India's social security agreements in Europe and what happens to your pension
The Ministry of External Affairs lists 22 countries and territories with a social security agreement. An EPFO Certificate of Coverage helps only a posted worker.
The social security taken out of an Indian worker's pay in Europe is not lost money, provided the two countries hold an agreement. The Ministry of External Affairs page on social security agreements lists 22 countries and territories. In Europe those include Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Austria.
The subject reads as dry, which is exactly why nobody looks at it while accepting a job. It is also the place where fifteen years of work turns either into a pension or into a set of receipts.
The agreement does three things
First, it stops double contributions. Where an Indian employer sends a worker to Europe and the salary continues to run in India, a Certificate of Coverage from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation can exempt the worker from the destination country's social security. This applies only to a posted, or detached, worker.
Second, it allows periods to be added together. Most European pension systems require a minimum contribution period. Under an agreement, service completed in India can count towards that total, producing a pension that European service alone would not.
Third, it allows the pension to be exported. Benefits earned under the agreement can be drawn after a return to India, so going home does not cancel them.
| Situation | Who takes the contributions | What the agreement gives |
|---|---|---|
| Sent to Europe by an Indian employer, salary in India | India, with an EPFO Certificate of Coverage | exemption from the destination country's social security |
| Hired directly by a European employer | the destination country's system | aggregation of periods and export of the pension |
| A country with no agreement | the destination country's system | no aggregation, and a difficult claim after return |
Notice that the second row is where most Indian workers actually sit. Somebody hired directly by a company in Croatia contributes to the Croatian system, and a Certificate of Coverage is of no use to him. For him the value of the agreement appears later, when periods have to be added together or the pension has to be drawn in India.
The Indian side carries a different instrument
There is a second Indian instrument that gets counted under this heading although it is a different thing. The Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana provides cover of 10 lakh rupees, and the Ministry of External Affairs advisory sets the premium at 275 rupees for two years and 375 rupees for three. That is insurance rather than pension, and it attaches mainly to ECR category emigration, where a registered recruiting agent must buy the cover. It does not apply automatically to a job in Europe.
One figure for scale. German Labour Ministry statistics record 137,000 Indians in employment subject to social insurance contributions in Germany in February 2024. Every month, the deductions from those salaries have to be accounted for to somebody eventually.
The lapse that surfaces fifteen years later
The practical failure is documentary rather than legal. A worker spends four years in the Netherlands, three in Czechia and six in Germany, receiving a new social security number each time. Making a claim after returning to India requires records from all three countries, and all three former employers have since changed address. The agreement is still there. The evidence is not.
The remedy is cheap and dull. Keep every country's social security number, every annual statement, and the certificate issued when you leave each job. The Indian documents needed at the time of the claim will require an apostille from the Ministry of External Affairs, which costs 50 rupees per document with 84 rupees per document to the authorised agency.
Mobility agreements and social security agreements are different instruments, and the difference is set out in migration and mobility agreements. The German residence permit procedure is in the German residence permit steps, and the arrangements after arrival are in the relocation chain. The employer's part of this is described on the employers page.
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