Rights to pensions in more than one country

• Periods of pension cover abroad
• Pension application
• Pension calculation
• Further links

Periods of pension cover abroad

If pension insurance periods were acquired in another EU country or in a country with which an agreement exists in the area of pension insurance, these periods must generally be taken into account for the entitlement to a pension.

However, Community law does not provide for the reciprocal transfer of insurance periods. Contributions already paid are therefore neither transferred to another country nor paid out to the person whose insurance ends in that country.

When applying for an old-age pension with the last competent pension insurance institution in the country of residence or the country in which you last acquired insurance periods, it must be pointed out that insurance periods were also acquired abroad. However, it is not necessary to apply for a pension separately in each contracting state. The pension insurance institution to which the application was submitted automatically initiates the international pension assessment procedure. If the conditions for entitlement are met, each state pays a separate pension in accordance with the relevant provisions once the person concerned has reached the corresponding retirement age.

Austria’s coordination in the area of social security is primarily based on EU law. Due to the EEA Agreement and the agreement with Switzerland on this law, the legal situation also applies in relation to the member states Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland as well as the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the United Kingdom (UK).

Austria’s coordination in the area of social security is primarily based on EU law. Due to the EEA Agreement and the agreement with Switzerland on this law, the legal situation also applies in relation to the member states Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland as well as the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the United Kingdom (UK).

• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Denmark
• Germany
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Ireland
• Iceland
• Italy
• Croatia
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Czechia
• Hungary
• Cyprus

In addition, there are agreements with the following countries that also regulate the area of pension insurance:

Albania
Australia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Chile
India
Israel
Canada (and Quebec)
North Macedonia
Moldova
Montenegro
Philippines
Republic of Korea
Serbia
Tunisia
Turkey
Uruguay
USA

Pension application

The pension application should be made in the insured person’s country of residence, to the relevant pension insurance provider. It is then passed on to all relevant pension insurance providers.

The pension periods earned are added together for the purpose of checking whether the applicable national waiting period has been met.

Benefits must be paid by all states in which insurance periods have been completed if there is an entitlement to benefits when the periods are added together under the respective national law.

Exception: If a pension period of less than twelve months has been earned in one of the countries, however, under the APG (General Pensions Act) this does not qualify for payments from the pension account which would have been made by the Austrian insurer even for under twelve months of insurance.

Pension calculation

According to EU law and the agreements entered into by Austria, the pension is to be calculated as follows:

If the pension conditions (with or without adding together the pension periods for the claim) are met, the following principle applies:
the Austrian pension will only ever be calculated on the basis of Austrian pension periods (that is, without payment by Austria for pension periods abroad). The pension calculated in this way will be paid out by the Austrian pension insurance provider. The foreign pension insurance provider will proceed in the same way.

Further links

• International consultation days (→ PVA)^{German text}
• Cross-national pension insurance (→ PVA)^{German text}
• Contact addresses of social insurance providers (→ SV)^{German text}