Pensions generally accrue in accordance with the legislation of the country where a person is working at that time. If you have also worked elsewhere than in your country of residence during your working career, you may be entitled to a pension from a country abroad. Each individual country awards its pension benefit in line with its own legislation.

When you apply for early old-age pension or old-age pension from another country, bear in mind that earnings-based pension from Finland accrues at an annual rate of only 1.5% if you are awarded a pension from another country. If you are on a part-time pension, you should apply for old-age pension or disability pension from the other country to start from the same date as old-age pension or disability pension from Finland. This is because a pension awarded from another country prevents payment of a part-time pension.

If you live in Finland

If you have worked or lived abroad and you apply for a pension from Finland, you must fill in appendix U (pdf, available in Finnish), which provides detailed information about periods of work and residence abroad. Also enclose with your application other possible documents that relate to work and living abroad (for instance, employment certificates). This enables a foreign authorised pension provider to process your pension matters more smoothly.
The Finnish Centre for Pensions’ website provides a lot of information about working abroad and the pension.

Applying for a pension from EU States

If you have lived and/or worked in another EU or EEA State, the Seafarer’s Pension Fund forwards your application and appendix U (pdf, available in Finnish) to the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The Finnish Centre for Pensions sends your application to all the EU/EEA States where you have worked and/or lived. The same regulations for EU/EEA States also apply to Switzerland because the EU has a social security agreement with Switzerland that applies to pensions.

If you apply for disability pension in accordance with Finland’s earnings-related pension legislation and you have worked in another EU/EEA State as well as Finland, your pension matter immediately becomes pending in those countries.

If you apply for a survivor’s pension, your pension application is sent to all those EU/EEA States where the person through whom a benefit is derived has worked.

When you apply for old-age pension in accordance with Finland’s earnings-related pension legislation, you can apply for old-age pension from another EU/EEA State at the same time. You can also bring forward or defer applying for a pension from another EU/EEA State. However, retirement age for the old-age pension and the possibilities to bring forward and/or defer an application vary from State to State. Also, bear in mind that earnings-based pension for your work in Finland accrues at an annual rate of only 1.5% after another EU State has awarded you a pension. Please also note that a pension awarded from another country prevents payment of a part-time pension.

If you apply for unemployment pension in accordance with Finland’s earnings-related pension legislation, you can apply at the same time for early old-age pension from abroad or you can defer applying for a pension. For instance, you can receive early old-age pension from Sweden at the age of 61 at the earliest.

Applying for a pension from social security agreement countries

Finland has social security agreements with Israel, Canada (Quebec) and the United States. If you apply for a pension from these countries, you must fill in appendix U (pdf, available in Finnish), which provides detailed information about periods of work and residence abroad, and enclose it with your application for a pension from Finland. The Seafarer’s Pension Fund forwards your application to the Finnish Centre for Pensions and the Finnish Centre for Pensions sends you the pension application for the social security agreement country concerned for you to fill in.

Applying for a pension from other countries

The Finnish Centre for Pensions’ website provides information concerning applying for a pension from countries that fall outside of agreements.

If you live abroad

You can initiate your pension application by turning to an authorised pension provider in your country of residence (for instance, the local Försäkringskassa in Sweden). When you fill in the national pension application of your country of residence, provide information on your work in Finland as well as in other countries. The authorised pension provider in your country of residence will accordingly send your application to the authorised pension providers in the countries where you have worked. The application sent by the pension provider in your country of residence initiates your application for the earnings-based pension in accordance with Finland’s earnings-related pension legislation and the residence-based national pension.

You can apply directly to Finland for a pension if you live in a country other than an EU/EEA State or social security agreement country. In this instance, enclose appendix U (pdf, available in Finnish)and an extract from the population register centre (virkatodistus) with your application. The extract must be issued by a notary public or a Finnish consulate.

Read more on the website of the Finnish Centre for Pensions.