Apply for an A1 Certificate
Apply for the A1 certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The A1 certificate shows that you are covered by Finnish social security while working abroad. As a rule, without the A1 certificate, your social security is arranged in your country of work. Apply for the certificate with the same form if you work in an EU/EEA country, Switzerland or a country with which Finland has a social security agreement.
If you are an employee, your employer applies for the A1 certificate on your behalf. If you are self-employed or a grant recipient, you apply for the A1 certificate yourself. If you have several employers while working abroad, you can apply for the A1 certificate yourself.
The Finnish Centre for Pensions grants the A1 certificate upon application if the criteria for receiving the certificate are met. The certificate is free of charge. If you do not apply for the certificate or if the certificate cannot be granted, you cannot be covered by Finnish social security while working abroad. Please apply for the certificate well ahead in time before you start working abroad.
Apply for the certificate via our eServices. You can also apply for an extension (for example, if your posting abroad lasts for a longer period) online. The service is available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
Applying for an A1 certificate via our eServices may expedite the processing of your application. The A1 certificate can also be granted in retrospect, for a period of work abroad that has already begun.
We expedite applications only if there are compelling reasons to do so. In that case, your employer must submit to the Finnish Centre for Pensions a statement issued by the country of work about why you cannot work or receive wages if you do not have an A1 certificate.
To use our eServices, you must identify yourself in the Suomi.fi service (with either your online banking credentials, mobile ID or certificate card).
For the time being, it is also not possible to log into our eServices with pan-European identification credentials or the Finnish Authenticator application.
Our eServices do not work on Internet Explorer.
As a rule, the employer applies for the A1 certificate for its employees. If you are a worker, you can apply for the certificate yourself only if you have several employers while you work abroad.
Acting on behalf of a company requires authorization. Issue an authorization in the section e-Authorization in the Suomi.fi service. Select “Handling social security matters relating to work in other countries”. We use a mandate specifier called a sub-organisation ID which can be used to limit the powers of the mandate within the organisation. For more information, go to Suomi.fi.
If your company has been authorised by other companies to handle their issues relating to insuring work abroad, the main user in your company can appoint different workers within your company to handle the insurance issues of the other companies. In practice, the main user can select the business ID and mandate a specific worker to handle said customer company’s insurance.
If your company fills out applications on behalf of another company via our eServices, you do not have to submit a separate proxy to us (Finnish Centre for Pensions). The required authorizations are done electronically via Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.
Employers who have not previously been able to use our eServices can acquire Suomi.fi authorization via the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations Mandate service. Via that service, employers can primarily apply for mandates for their workers.
When the mandates have been registered, the workers who have been issued the right can issue actual handling authorizations through the self-service of Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. Receiving a mandate requires that an application for authorization is made. For more information, contact the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
The online service includes instructions on how to fill out the application form.
The A1 certificate application process is slightly different and based on different grounds for different groups of individuals and situations of work.
When you are posted to another EU Member State, you need an A1 certificate to prove that you are covered by Finnish social security.
If you are posted to a social security agreement country, you need a certificate of the applicable legislation. Your employer will apply for the application via our eServices.
If you are self-employed and will work temporarily in another EU Member State, you need an A1 certificate to attest that you are covered by Finnish social security legislation.
If you are self-employed and will work temporarily in a social security agreement country, you need an A1 certificate of the applicable legislation. Apply for the certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions via our eServices.
If you do remote work abroad as en employee or as a self-employed person, you need an A1 certificate if you want to be covered by Finnish social security while doing remote work abroad. Without the certificate, your work must be insured under the social security laws of the country in which you physically perform the work.
The A1 certificate is required regardless of whether you have gone abroad to do remote work at your own or at your employer’s initiative.
If you are an employee, your employer applies for the A1 certificate. If you are self-employed, you apply for the certificate yourself. Apply for the certificate via our eServices.
If you are a grant recipient who will work temporarily in another EU Member State, you need an A1 certificate to prove that you are covered by Finnish social security.
If you are a grant recipient who will work temporarily in a social security agreement country, you need a certificate of the applicable legislation.
Apply for the certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions via our eServices. Contact also the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Mela) and apply for insurance under the Farmers’ Pensions Act for the period you will be working abroad.
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If you work in several EU Member States, you need and A1 certificate to show which country’s social security legislation applies to your work.
If you work in several countries for only one employer, your employer will apply for the certificate. If you work for several employers, you can apply for the certificate yourself.
Apply for the certificate via our eServices.
If you are a member of a flight crew and your home base is in a different country than in the one you reside or in which you also do other work, you need an A1 certificate to determine which country’s social security laws you are covered by.
As a rule, your employer applies for the A1 certificate via the online application service of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. If necessary, you can also apply for the certificate yourself.
If you are a seafarer and work on a vessel that sails under the flag of another country than the one in which you reside, or if you do other work, as well, you need an A1 certificate to determine which country’s laws are to be applied to your work.
As a rule, your employer applies for the A1 certificate via the online application service of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. If necessary, you can also apply for the certificate yourself.
As a freelancer you can work in en employment relationship or as a self-employed person. Typically, freelancers work for more than one employer. Whether you will be granted an A1 certificate of coverage under Finnish social security laws while you work abroad and whether you apply for an A1 certificate depends on whether you work as an employee or a self-employed person.
