Pension from abroad to Finland
If you have worked in another country, you might have earned a pension from that country. To get a pension, you usually need to have worked in another country for at least 12 months. In addition, different countries may have different requirements regarding the total required period of work. The required period of work usually also includes work done in Finland or in other EU and EEA countries.
If you want to get a pension that you have earned in another country, you must claim it. Pension contributions that you have paid abroad cannot be transferred to Finland. Instead, the foreign pension authority will pay you a pension when you claim it. The retirement ages and the claim process vary from one country to another.
If you live in Finland and claim a pension from abroad, we send your pension claim and other information needed to issue a decision about the pension to the EU or EEA countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the social security agreement countries where you have been insured and from where you are claiming a pension. We are responsible for processing claims for a foreign pension and exchanging information on the claims with pension institutions in different countries and the Finnish authorities.
We get pension claims from abroad either straight from the pension applicants, a Finnish earnings-related pension provider or Kela. If you are claiming a pension from abroad only, you can send your claim directly to us.
The rules about social security and insurance for people working abroad and the payment of benefits from one country to another are set by the laws of Finland and the country of work. They are also set by EU rules on social security and social security agreements concluded by Finland.
1. Before you claim a pension from abroad
Before you claim a pension from another country, it’s important that you understand how this pension will change your situation in Finland. Usually, a pension from abroad will not change the earnings-related pension you get from Finland. However, it might affect the pensions paid by Kela, like the national pension and the guarantee pension, and other benefits you get from Finland.
If you get a pension from another country, it might reduce the amount of benefits you get from Finland, like unemployment or sickness benefits. It could even stop you from getting some benefits completely. Before you claim a pension from another country, contact the institution in Finland that pays out your benefit. They can tell you how the pension from another country will affect the amount of the benefit you get here.
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If you are self-employed or a farmer, you no longer have to take out insurance when you start to get a statutory old-age pension, including one from abroad. After that, you can take out voluntary pension insurance for the self-employed or farmers. Note that you cannot take out voluntary pension insurance for the self-employed or farmers in retrospect. Contact your pension provider for more information.
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If you get a partial old-age pension from Finland, you can claim an old-age pension from abroad without this affecting the amount of your partial old-age pension. Please note, however, that if you receive a benefit alongside a partial old-age pension now or later, such as an unemployment or a sickness allowance, a pension from abroad will reduce the amount of the benefit or stop it from being paid altogether.
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If you want to find out how much your pension from abroad is estimated to be when you retire, you must ask for it from the pension authorities in the country in question. The easiest and often only way to do this is to send them a letter where you ask them to tell you how much your pension is estimated to be.
The information needed for the request varies from country to country, but the letter should include at least:
- your name (current and former), address and date of birth;
- your personal identity number or insurance number for the country in question, if you know them; and
- as much information as possible about where you lived and about your work there.
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2. Claim a pension from abroad
The rules about claiming a pension from abroad are different for each country.
Claim your pension from abroad about six months before you want it to start. You must claim it at the very latest in the month you want the pension to start.
Claim a pension from your own earnings-related pension provider using the same claim form as for the Finnish pension. You can claim your pension online via the website of most earnings-related pension providers. On the claim form, indicate which country you are claiming the pension from and from which date you want the pension to be paid.
Claim a pension from your own earnings-related pension provider using the same claim form as for the Finnish pension. You can claim your pension online via the website of most earnings-related pension providers. As well as the Finnish claim form, you must also complete the country-specific claim form. Send the country-specific claim form to the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
Finland has signed bilateral social security agreements with the countries mentioned above. Every social security agreement is different. There are some differences in the agreements between countries. For example, there are rules about which pension benefits (old age, disability and survivors’ pensions) can be claimed based on the agreement with the country concerned, and what extra information is needed with the claim.
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Claim a pension directly from the Chinese pension authority. China and Finland have an agreement about social security, which means that pensions can be paid from one country to the other. However, the agreement does not say anything about cooperation between the two countries’ pension authorities when it comes to claiming a pension.
Claim the pension directly from the other country. The website of the International Association of Social Security Institutions (ISSA) has contact information for the social security institutions in different countries.
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EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
Equivalent to EU countries: Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Social security agreement countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, China, India, Israel, Japan, Quebec, South Korea, and the United States of America.
Other countries called non-agreement countries: Non-agreement countries are countries other than those mentioned above, such as Thailand, Brazil or South Africa.
3. Please wait for the pension decision
You will get a letter from the Finnish Centre for Pensions when they have sent your pension claim to another country to be processed. The Finnish Centre for Pensions forwards pension claims to foreign pension authorities. This will be done even if you have sent your pension claim to your own earnings-related pension provider or to Kela.
Please wait for the pension decision. It will take much longer to process your claim for a pension from abroad than it would if you were claiming a pension from Finland.
If you have claimed an earnings-related pension from Finland at the same time, you will get a pension decision about this pension from your own earnings-related pension provider. Claiming a pension from another country does not usually delay the processing of a claim for a Finnish earnings-related pension. The decision about the national pension is usually made after the information about the foreign pension has been received. If you need more information, please contact Kela.
The information letter from the Finnish Centre for Pensions gives you the contact details of the foreign pension authority. You can contact them directly by phone, e-mail or letter to ask them how your case with them is coming along.
Some foreign pension providers also have online services that you can log into to check the status of your pension claim. These web services are usually designed for national use, but people living abroad can request a username and a password or a code to access the service and check their information that way. You can ask for more information from the foreign pension authority.
You can also use the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ eServices to check the status of your own case. You can access the service from the Etk.fi and Tyoelake.fi websites.
