Apply for an A1 certificate
As a rule, the social security of employees or self-employed persons working abroad must be arranged according to the social security laws of the country where the work is done. That means that the statutory social insurance contributions must be paid in the country where the work is done.
Nevertheless, if the work abroad is temporary, the person may be covered by Finnish social security laws under certain conditions. Temporary work abroad includes, among other things, being posted abroad, going on business trips or doing remote work abroad. To be covered by Finnish social security while working abroad, a certificate showing that the person is covered by Finnish social security is needed.
If a person works temporarily in an EU/EEA country, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or a social security agreement country, they need an A1 or equivalent certificate. The certificate is free of charge. Apply for the certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
Employees, self-employed persons, civil servants, grant recipients, sailors or flight crew members who want to be covered by Finnish social security while working abroad need the certificate.
1. Before applying for an A1 certificate
Before applying for an A1 certificate, find out what it is, under which conditions a person can remain covered by Finnish social security while working abroad, and for how long an A1 certificate can be valid. Also read more about how to determine the salary for insurance purposes for work abroad.
Apply for the A1 certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions using the same electronic application service for work in an EU country or a country with which Finland has a social security agreement. The certificate cannot be issued for work carried out in a country that does not have a social security agreement with Finland (also called non-agreement countries).
EU countries
The A1 certificate is granted for work in EU countries. ‘EU countries’ refers to these countries:
- 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.
- Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Social security agreement countries
A person who goes abroad to work temporarily in a country that has a social security agreement with Finland can, on request, get a certificate like the A1 certificate to show that they are covered by Finnish social security. The following list includes the names of the countries that Finland has a social security agreement with and the names of the certificates:
- Australia AUS/FI 1
- Chile CL/FI 1
- South Korea KR/FI 1
- India IN/FI 1
- Israel ISR/FI 1
- Japan JP/FI 1 or JP/FI 8
- Canada CAN/FI 1
- China CN/FI 1
- Quebec Q/FI 1
- United States USA/FI 1A
Non-agreement countries
The A1 certificate cannot be issued for work in a non-agreement country. Non-agreement countries are countries other than those mentioned above, such as Thailand, Brazil or South Africa.
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2. Apply for the A1 certificate via our eServices
As a rule, the employer applies for the A1 certificate for its employee. The employee can apply for a certificate themselves if they have several employers. The self-employed and grant recipients apply for the certificate themselves.
Apply for an A1 certificate via the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ eServices as soon as you know about the work abroad, but no earlier than six months before the work abroad begins. The A1 certificate can also be applied for and issued afterwards, even if the work abroad has already begun or been completed.
Applying for a certificate in advance is important for it to be clear which country’s social security the person working abroad is covered by and in which country the statutory social insurance contributions are to be paid. The certificate may also be required for access to the work site.
Apply for the certificate for the period that the work abroad will last.
To use our eServices, identify yourself in the Suomi.fi service. To do so, you need Finnish identification tokens, that is, Finnish online banking credentials, mobile ID or certificate card.
You cannot log in to the service using foreign means of identification, that is, pan-European means of identification or the Finnish Authenticator application.
An employer’s representative must have the necessary rights or authorizations to apply for an A1 certificate for the company’s employee and to handle insurance for work abroad.
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You cannot apply for an A1 certificate via our eServices if
- the person working abroad does not have a Finnish ID,
- the employer does not have Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, or
- the person applying for the certificate does not have Finnish identification tokens.
In these cases, apply for the A1 certificate using the pdf application form. If you are applying for a certificate on behalf of another company, please attach to the application a power of attorney issued for handling social security matters for work abroad.
Send the application to the Finnish Centre for Pensions by post (post address: Finnish Centre for Pensions, 00065 ELAKETURVAKESKUS). If you are applying for a certificate for yourself, you can attach your application to a Suomi.fi message.
