Permanent move abroad  

Moving to an EU or EEA country or to Switzerland

Payment of the national pension continues if you move to an EU or EEA country or to Switzerland.

Moving to a country that has a social security agreement with Finland

If you move to a country that has a social security agreement with Finland, payment of pensions from Kela which are covered by the agreement continues on certain conditions.

The agreements with the United States, Canada, Chile and Israel cover old-age pensions and survivors’ pensions. Payment of the pensions presupposes that you have lived in Finland for at least 3 years after having reached the age of 16 years. If you move to the United States or Canada, payment of a disability pension in current payment can also continue.

If you move to Australia the amount of the pension will change since Australia takes any basic pensions paid by the other signatory country into account as income.

Move to some other country than an EU or EEA country, Switzerland or a country that has a social security agreement with Finland

If you move to some other country than an EU or EEA country, Switzerland or a country that has a social security agreement with Finland, the national pension will be paid for a maximum of one year. However, payment of the pension will be interrupted from the beginning of the month following the move abroad, if you have not lived in Finland for at least one year immediately before the move abroad.

Review of the pension

Your national pension or survivors’ pension will be reviewed every two years. Send the reply form that you have received back to Kela in time so that payment of the pension is not interrupted.

Payment of the pension

If your pension is paid from one EU or EEA country to another, the banks implementing the transfer may charge you a transfer fee (on top of any other bank charges that may apply). In order to get the pension paid by Kela into your account without extra costs, you should report the BIC code of your bank in the country of residence and the IBAN account number of your account in that bank to Kela in writing. You can also have your pension paid into a Finnish account.