Applying for pension for work carried out abroad

1. You can apply for pension you have earned from an EU or EEA country and from Switzerland, the UK and a social security agreement country using the same application form that you use to apply for pension from Finland. If you have accrued pension from some other country, you must apply for your pension directly from that country.
2. Be sure to fill in the pension application in our online service at the earliest six months before the date when you plan to retire. NB! If you are applying for the pension of a social security agreement country, the Finnish Centre for Pensions will send you the pension application form that applies to the social security agreement.
3. In our online service, under ‘Residence and employment abroad (Appendix U)’, you must provide details about your time spent abroad, such as information about your employer and dates when you worked and lived abroad. Fill in Appendix U carefully, because the information will always be forwarded abroad, and the information you provide will affect the time it takes to process your information abroad.
4. Varma will send your pension application and any documents attached to it (Appendix U, and e.g. employment records) to the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
5. The Finnish Centre for Pensions will take care of sending your pension application and the attached documents to the EU and EEA countries, Switzerland, the UK and social security agreement countries.
6. The foreign pension institution will process and issue a decision on your pension application based on that country’s legislation, as well as ask you for more information if necessary. The pension decision from abroad will be sent directly to you.

You can find more information on foreign pension matters on the website Työeläke.fi.

Apply for pension in Varma Online Service

Apply for pension from the pension authority in your country. Provide your application with information of your work in Finland. The foreign pension authority will send your application to Finland and you will receive a decision from Finland.

If you live in a country with which there is no social security agreement, you can apply for earnings-related pension from Finland. Complete the application form for Finnish earnings-related pension and submit it to Varma. If you do not know which company is your pension provider, please submit your application to the Finnish Centre for Pensions.

You can use a paper form or complete and print the application form that is available online. You can find the forms online at the address työelake.fi in the page footer and in the menu. In order to process your application, we need a certificate, extract or other official statement provided by the local authority or other authority in your country of residence, with such a document providing the following information in a reliable manner 

• your personal data
• your nationality
• your country of residence.

In addition to the information listed above, when you apply for survivors’ pension, include the following confirmation provided by an authority in your country of residence:

• marriage certificate
• confirmation on the validity of marriage at the time of the deceased’s death
• death certificate of the deceased
• amount/estimate of the widowed person’s earnings-related pension at the time of the deceased’s death.

Check the grouping of your country of residence in terms of pension applications  

Find out how to proceed on the website tyoelake.fi

Working abroad may affect the amount of your earnings-related pension. Living abroad is taken into account in the calculation of national pension granted by Kela.

The pension you receive from another country may affect your other benefits, such as unemployment allowance. More information on the impacts of foreign pension is available from the payer of your pension or benefits.