Going home? Your German pension comes with you
The question usually comes up when someone starts thinking about going home. Three, five or eight years working in Germany, the contract is ending or they want to be closer to their family, and then it is there: what happens to my contributions?
I am from Chile and I advise people in Hannover who face this decision. What many do not know is that, where the refund is possible, it means giving up entitlements that cannot be recovered afterwards. There are two points worth being clear about. If you worked as an employee, you are normally refunded only what you paid in yourself, not what your employer paid. And on receiving that money, the pension entitlements accumulated until then are extinguished, not only those matching the amount refunded.
In short: Your German pension is paid worldwide, for life, including in Chile, Colombia or Mexico (§ 110 SGB VI). Five years on an average salary come to roughly €213 a month from 67. Whether you can have contributions refunded instead is decided by your nationality, where you live after leaving and any social security agreement: as an EU citizen you cannot, and in exchange your periods are added to those of your home country. Nor can someone from a non-EU country who stays resident inside the EU. From a non-EU country it is possible 24 calendar months after your compulsory insurance ends. What is then paid out is your own share, meaning 9.3 of the 18.6 per cent, and the periods before it no longer count (§ 210 SGB VI). On five years at a €60,000 salary that is €27,900 once against €213 every month from 67. Discount both back to today and the decision turns at roughly 1.4 per cent real return if you decide at 35, and at 2.2 per cent at 50.
Your pension follows you wherever you go
This is the point people tend not to believe at first, and it is the most important one in this article: the German pension is paid worldwide. To Santiago, to Bogotá, to Mexico City. You do not have to stay in Germany for it, you do not have to change nationality, and you do not have to keep an account here.
As a rule, people entitled to a pension who are habitually resident abroad receive the same benefits, unless the special provisions say otherwise (§ 110 SGB VI). Anyone whose German record consists purely of contribution periods, which is almost always the case after a few working years, loses practically nothing there. The reductions some people remember concern non-contributory periods (§ 114 SGB VI), and you barely have any of those after five working years.
Put differently: the years you worked here sit on a record in your name that you do not have to close when you leave. It waits until you are 67 and then pays every month, for as long as you live.
Three things decide which route is open to you
This is where the routes diverge. Your language plays no part in it, which is why advice from colleagues so often misses: your colleague from Madrid and your colleague from Bogotá get opposite answers to the same question, and both pass theirs on as if it applied to everyone.
What actually decides is three things:
- Your nationality. It sets the basic case.
- Where you live after leaving. This gets overlooked regularly and can rule out the refund on its own.
- Whether a social security agreement exists between Germany and your country. Germany has such agreements with Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and the USA among others. They can add insurance periods together and open access to voluntary insurance, which turns the calculation around.
The reason sits in § 210 Abs. 1 SGB VI. A refund goes only to someone who is no longer subject to compulsory insurance and has no right to voluntary insurance. EU citizens hold exactly that right. That rules the refund out for them, and it is the better deal: the periods stay on the record and count later.
Where you live hangs on the same clause. Someone from a non-EU country who moves to an EU state may pay voluntary contributions into the German pension system, provided they were insured here at some point. That gives them the right to voluntary insurance, and the refund is ruled out. The Deutsche Rentenversicherung puts it this way in its commentary on § 210 SGB VI: „Eine Beitragserstattung gemäß § 210 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 SGB VI ist daher an Drittstaatsangehörige mit Wohnsitz innerhalb der EU nicht möglich.” A refund is therefore not available to non-EU nationals living inside the EU.
For you that means: a Chilean engineer returning to Santiago has the choice. The same engineer moving to Madrid instead does not. Same person, same passport, different outcome.
Which contributions are refunded
If you come from a non-EU country, you have a choice. Then it is worth looking closely at what actually lands in your account, because most people work with the full contribution shown on their payslip.
The pension contribution rate in 2026 is 18.6 per cent, and it is split in half: 9.3 per cent from you, 9.3 per cent from your employer. § 210 Abs. 3 SGB VI says:
„Beiträge werden in der Höhe erstattet, in der die Versicherten sie getragen haben.”
Contributions are refunded in the amount the insured person bore. So what is paid out is your own share. The other half was paid by your employer, and that stays in the system.
