If you want to get a pension that you have earned in another country, you must claim it. How you claim the pension depends on the country which you are claiming it from.
Before you apply for a pension from another country, find out how the pension paid from abroad affects your situation in Finland. Read more on the page Pension from abroad to Finland
Claim your pension from an EU/EEA country, the United Kingdom, Switzerland or a social security agreement country
Send your pension claim to your pension provider in Finland. It will forward your claim abroad if you live in Finland and claim a pension from one or several of the following 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, Lichtenstein and Norway.
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.
Claim your pension from abroad using the same form that you use to claim a pension from Finland. We recommend that you claim your pension from abroad approximately 3–6 months before you wish to start getting the pension, but at the latest in the month during which you would like your pension from abroad to begin.
You can claim your pension from abroad at the same time that you claim a pension from Finland, or at a separate point in time.
How do I claim a pension?
Start by logging in to the pension application service. You will be forwarded to your own pension provider’s application service.
Log in to the pension application service
If your own pension provider doesn’t have an online application service, claim your pension by filling out a paper form or by filling out and printing the online form. Send your pension claim to an earnings-related pension provider, Kela or the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The Finnish Centre for Pensions will forward your claim abroad.
Go to the application forms and application instructions
Attach information on periods that you have worked and lived abroad to your pension claim. If you claim a pension via the online application service, the service will instruct you on how to provide the information on periods that you have worked and lived abroad. If your own pension provider doesn’t offer Appendix U in its online application service, you can print and fill out a paper form or fill out the form online. In that case, first save Appendix U on your device, then fill it out and attach it to your online application.
If you are claiming a pension from a country that Finland has a social security agreement with, also fill out the country-specific claim form. The Finnish Centre for Pensions will send you the form when it has received your pension claim. You can also print out the country-specific form yourself if you want to speed up the processing of your pension claim. Send the country-specific claim form to the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
Go to the pension claim form of the social security agreement countries
The social security agreements differ from one country to another. The country-specific differences concern, among other things, rules about which pension benefits (old-age, disability and survivors’ pensions) you can claim and what additional information you need to attach to your claim.
How do I claim a pension from another country?
If you are claiming a pension from another country than those listed above, follow the instructions below.
Claim a pension directly from the Chinese pension authorities. Although China and Finland have a social security agreement, based on which pensions may be paid from one country to the other, there is no agreement on cooperation between pension authorities regarding claiming a pension.
Contact information to China’s pension authorities (Issa.int)
Claim your pension directly from the other country. You can find the contact information of the pension authorities in various countries on the website of the International Social Security Association (ISSA).
Contact information to Member States’ social security institutions (Issa.int)
Report your work and living abroad in detail
Report your work and living abroad with as much detail as possible as the information you provide forms the basis of establishing your pension rights abroad. It’s important that you report all periods you have worked and lived abroad, even if you are not claiming a pension from all countries that you have worked and/or lived in.
Whenever possible, enclose copies of documents relating to your work abroad, such as testimonials of service, employment record books and pay slips, and your foreign insurance number or ID number (if you know it).
Many eastern and southern European countries in particular need your workbook or other references to be able to process your pension claim. In general, the documents don’t need to be original, but the copies must be officially verified to be true and accurate. Do one of the following to verify your documents:
- Send the original documents by post to the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The Finnish Centre for Pensions takes copies of the documents, verifies them and sends them abroad. Once the case has been processed, the Finnish Centre for Pensions returns the original documents to you.
- Present the original documents at a Kela office. Kela takes copies of the documents and sends the verified copies to the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The Finnish Centre for Pensions sends the documents abroad.
How does a pension from abroad impact my Finnish benefits?
Before you claim a pension from another country, find out how the pension paid from abroad affects your Finnish pension or benefits. Generally, a foreign pension doesn’t affect the earnings-related pension you are paid from Finland, but it can affect pensions paid by Kela (the national pension and the guarantee pension).
A pension from abroad may also affect what benefits you can get from Finland. For example, a pension paid from abroad may reduce the amount of the unemployment or sickness allowance or prevent the payment of the benefit altogether. Getting a pension from abroad can also lead to the recovery of benefits you have already been paid. For more information, please contact the institution that pays out your Finnish benefit.
Read more on the page Pension from abroad to Finland
Processing a pension claim abroad may take longer
The Finnish Centre for Pensions is the authority that sends your claim for a foreign pension to the pension authorities abroad. This is the case even if you have sent your pension claim to your own pension provider or Kela.
The Finnish Centre for Pensions sends you a letter when your pension claim has been sent abroad from Finland. The letter gives you general information relating to claiming a pension from abroad and the contact information of the foreign pension authorities.
Wait patiently for the pension decision. The processing may take considerably longer than when you claim a pension in Finland.