Apply for an A1 certificate if you work as a self-employed person
- in another EU country on a temporary basis, and
- you have taken out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act.
State on your application if you will be working abroad for other periods, as well, in the next 12 months.
Apply for an A1 certificate if you work as an employee
- repeatedly in several EU countries, and
- in an employment relationship.
If you have not taken out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act and you do not work abroad in an employment relationship, contact a pension provider to find out if you are under obligation to take out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act. If you take out pension insurance for the self-employed, apply for the A1 certificate as a self-employed person.
Do not apply for an A1 certificate if
- you work abroad in an employment relationship for a foreign employer only for one period, or
- you do not or cannot take out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act.
In these cases, the Finnish Centre for Pensions cannot grant you the A1 certificate. Instead, you must notify Kela that you are going abroad to work.
Certificate of pending application
In our eServices, you can print out a certificate to attest that your application is pending.
Downloading the granted A1 certificate
You can download a granted certificate and cover letter from our eServices. You can print them yourself or download them to a mobile device.
If you are a personal customer and use the service Suomi.fi Messages, you will receive your A1 certificate to that service. You will receive an e-mail from Suomi.fi Messages telling you that your certificate has arrived. The A1 certificate and the cover letter are attached to the message. If you do not usethe Suomi.fi Messages service, you will get your documents by post.
The Finnish Centre for Pensions will send your employer an e-mail when your A1 certificate and cover letter are ready to be downloaded. The e-mail includes the CaseID with which your employer can search for the data of a granted certificate. Your employer will also get the A1 certificate and cover letter on paper by post if your employer has selected to receive the documents on paper.
Processing of your application and decisions
You can check the status of your application in our eServices. It lists your applications that are in hand, in force, have expired or that you have drafted. The data is available for the past three years. You can also print a separate Excel file of the list.
Our eService also shows whether a certificate has been granted or rejected. Only granted certificates can be downloaded in the service. Rejections are sent by post to the parties concerned.
The Finnish Centre for Pensions uses an automated decision-making procedure when it issues decisions on the applicable social security legislation for work abroad, that is, when it issues A1 certificates or certificates based on bilateral social security agreements.
Notify the Finnish Centre for Pension of changes to your work abroad
The A1 certificate that the Finnish Centre for Pensions grants is valid for a fixed period of time.
If any of the following circumstances of your work abroad change while your A1 certificate is valid, please notify the Finnish Centre for Pensions of the changes via our eServices. You must notify of, for example, the following changes:
- you will return to Finland or your posting is interrupted more than 30 days before the certificate stops being valid;
- your employment relationship ends:
- your employer changes or you start in a parallel employment or start working as a self-employed person;
- you move abroad permanently;
- your work abroad is interrupted because you are laid off, you fall ill, you take unpaid leave, you take a family leave, you take a job alternation leave, or you take an equivalent leave;
- you are a member of flight crew and your home base changes;
- your work in several countries and your country of residence changes;
- you work in several countries and the hours of work you do in your country of residence changes; or
- you work in several countries and your country of work changes, providing the new country of work is other than an EU/EEA country or Switzerland.
As a rule, if you already have a valid A1 certificate for work in several countries, you do not have to notify the Finnish Centre for Pensions if your country of work changes.
If your posting lasts for more than 30 days after your certificate has expired, you must apply for a new certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. If you have applied for a certificate through our eServices, you can use the pre-filled form to apply for an extension. You cannot copy old applications made with Katso authorisation, nor can you use them to make pre-filled applications for an extension.
If you are uncertain if you should report a change or apply for a new certificate, contact our Customer Service.
Online form on social security coverage
Use primarily our eServices to expedite the handling of your application. If you cannot fill out the application online, fill out the application form on our website and print it via the link below.
You cannot use our eServices if you work abroad and do not have a Finnish ID number. As an employer you cannot apply online if you do not have Suomi.fi e-Authorization.
You can send the filled out application by post. As a private customer, you can also attach your application to a Suomi.fi message.
When you are using a paper form to apply for an A1 certificate for a posted employee, select the correct form based on your role and make sure you are using the most recent version of the form. We will scan your paper application to make it electronic. When you use the most recent version of the form, it will be forwarded to the right place without delays when we sort it electronically.
If you are applying for a certificate with a paper form on behalf of another company, attach a freely formulated proxy to the application.
Kela is notified of a granted certificate
The Finnish Centre for Pensions will notify the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) of the A1 certificate that we have granted. Without a separate application, Kela will send a European health insurance card to you if you are working in another EU/EEA country and are still covered by health insurance in Finland. The card gives you the right to care and to compensation for care given within the statutory health care system of the country in which you reside.
Contact Kela also in the following situations:
- if you go to work in India, China, Japan or South Korea;
- if you are posted to a country that doesn’t have a social security agreement with Finland, for example, to Brazil, we cannot grant an A1 certificate of coverage under Finnish social security legislation. In that case, you must apply for residence-based coverage under Finnish social security laws from Kela;
- if any of your family members come to live with you abroad. They have to fill in a separate form for coverage under Finnish social security and submit it to Kela.
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