An example: an engineer who works five years in Hannover and earns €60,000 gross a year. Together with his employer, €55,800 went into the pension system. If he meets the requirements and applies for the refund, he receives €27,900, his own share. The other €27,900, paid by his employer, he does not get.
| Example calculation | Amount |
|---|---|
| Paid in altogether over 5 years | €55,800 |
| Your share (9.3 per cent) | €27,900 |
| Your employer’s share (9.3 per cent) | €27,900 |
| Refunded to you | €27,900 |
Which entitlements you lose with the refund
There is one thing in the law you should know before you file the application. § 210 Abs. 6 SGB VI:
„Der Antrag auf Erstattung kann nicht auf einzelne Beitragszeiten oder Teile der Beiträge beschränkt werden. Mit der Erstattung wird das bisherige Versicherungsverhältnis aufgelöst. Ansprüche aus den bis zur Erstattung zurückgelegten rentenrechtlichen Zeiten bestehen nicht mehr.”
Three sentences, three consequences. You cannot have part of it paid out and leave the rest standing. Your insurance relationship ends with it. And the years you paid in no longer count afterwards, not even if you come back later.
And there sits the imbalance that the figures hide: you get back only your own half. What lapses are the claims from every period you completed, including those built on your employer’s half. Not just the part matching the amount paid out.
That reaches further than the old-age pension. Those periods can also open access to a reduced-earning-capacity pension and to survivors’ provision for your family, provided the other requirements are met. So you are giving up two things at once: the monthly payment, and cover that runs quietly in the background.
The calculation: €27,900 once, or €213 every month
Someone who earns roughly the German average wage for five years collects about five pension points. From 1 July 2026 one pension point is worth €42.52 of monthly pension. That makes €212.60 a month, from retirement age, for life, abroad as well.
Our engineer’s €60,000 a year is above the 2026 reference salary. I use one point per year as a simplifying assumption here, not as an exact calculation of his pension.
An earlier version of this article did this calculation differently. It said the pension caught up with the refund after just under 11 years. The arithmetic was right, but it was the wrong sum: it put €27,900 that you receive today against payments that only start at 67. Adding up and comparing amounts at completely different points in time says nothing economically. Felipe was right to push back on it.
It becomes sound once both sides are discounted back to the day you decide. Then what actually drives the answer becomes visible: your age, and the return you achieve on the money once you have it.
The line sits at roughly 1.4 per cent real return if you decide at 35, and at 2.2 per cent if you decide at 50. Beat that consistently and the refund is worth more. Fall short and the pension is.
Two things sit in no calculation and count anyway: the pension pays for as long as you live. Reach 95 and the line moves well to the right. And it pays regardless of whether you spent or lost the money in between.
When the refund can make sense
The refund can make sense if you do not meet the qualifying period for a pension and can no longer complete it. You also have to meet the statutory requirements for the application itself.
For a standard old-age pension you need the general qualifying period of five years (§ 50 Abs. 1 SGB VI). Those 60 months do not have to come from employment contributions alone: other creditable periods count too, and, depending on the rules that apply to you, insurance periods from other countries.
Before you decide, answer three questions:
- Do you reach 60 creditable months? Look at your full insurance record and check whether periods from other countries can be added together.
- Can you still make up the missing months? Through future employment contributions, for instance, or voluntary contributions if you are entitled to pay them.
- Might you work in Germany again? After the refund the old periods produce no entitlements. New contributions do not restore extinguished periods.
Germany has social security agreements with several Latin American states that allow periods to be added together for pension requirements. Check whether an agreement applies to your case before you file.
What applies if you are an EU citizen
If you are Spanish and have paid into the German system, you generally cannot claim the refund simply because you are moving back to Spain.
Your German periods stay on your record. When you later claim a pension, insurance periods from Germany and Spain are added together, where that is needed and without counting overlaps twice, to check whether you meet each country’s minimum.
Each country then calculates and pays according to its own rules and the periods it recognises. So you can receive a German pension and a Spanish one, though not necessarily from the same age. Adding the periods together makes sure your years in both countries count. On its own it does not guarantee a higher total.
And subsidised private pensions?
Anyone who holds a subsidised contract alongside the state pension, meaning Riester or the new Altersvorsorgedepot from 2027, needs to know a second rule. It sits in § 95 EStG and runs along the same border:
One word in that rule is easy to miss. Repayment applies where your residence lies outside the EU and the EEA from the start of the payout phase. What counts is where you live when the contract starts paying out, not the day you leave Germany.
- Residence in the EU or EEA: the move alone triggers no repayment of subsidies and tax reliefs.
- Residence outside from the start of the payout phase: subsidies and tax reliefs are repayable under § 95 EStG.
