already in the second year leads to rejection. Check that date before you pick the option, because a rejected Form 109 also drags down the re-registration filed with it.
| Point | Within the first year | After the first year |
|---|---|---|
| Reason needed | None; mutual consent is enough | One of the grounds ICAI accepts, with proof |
| Prior ICAI approval | Not required | The Regional Office examines the ground and documents |
| Papers | Form 109 signed by principal and student, plus the employer's consent letter | Form 109 plus the documents listed for that ground |
| Processing time stated in the FAQ | 7 working days | 15 working days |
| If the principal refuses to sign | Form 120, but not within six months of commencement | Form 120 |
Grounds ICAI accepts after the first year, and the proof for each
Once the first year is over, the FAQ lists specific grounds. Pick the one that is true for you and attach exactly what is asked, because a missing document is enough for the form to be sent back for correction.
- Your own medical issue: Form 109, a joint application, and medical records from a registered medical practitioner.
- Parents' ill health: Form 109, a joint application, and the parent's medical records.
- Moving to your hometown: Form 109, a joint application stating the reason, and your Aadhaar card showing the hometown address.
- Family shifting to another city: Form 109, a joint application, and address proof for the new place (a utility bill or rent agreement, or an affidavit if the family is moving into a relative's home).
- Marriage: Form 109, the marriage card, and an application signed by the principal.
- Better exposure: Form 109 and your application stating the reason, signed by the principal.
- Principal relocating more than 50 km: Form 109, an application signed by the principal, and proof of the relocation.
- Joining industrial training: Form 109 and the industrial training offer letter, which must show the start and end dates, along with the consent letters for any excess leave.
- Principal surrenders the certificate of practice, or a partner or paid assistant who was your principal resigns: Form 109 alone. The principal must update the ICAI portal, and the termination date on Form 109 must match the surrender or resignation date exactly.
Two situations use different forms. If a sole-practitioner principal dies, the legal representative issues Form 110. If the principal was a partner in a firm, a remaining partner issues Form 111.
"Better exposure" is the broadest ground on the list, and it still needs the principal's signature on your application. For a move on this ground, line up the new firm first; the guide to audit interview preparation covers the questions firms tend to ask trainees with some audit experience.
Reasons outside this list are taken up only in extreme cases, with the employer's consent letter and supporting documents. A full-time job or a regular full-time course is not a ground at all. If that is why you are leaving, the FAQ treats it as discontinuation of the CA course: Form 109 with the reason "Discontinuation of CA Course" and an affidavit that the period already served will not be counted in future. That is a permanent loss of the training served so far, so do not file it as a shortcut for a transfer.
Leaving for industrial training
Industrial training is a recognised reason to end articleship with your principal, but the eligibility rules changed from 1 January 2026. ICAI's revised criteria for industrial training require that you have passed the Intermediate examination, completed at least twelve months of practical training, and told your principal at least three months before the training starts. The training itself runs for 9 to 12 months. The detailed conditions, including employer empanelment and stipend, are in the industrial training checklist.
The three-month intimation is easy to overlook. Planning to start industrial training on 1 June 2027? Then your principal should have it in writing by 1 March 2027 at the latest.
When the principal will not sign Form 109
Form 120 exists for this, and the FAQ calls it a last resort after an attempt to settle the matter amicably. It cannot be filed within six months of commencing articleship, and while it is pending you cannot register with another principal. To file it, attach:
- the email you sent to the employer;
- the speed post receipt showing that a hard copy of Form 109 was sent to the principal for signature;
- Form 109 signed by you and saved in draft on the SSP; and
- the signed Form 120 as a PDF.
The principal then receives three reminders, one month apart, before the matter is sent to ICAI's MSSO for action. Read that timeline as roughly three months during which you cannot join the new firm. A sincere conversation, followed by a written request by email, usually costs far less time.
The same mechanism applies at the end of articleship. If the principal will not sign the completion certificate in Form 108, Form 119 follows the same pattern with a hard copy of Form 108 instead.