- an A1 certificate for EU and EEA countries as well as the UK and Switzerland,
- a certificate equivalent to the A1 certificate for work in a social security agreement country,
- an exemption if you work in an EU country for more than two years, and
- an extension to your existing certificate if you work in certain social security agreement countries for more than five years.
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If you are applying for a certificate for an employee who regularly works in two or more countries, the work can be either temporary or permanent. However, the certificate will always be issued for a specific period, up to a maximum of two years at a time. The certificate covers any work done abroad during its validity, such as business trips to different EU countries.
The country of residence of the employee or self-employed person and the amount of work carried out in the country of residence affect the social security system to which the employee or self-employed person working in two or more EU countries belongs.
Apply for an A1 certificate through our eServices. The application will guide you through the process. Pay particular attention to the following sections of the application:
- The application form asks whether the work is temporary or continues until further notice. Tick ’continues until further notice’ if you are applying for a certificate for a person whose job involves working in two or more countries, for example, someone who primarily works in Finland but regularly goes on business trips to several other countries.
- The application form asks whether the person will be physically working in Finland during the period applied for. List the countries where work is planned or agreed for the year. You don’t need to state the exact start and end dates for work abroad in EU countries. Enter the start and end dates for the first period of work abroad. If the list of work countries includes countries with which Finland has a social security agreement, enter the exact start and end dates and the place of work in these countries.
- The application form asks how the physical work will be divided between the countries listed. An estimate for the coming year is sufficient. Please note that the proportion of work done in Finland must also be estimated. The division of work is requested as a percentage if there are 2 to 5 countries of work. If there are 6 or more countries of work, it must be estimated whether the person does at least 25% of their total working hours in their country of residence.
- The application form asks in which country the person and their family will be living during the period specified in the application. If the employer is applying for a certificate for their employee, they must ask the employee for this information in advance.
3. Wait for the decision
Most certificates applied for online can be granted on the same day as they were applied for. This requires that the application could be processed via an automated decision-making procedure. The processing time is longer if the application requires additional information or if the employer or authorities of the country where the work is done must be contacted.
We will contact the applicant if we need further information to issue a certificate or a decision.
You can check the status of your application in our eServices.
We fast-track an application only if there are strong grounds to do so. To justify the request, send us a statement issued by the foreign authority saying that working and paying wages is not possible without having an A1 certificate. Send your request for fast-tracking by e-mail to the address ulkomaanasiat(at)etk.fi.
Before asking us to fast-track the application, check with the authorities requiring the A1 certificate to see whether a certificate of pendence of your A1 application is enough. The certificate of pendence is in English, and you can download and print it via our eServices.
4. This is how you are notified of the A1 certificate
Once the application has been processed, we will send information about this to all parties concerned.
If you are the employer, we will tell you by e-mail when you can download the A1 certificate and the covering letter from our eServices. The e-mail mentions the case ID that you need to get the information on an issued certificate via our eServices. You will also receive the certificate and the covering letter by post if you have chosen to receive the documents on paper.
If you are an employee or a self-employed person you will get information about the issued A1 certificate via the service Suomi.fi Messages. If you have activated the service Suomi.fi Messages, you will get an e-mail about the A1 certificate. The e-mail is sent by Suomi.fi. You can download the A1 certificate in the Suomi.fi Messages service. If you do not have access to Suomi.fi messages, you will get the documents by post.
If the authorizations are in order, self-employed persons, employees and employers can access the eServices of the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
In our eService, you can see whether the certificate has been granted or rejected. Only granted certificates can be downloaded. If the application has been rejected, the decision is sent by post.
Go to the eServices of the Finnish Centre for Pensions
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If the A1 certificate cannot be granted, the Finnish Centre for Pensions issues a decision of a rejected certificate. This means that the statutory social insurance contributions, such as earnings-related pension insurance contributions, cannot be paid in Finland.
Do this if the A1 certificate was not granted:
- Contact the foreign authority whose contact details you received in connection with the decision of a rejected certificate.