How to log in to our eServices
To use our eServices, identify yourself in the Suomi.fi service. To do so, you need Finnish identification tokens (Finnish online banking credentials, a mobile certificate, or a certificate card for authentication).
You cannot log in to the service using foreign identification tokens, that is, pan-European identification tokens or the Finnish Authenticator application.
In many countries, the statutory pension is often supplemented by supplementary and occupational pensions. The Finnish Centre for Pensions does not handle claims for these other types of pensions outside Finland, as they are not subject to EU’s rules on social security. That is why you need to contact the pension provider yourself to find out if you can get a supplementary or occupational pension and how to claim it. For example, AMF Pension is one of Sweden’s largest occupational pension providers.
In some countries (like France and Switzerland), some statutory supplementary pensions are covered by the EU Regulation on social security. In that case, you must claim them at the same time as you claim your statutory pension from that country via the Finnish Centre for Pensions. This means that you do not have to claim these supplementary pensions separately.
In most cases, it takes longer to process pension claims abroad than in Finland. The processing time depends on several factors. These include the type of pension you are claiming and the country from which you are claiming the pension. The pension provider in that country may also need specific information from you to be able to process your claim.
For example, the average processing time for old-age pensions was around 3 months in Estonia, around 4 months in Sweden, around 5 months in Norway and around 6 months in Germany.
Contact the foreign pension provider to find out how your claim is coming along.
If your claim is still being processed in Finland and the Finnish Centre for Pensions has not yet told you that it has sent your claim abroad, you can cancel your claim by calling the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ Customer Service.
If your claim is already being processed abroad, you can cancel it by sending a written letter to the foreign pension provider. Your letter can be in English or in any other official EU language.
In addition to the cancellation notice, please indicate:
- your name,
- your date of birth, and
- your foreign insurance number, if you know it.
Sign the cancellation notice and send it to the foreign pension provider that is processing your claim. Please also tell the Finnish Centre for Pensions that you have cancelled your claim.
If you have claimed a guarantee pension from Kela, please note that Kela requires you to claim all pensions from abroad that you may be entitled to.
Usually, if the foreign pension provider has already issued its decision, it is more difficult or even impossible to cancel the claim. For more information, contact the foreign pension provider that has issued your pension decision.
4. Answer any requests for additional information
A foreign pension authority may ask you for more detailed information when it sorts out your right to a pension. It is very important that you answer their questions. If you don’t, the processing of your pension claim can be delayed or, at worst, your claim may be rejected.
The questions are usually written in the official language of the country in questions, but you have the right to answer them in English or in any other official EU language.
No, the Finnish Centre for Pensions cannot reply to the questions you have got on your behalf. Nor will it provide translations in writing of the documents you have been sent. As a rule, you have to answer all questions you have got yourself and, if necessary, have the documents translated at your own expense. However, the Finnish Centre for Pensions can help you answer the questionnaire as far as possible.
Make sure you send your answers to the foreign pension authority on time. If you need to, you can also send them to the Finnish Centre for Pensions, your earnings-related pension provider or Kela. They will send it abroad for you. Keep in mind, though, that if you send your answers through intermediaries, they will go into the job queue of the Finnish party first. If you want your answers to be delivered abroad as fast as possible, send them directly abroad.
5. You get a decision on a foreign pension by letter
The foreign pension provider will send a written pension decision directly to you. As a rule, the pension decision is issued in the national language of the country. It will tell you if the pension you have claimed has been
- granted (as of when and amount of pension), or
- rejected (reason why it was rejected).
The foreign pension authority sends information on the content of the decision to the Finnish Centre for Pensions, your earnings-related pension provider and Kela.
After the foreign pension authority has confirmed your working time (that is, your insurance period) in that country, the Finnish earnings-related pension provider will check whether the insurance periods confirmed by the foreign pension authority affect your Finnish pension. Kela also needs information on the foreign pension decision and confirmed information on you being insured abroad in order to be able to give a final decision on the national pension.
If you are unhappy about a decision that a foreign pension authority has issued, you can appeal it once you have got the decision. Follow the appeal instructions that come with the decision.
Send your written appeal within the deadline directly to the pension provider who has issued the decision or to the address stated in the appeal instructions.
You can also send the appeal to the Finnish Centre for Pensions, your earnings-related pension provider or Kela. They will forward it to the right institution. Keep in mind, however, that an appeal sent through intermediaries may not necessarily reach the foreign pension provider in time, considering the strict appeal period.
The letter of appeal should include at least:
- which decision you want to have changed,
- what changes you demand, and
- why you think the decision should be changed.
Attach documents that support your arguments, such as testimonials of service, pay slips or new medical statements that the foreign pension provider may not have had access to when they processed your pension claim.
Remember to also include your own contact information and to sign and date the letter. You can file an appeal concerning the decision of EU and EEA countries in any of the official EU languages. You can also appeal the decision of a social security agreement country in the official language of that country.
When you have received the pension decisions from all the EU/EEA countries from which you have claimed a pension, you can examine their combined effect on your right to a pension. If you think that the pension decisions issued by the different countries have a negative combined effect on your right to a pension in one or several EU/EEA countries, you can contact the pension provider that has issued the decision and request them to recheck the decisions. To request a recheck, you must ask the Finnish Centre for Pensions for a summary of the EU pension decisions (form P1).
No, it is not. Please notify the Finnish Tax Administration yourself of any foreign pension you have been granted.
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Tyokelake.fi – information about your pension
- See your pension record.
- Read more about Finland’s retirement ages and pension benefits.
- How to claim a pension.
- Pension claim forms (in Finnish and Swedish).
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