If you have claimed an earnings-related pension in Finland on the same form, you will get a decision on your Finnish earnings-related pension from your pension provider. Claiming a foreign pension doesn’t usually delay the processing of your Finnish earnings-related pension claim. Your earnings-related pension provider needs information on the work you have done abroad, that is, of your insurance periods abroad. However, as a rule, your pension provider can issue a decision on your Finnish earnings-related pension without this information. For more information, please turn to your pension provider.
In general, Kela issues a decision on your national pension after it has received information on your foreign pension. For more information, please contact Kela.
In many countries, statutory pensions are complemented with supplementary pensions and pensions based on collective agreements.
As a rule, the Finnish Centre for Pensions doesn’t send pension applications for such pensions abroad as they are usually not covered by the EU Regulations or social security agreements.
Contact the pension provider yourself to find out if you qualify for the supplementary pension or a pension based on a collective agreement and how you can claim it.
When establishing your right to a pension, the pension provider abroad may send you questions on your work, living or income in the country in question or in Finland.
The questions are usually in the official language of the country asking them. If it’s an EU Member State, you have the right to send your reply in any of the official EU languages.
It’s important that you reply to the questions according to the instructions you were given so that your claim can be processed smoothly. The foreign pension provider may reject your claim if it doesn’t get the additional information it has asked for.
Send your answers directly to the foreign pension authority by the given deadline. That way you can make sure that your claim is processed smoothly.
If necessary, you can also send your reply to the Finnish Centre for Pensions. It will send your reply abroad on your behalf. However, note that your reply will reach its destination faster if you send it abroad yourself.
Pension decisions based on national legislation
Each country issues a pension decision based on its own legislation. Even if you were granted, for example, a disability pension from Finland, you may not be granted one from another EU/EEA country or a social security agreement country. Despite this, you may later qualify for a disability or old-age pension from the country in question.
The foreign pension authority will
- send a written pension decision straight to your home address,
- give a pension decision in the country’s official language,
- pay your pension directly to your bank account. Note that the pension payment date varies by country.
The foreign pension authority sends information on the content of its decision to the Finnish Centre for Pensions, your earnings-related pension provider and, if necessary, to Kela.
After the foreign pension authority has confirmed your period of work (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 the information on your foreign pension decision and the confirmed information on you being insured abroad in order to be able to give a final decision on the national pension.
Notify the Finnish Tax Administration of any pension you get from abroad since the Tax Administration doesn’t automatically receive information on pensions paid from abroad. For more information on how pensions from abroad are taxed in Finland, visit the Tax Administration’s website vero.fi or call their Customer Service at +358 29 497 024 (International tax matters for individual taxpayers).
You may have to pay taxes also to the country from which your pension is granted. Contact the payer of your pension or the country’s tax authorities for more information.
Pension from abroad, Tax Administration (Vero.fi)
Contact information and services, Tax Administration (Vero.fi)
If you are dissatisfied with a decision issued by a foreign pension provider, you can appeal the decision as explained in the appeal instructions attached to the decision. Send your appeal within the time frame stated in the decision.
Send your written appeal to the pension provider that issued the decision or to the address listed in the pension decision.
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. Your appeal will reach its destination faster if you send it abroad yourself.
You can appeal decisions from EU or EEA countries in any of the official EU languages. In some cased, the processing time may be shorter if you write in the official language of the country in question. You can appeal a decision issued by a social security country in the official languages of the social security country or in English.
Include at least the following information in your appeal:
- the decision that you are appealing,
- the thing you demand to be changed,
- the grounds for your appeal (if the decision includes incorrect or insufficient data), and
- how you want the decision to be changed.
Attach documents that support your grounds, 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 include your own contact information and to sign and date the letter.
When all the EU/EEA countries that you have claimed a pension from have sent you their pension decision, you can examine their combined effect on your right to a pension. Although each country grants or refuses pensions in accordance with its own legislation, the institution responsible for making the decision must also take into account the EU Social Security Regulations when determining your right to a pension. If you want more detailed information about the content of pension decisions issued or the criteria used to determine pension amounts, please contact the authority that issued the decision directly.
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 your EU pension decisions (form P1).
When you have received the summary from the Finnish Centre for Pensions, you can send your request for a recheck to the pension provider that issued the decision. The request for a recheck must be made within the deadline stated in the summary or the pension decision. The deadline may vary from one country to another.
I am already receiving a pension from abroad
On this page you can find answers to frequently asked questions in case you are already paid a pension from an EU or EEA country, the United Kingdom, Switzerland or a country with which Finland has a social security agreement. For example, what should you do if your address or bank account number changes, or if your next of kin, who is receiving a pension from abroad, dies.
Instructions for recipients of foreign pensions, Finnish Centre for Pensions (Etk.fi)