Are you working or have worked in Germany? Did you know that non-EU citizens who return to their home countries (or relocate to a non-EU country) can claim back their German pension contributions?
All employees in Germany - including expats - are automatically deducted a percentage of their salary each month to contribute to the German social security system. The main deduction is the Pension Insurance Fund (Rentenversicherung), currently 9.3% of the gross monthly salary. Once the employee hits retirement age in Germany (65 years and 7 months in 2020, gradually rising to 67 by 2031), it becomes possible to receive the pension.
But what if you don’t plan on living in Germany until retirement? Well, if you decide to leave, you can claim a refund for your contributions to the Pension Insurance Fund in some cases.
Nationals from the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, India, Israel, Japan, Uruguay, Chile, Morocco, Tunisia, Philippines, Moldova, Albania and Macedonia: As Germany has Social Security agreement with these countries, to claim a pension refund you need to have worked in Germany for less than 60 months (5 years).
All other nationals of non-EU countries have no contributed-time limit.
If you are not sure if you are eligible – you can check with the German Pension Insurance Fund to find out.
We recommend to work with a specialist such as Fundsback free Pension Check service to make sure that your contributions are properly recorded in your personal pension insurance account. This step is very important as it ensures that no contributions are lost or credited.