Leaving Germany? What happens to your pension contributions.

If you worked in Germany and are leaving, the pension contributions taken from every payslip do not simply vanish — but what happens to them depends on your nationality, how long you paid in, and where you are going. For some people there is a refund. For others a refund would be a bad idea even if it were available.

1. Pension entitlement and refund eligibility are different questions

German state pension has a qualifying period: broadly five years of contributions (60 months). Cross it and you have earned a German pension, payable when you reach retirement age — including if you live abroad by then.

Five years decides whether you have a pension. It does not by itself decide whether you can get a refund after leaving Germany. That depends on separate conditions, set out in the next section, where your nationality and where you live play a central part.

• Under five years, you have no pension entitlement yet. A refund may be available instead, but only if you meet those conditions.
• Five years or more, you have an entitlement. A refund is not always ruled out: the Deutsche Rentenversicherung explains that some people, mostly foreign nationals, can still get one. Taking it would end that entitlement.

Your months still matter, because they decide whether a refund would mean giving up a pension. Periods you may not think of can count towards the five years, including certain time raising children, and periods in other countries under EU rules or a social security agreement.

Ask the Deutsche Rentenversicherung for your insurance record (Versicherungsverlauf) before deciding anything. It is free, and it is the only reliable answer. If you have five years or more and a refund is still open to you, the Deutsche Rentenversicherung suggests asking for a trial calculation of your pension (Probeberechnung) first.

2. Who can get a refund

After leaving Germany, the main route to a refund (Beitragserstattung) has two conditions (§ 210(1) SGB VI):

• you are no longer compulsorily insured in the German pension system, for example because you now work in another country; and
• you have no right to insure voluntarily in it. If you may pay voluntary contributions, there is no refund.

The second condition is where nationality and residence come in. German nationals can generally insure voluntarily wherever they live, so this route is closed to them. If you are not German, you can insure voluntarily while you live in Germany. Once you live elsewhere, it depends on your nationality and your new country: the rules differ for the EU, EEA and Switzerland, for countries with a social security agreement with Germany (section 6), and for countries with neither.

So the answer can differ for two people with the same number of months.

It is not a general "leaving Germany" refund, and it is not available simply because you have moved away. Other routes exist, for example if you reach the standard retirement age without five years of contributions, but this guide is about leaving.

3. The two-year wait

A refund is only paid once 24 calendar months have passed since your compulsory insurance ended, and only if you have not become compulsorily insured in Germany again in that time (§ 210(2) SGB VI).

The logic is that you might come back. The practical consequence is that many people leave, forget, and never claim. Put a reminder in your calendar for 24 months after your compulsory insurance ended. That is not always your last German payslip: contributions can continue after it, for example while you receive unemployment benefit, so check the date in your Versicherungsverlauf. Keep the documents you will need too — your social insurance number, your German employment history and your addresses.

There is no short deadline pushing the other way, so being late costs you nothing except the delay itself.

4. You get back less than you think

This is the part that disappoints people: for employment, a refund returns only the employee's share of the contributions (§ 210(3) SGB VI). The employer's matching share — roughly half of what was paid in on your behalf — is not refunded. Contributions from self-employment and voluntary contributions are also refunded at half.

Taking a refund also wipes the slate: the periods are spent, and they no longer count towards anything later, including under agreements that might otherwise have let another country's system recognise them (§ 210(6) SGB VI). Credits you never paid for, such as time raising children, are lost too. If there is any real chance you will work in Germany or the EU again, that is a significant thing to give up for half the money.

If the pension insurance has already paid you a benefit, for example medical rehabilitation, only contributions paid after that benefit can be refunded (§ 210(5) SGB VI).

5. EU citizens: why there is no refund, and why that's fine

EU, EEA and Swiss nationals generally cannot claim a refund — and generally do not benefit from one.

European coordination rules add your periods together across member states. Three years in Germany, four in Spain and five in Poland are not three orphaned fragments; they count towards qualifying, and each country pays its own share at retirement based on what you paid there.

So contributions are not lost when you move within Europe. They are held for you, and that is usually a better outcome than half your money back today. Whether a refund is possible at all still turns on section 2: the right to insure voluntarily.

6. Agreements with your home country

Germany has bilateral social security agreements with a number of countries outside the EU. Where one applies, periods can often be aggregated in a similar way, and a refund may be restricted for the same reason it is for EU citizens.

Whether your country has such an agreement, and what it covers, is a factual question with a definite answer — and it changes the arithmetic completely. Establish it before you apply for anything, not after.

7. How to apply for the refund

A refund is never paid automatically. You apply to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (§ 210(1) SGB VI), on its form, once the 24 months in section 3 have passed.

• Living abroad: form V0901, the application for a refund while living abroad, available in German and English. It asks for official confirmation of your nationality and includes the payment details for a transfer abroad.
• Living in Germany: form V0900, with its notes in V0910.
• Turkish nationals living abroad: a separate German/Turkish form, E5816.

The forms are in the Deutsche Rentenversicherung's refund form package. Send the signed form by post to your pension insurance office, the one named on your Versicherungsverlauf, or hand it in at one of its advice centres in Germany. Put your social insurance number on everything.

8. If it is refused

A refusal is a decision like any other benefits decision: you generally have one month to object, the objection is free, and the route onward is the social court, which charges insured people no court fees. If the decision was notified to you abroad, the period is normally three months (§ 84 SGG).

The disputes worth checking are almost always factual: months missing from your record, periods abroad not credited, employment your file does not show, or a misjudged application of an agreement. Our guide to challenging a benefits decision explains the procedure.

Before you do anything

Qualifying periods, waiting times and the list of agreement countries change over time, and how they apply depends on your own record. This is the shape of the system, not a calculation for your case — the Deutsche Rentenversicherung advises free of charge, and a lawyer is worth involving where a decision has already gone against you.