So moving to Latin America while you are still saving does not by itself trigger an immediate repayment. There is also a difference between keeping the contract and cancelling it early, because cancelling can trigger repayment by a different route.
What this means for a career starter who took the €200 bonus is in the career-starter bonus requirements (in German). In short: anyone who knows they will return to Latin America within a few years looks closely at the subsidised route first. A plain investment account carries no such tie and travels with you without side effects.
Your next step
Before you apply for the refund, get hold of these documents. All three are free.
- Your insurance record and pension statement (Versicherungsverlauf and Rentenauskunft) from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. Check the periods recognised and the pension points collected. Also ask them to confirm whether you can apply for the refund at all and how much it would be.
- Confirmation of which international rules apply to you and whether insurance periods from other countries can be added together under them.
- A statement of the subsidies and tax reliefs on your Riester contract, if you have one. Your provider has to certify these every year (§ 92 EStG), and the central subsidy office can confirm them. Clarify with the provider in which cases you would have to repay, and what the amount would be.
Then a question that decides more than any table: what will you do with the €27,900 from the example? If you need the money for the move, for a flat or to start again, and have nothing else to draw on, that weighs in the decision. Still work out when you would actually receive it and which entitlements it costs.
If you do not need it straight away, compare both routes against your age, the years left until retirement, the pension you can expect and what you would genuinely do with the money. Neither taking the refund nor keeping the entitlements is automatically the better choice.
Frequently asked questions
Will my German pension be paid to me in Chile or Colombia?
Yes. If you are entitled to a German pension, you can as a rule draw it in Chile or Colombia too. Living abroad does not remove that entitlement, although exceptions can apply (§ 110 SGB VI). Overriding international agreements can add further rules.
How long do I have to wait before I can apply for the refund?
24 months must have passed since your compulsory pension insurance ended, without you becoming subject to it again. The clock starts when that compulsory insurance ends, not when you leave Germany.
Can I have only part of it paid out?
No. § 210 Abs. 6 SGB VI rules that out expressly: the application cannot be limited to individual contribution periods or to parts of the contributions.
Can I reverse the refund if I come back?
No. Returning to Germany does not undo the refund: the entitlements from the earlier periods are extinguished. If you work and contribute again you build new pension entitlements, but you do not get the earlier periods back.
I am Spanish and I want the money anyway. Is there a way around it?
No. As long as the right to voluntary insurance exists, § 210 Abs. 1 SGB VI rules the refund out. That right does not end because you leave Germany. In exchange, your periods stay on your record.
What happens to my retirement savings product?
It depends on the contract. With a subsidised Riester contract, moving within the EU and EEA does not in itself trigger repayment of the subsidies and tax reliefs. If your residence lies outside that area from the start of the payout phase, repayment under § 95 EStG applies. Leaving while you are still saving does not on its own cause an immediate repayment.
Non-subsidised contracts and ordinary investment accounts fall outside this rule. You should still check their terms and the tax treatment when you change residence.
Facing this decision and want your own case assessed? We advise in German, English and Spanish: book a consultation in Hannover.
Sources
- § 210 SGB VI, refund of contributions (24 calendar months; refund limited to the share borne by the insured person; dissolution of the insurance relationship and loss of entitlements)
- § 50 SGB VI, qualifying periods (general qualifying period of five years for the standard old-age pension)
- § 110 SGB VI, benefits for those entitled while abroad
- § 114 SGB VI, special rules while resident abroad
- § 95 EStG, repayment where residence is outside the EU and EEA
- § 92 EStG, the provider’s annual certificate (subsidies and the balance of subsidised capital)
- § 3 Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026 (provisional average earnings for 2026: €51,944)
- Deutsche Rentenversicherung: refund of contributions (24 calendar months and no entitlement to voluntary insurance)
- Official notice of contribution rates for 2026 (RVBeitrSBek 2026): „Der Beitragssatz für das Jahr 2026 beträgt weiterhin in der allgemeinen Rentenversicherung 18,6 Prozent”
- § 1 Rentenwertbestimmungsverordnung 2026: „Der aktuelle Rentenwert beträgt ab dem 1. Juli 2026 42,52 Euro.”
- DRV on the 2026 pension adjustment (rise of 4,24 per cent, point value from 40,79 Euro to 42,52 Euro)
- Deutsche Rentenversicherung commentary on § 210 SGB VI (rvRecht) (right to voluntary insurance; no refund for non-EU nationals resident inside the EU)
Wenn du deine eigene Situation in Ruhe besprechen willst: wir melden uns bei dir.