- Pay the statutory social insurance contributions in the country whose laws the worker is covered by according to the rules of that country.
- If you have already paid statutory social insurance contributions in Finland for the work abroad, contact the institution you have paid the contributions to (for example, an earnings-related pension insurance company).
- If you have reported the wages you have paid for the work abroad to the Incomes Register, remember to correct the Incomes Register notifications retroactively.
- If you wish, you can appeal the decisions issued by the Finnish Centre for Pensions to the Pension Appeal Board. You received detailed appeal instructions with the rejection.
If the employee or self-employed person works in two or more EU countries and lives in another country than Finland, the Finnish Centre for Pensions will transfer the application for an A1 certificate to the authority of the country of residence. The country of residence always decides on the social security of a person who works in two or more countries.
For example, if the employer works for a Finnish employer in Finland and Spain and moves permanently with their family to Spain, the Finnish Centre for Pensions will transfer the application for an A1 certificate to Spain. The Spanish authority will decide whether the employee is covered by Finnish or Spanish social security.
5. Do the following after receiving the A1 certificate
Present the A1 certificate, for example, if an authority in Finland or abroad asks for it. Kela automatically receives information about a decision issued by the Finnish Centre for Pensions and a granted A1 certificate.
If necessary, show the A1 certificate to the employer abroad. It may require that the employee has an A1 certificate before they are allowed to enter the workplace. If you have several employers and you have applied for the certificate yourself, inform all your employers about the certificate. Based on the A1 certificate, your employer or employers pay the social insurance contributions in Finland.
If you are self-employed or a freelancer, give a copy of your certificate to the party who ordered your work or some other party if necessary.
Once your A1 certificate has been issued, Kela will send you a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) without a separate application.
The EHIC or travel insurance does not replace the A1 certificate. When you work abroad, your EHIC and travel insurance are in force only if you have an A1 certificate.
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Contact Kela if
- the employee or a self-employed person goes to work in other than EU and EEA countries, the UK, Switzerland or countries with which Finland has a bilateral social security agreement,
- the employee goes to work in China, India, Japan or South Korea;
- the person needs social security benefits while working abroad, or
- the family member(s) accompany the person abroad.
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6. Report changes in the work abroad
We always issue an A1 certificate for a fixed period. If the circumstances relating to your work abroad change while your A1 certificate is valid, please notify us of the changes via our our eServices. The notification of change can be made by the employer, the employee or the self-employed person.
If you are unsure about whether you need to report a change or apply for a new certificate, please contact our Customer Services.
Use our eServices to report if
- the work abroad is interrupted because of layoff, illness, unpaid leave, family leave, alternation leave or some other corresponding leave;
- the work abroad is interrupted, or the person returns to Finland more than 30 days before the certificate expires;
- the work abroad will be extended by less than 30 days from the planned;
- the employment relationship ends;
- the employer changes; or
- a new, parallel employment relationship or self-employment begins while the person works abroad.
If the work abroad continues for more than 30 days after the A1 certificate expires, apply for a new A1 certificate. If you applied for the original certificate through our eServices, you can use the pre-filled form in our eServices to apply for an extension.
Report changes via the eServices of the Finnish Centre for Pensions
Use our eServices to report if
- the employee or self-employed person moves abroad permanently,
- the home base of a member of a flight crew changes,
- the country of residence of a person who works in two or more countries changes,
- a significant change occurs in the distribution of work among the different countries when the person works in two or more countries,
- the sailor starts working on a ship registered under a different country’s flag.
If the person already has a valid A1 certificate for working in two or more EU countries, there is no need to notify the Finnish Centre for Pensions if one of the countries of work changes, unless any of the other countries requires that the certificate be supplemented with this information.
Social insurance contributions in international work situations
Visit the website of the Finnish Centre for Pensions to find out which statutory social insurance contributions the employer must pay in Finland when an employee goes abroad to work or comes to Finland to work. The service provides information on contributions payable in Finland on a country-by-country basis.
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