Re-registering with the new firm without a late fee
File the re-registration in Form 103 after Form 109 has been submitted. The Regional Office will not process Form 103 until Form 109 is approved, and if Form 109 is rejected, the re-registration is rejected automatically. Once Form 109 is approved, the FAQ states that the articleship is counted from the original date, so the period already served carries over.
Three conditions keep the re-registration clean:
- File Form 103 within 30 days of commencing with the new principal.
- Execute the articleship deed on stamp paper dated within 30 days of commencement. A deed is required for every registration, even one filed on time.
- Receive the stipend by monthly credit to your bank account. Cash is not allowed, and the bank statement is one of the papers ICAI asks for if the form is filed late.
Late filing is allowed with a condonation letter and fee, the deed, day-wise attendance, a day-wise work diary and the bank statement. The fee rises with the delay and, according to the FAQ, cannot be waived:
| Delay beyond the 30 days | Fee |
|---|---|
| More than 30 days | ₹500 |
| More than 60 days | ₹1,000 |
| More than 6 months | ₹2,000 |
| More than 12 months | ₹10,000 |
The FAQs do not explain how a gap between relieving and rejoining is treated. Where you can, join the new principal on the day after your last day with the old one, so there is nothing to explain.
Trainees who started on or after 1 January 2026 are also on ICAI's digital practical training diary, where attendance and work are logged and submitted fortnightly for approval. Reports on the e-diary rollout say it is linked to Form 109 where applicable, so keep the diary current up to your last day with the old firm.
Leave, excess leave and who you serve it with
Under the New Scheme you may take 12 days of leave in each year of practical training. Leave is counted year by year. ICAI's own example: a student who took 9 days in the first year and 14 in the second has 2 days of excess leave, even though the two-year total is under 24. Under the old three-year scheme the allowance was one-seventh of the actual service, capped at 156 days.
Excess leave has to be served after the two years. Following the 2021 amendment to Regulation 58, it is served under the principal with whom you last served, through a supplementary deed in Form 107 sent for registration within 60 days. The FAQ adds that supplementary training cannot be registered under a different principal. So if you transfer in the second year, the new firm is the one that will carry your excess leave.
Use Form 107 when the extra period starts on the day after the two years end. If there is a gap, Form 103 is used instead. Form 108, the completion certificate, records leave only for the period with the current principal.
Worked timeline: one transfer, two days of excess leave
This is an illustration with assumed dates. Riya commences articleship on 1 March 2026 in Pune.
- In November 2026 she gets an offer from a larger firm. She is inside her first year, which ends on 28 February 2027, so she and her principal sign Form 109 by mutual consent with the principal's consent letter. Her last day is Friday 20 November 2026.
- She joins the new principal on Monday 23 November 2026. Counting the joining day as day one, the 30-day window for Form 103 and the stamp paper date closes on 22 December 2026. She files on 1 December, after Form 109 is submitted.
- Her service from 1 March 2026 counts once Form 109 is approved, so her two years still end on 29 February 2028 (2028 is a leap year).
- She takes 9 days of leave in the first year and 14 in the second, leaving 2 days of excess leave. She serves them with the new principal under Form 107 from 1 March 2028, finishing on 2 March 2028.
Had she waited until March 2027 to move, she would have needed one of the accepted grounds, probably "better exposure", with an application signed by her old principal and about 15 working days for processing.
How the end date feeds into CA Final eligibility
The New Scheme FAQ requires practical training to be completed six months before the first day of the month in which the Final examination is held. You must also complete Advanced ICITSS after practical training and qualify all four Self-paced Online Modules.
Take Riya's dates. For an examination in a month beginning 1 September 2028, the training would have to be completed six months before that day, by 1 March 2028. Without excess leave she would have finished on 29 February 2028 and met it. With the two extra days she finishes on 2 March 2028 and does not. Two days of leave, or a gap between firms, can push an attempt back by a full cycle. Check the end date in your SSP record against the examination notice for the attempt you are planning before you take leave late in the second year.
One more change is pending. In July 2026 ICAI invited public comments on proposed stipend rates for two-year articleship, based on a draft amendment to the Chartered Accountants Regulations published on 25 June 2026. The revised rates apply only once the amendment is notified in final form, so check the current notified rate before you agree on a stipend with the new firm.
