Iceland, country page
Researched and sourced 9 August 2026.
Start here
$99
Country Pension Identification Report, Iceland
Within 24 to 48 hours
Full refund if we find nothing material.
Enhanced Pension Identification Report, $499: your Action Pack, a complete request pack for every fund we identify, written in your voice and ready to send, delivered within five working days of your intake form. Global Pension Identification Report, $799: the same across every country you worked in, up to all 41 we cover, within ten working days. Full refund if we find nothing material, decided at identification.
At the Country Report you contact the administrators yourself, using the routes in your report. On Enhanced and Global: We stay with your case after delivery. If an administrator asks you a question, refuses, or simply does not reply, send it to us and we will tell you exactly what to send next. That continues until every fund we identified has answered you, or the route is exhausted and we say so plainly.
Identification only. We do not open credential-protected accounts, and we do not transfer, negotiate, or make decisions regarding any pension. Everything below is the free official route, and it stays free: you are welcome to use it instead.
lifeyrismal.is, questions and answers, lifeyrismal.is, pension fund directory
Act No. 129/1997 makes pension insurance compulsory for employees and the self-employed from 16 to 70, sets a minimum contribution of at least 15.5 per cent of the contribution base, and makes membership follow the collective agreement that sets minimum terms. The Association restates this in English with the customary split of 4 per cent employee and 11.5 per cent employer. That split is customary, not statutory. The same page says rights are preserved, must be applied for, and are not forfeit even though statements have been lost.
althingi.is, Act No. 129/1997, lifeyrismal.is, payments into a pension fund
Anyone who worked in Iceland even for a season almost certainly has an account in a fund they never picked. Not remembering joining anything is the expected state, not evidence of absence.
Lifeyrisgattin retrieves information about the other funds paid into during a working life, reached from a fund's member pages with Icelandic electronic identity. There is no anonymous kennitala-only public search.
The fallback: +354 563 6400 or lifeyrir@greidslustofa.is, quoting your Icelandic identity number.
lifeyrismal.is, rights, lifeyrismal.is, supervision and maintenance
Greidslustofa's own site says it serves Birta, Festa, Gildi, Lifeyrissjodur baenda, Lifeyrissjodur Vestmannaeyja, SL and Stapi, and that it has no public reception, while the Association directory lists many more. It is a strong first call, and expressly not a universal register.
Apply to the fund you paid into last or hold most rights in, and it forwards your application to the others. From abroad you need identify only one fund.
The state pension is residence-based and claimed through the institution of your country of residence, not directly. Living abroad, you contact the equivalent institution to Tryggingastofnun in that country, so having no island.is login is not a reason to stop.
Before applying to TR you must apply to all funds you paid into, and backdating is capped at up to two years retroactive, so silence costs arrears.
Funds must send accrued and prospective rights at least yearly, which is why someone who moved without updating an address goes dark. Tell the fund your new address.
island.is, retirement, island.is, old-age pension application, lifeyrismal.is, moving to another country
Citizens of contracting states cannot have their contributions refunded on leaving, so the money is still there. Act No. 129/1997 permits but does not require a refund to foreign nationals moving away where no international agreement forbids it, a discretion under each fund's rules, and the Association states that a citizen of a contracting state may not apply for reimbursement of pension contributions on moving away from Iceland, even holding more than one nationality. Contracting states include all EU and EFTA states, the USA, Canada, the UK, the Faroe Islands and Switzerland. Hold one of those nationalities and you could not have cashed out, so your pot was never paid away.
althingi.is, Act No. 129/1997, lifeyrismal.is, foreign citizens
No residence test at all.
At least three years of legal domicile between 16 and 67, full rights at 40 years between 16 and 67 which need not be continuous, proportional below that, with the right generally arising at 67.
Periods from a previous country of residence count to the extent necessary to acquire insurance rights, which is how someone short of three Icelandic years qualifies. The agreements listed there include the EEA agreement, the Nordic Convention and the United Kingdom from 1 January 2024, a date worth flagging.
Payment abroad needs a treaty state, plus a tax return from the country of residence by 1 August yearly and a life certificate, lifsvottord, certified by an official authority by 31 December, or TR may suspend payment.
Which fund or funds hold contributions in your name, and a statement of accrued rights. The identifier is your kennitala: ten digits, the first six your date of birth as DDMMYY.
Audkenni says a person over 18 with an Icelandic passport and an NFC-capable device can self-register in its app anywhere in the world, and that otherwise a registration station must be attended. So an Icelandic passport holder abroad can be in the Portal the same day, while a foreign national ex-worker cannot, and uses email, post and their home institution.
Cost. No fee is published for requesting a record or claiming.
Language. The official pension pages and the Association questions and answers are in English, though the statute is in practice only in Icelandic.
For the state pension you do not log into island.is: contact the social insurance institution of the country where you live, and it opens the claim into Iceland. Iceland publishes Nordic contact points.
Hlidasmari 11, 201 Kopavogur, Iceland
Telephone +354 560 4400
Weekdays 10:00 to 15:00
TR publishes no general email address, so use phone or post.
For the funds, email and post work, and correcting the address they already hold is often the unlock.
We would rather tell you there is nothing than waste your time.
There is no anonymous kennitala-only public search. Lifeyrisgattin, the Pension Portal, retrieves information about the other funds paid into during a working life, and it is reached from a fund's member pages with Icelandic electronic identity. The published non-login fallback is +354 563 6400 or lifeyrir@greidslustofa.is, quoting your Icelandic identity number. The limit in the same breath: Greidslustofa's own site says it serves Birta, Festa, Gildi, Lifeyrissjodur baenda, Lifeyrissjodur Vestmannaeyja, SL and Stapi, and has no public reception, while the Association directory lists many more. It is a strong first call, and expressly not a universal register. The unlock is that you apply to the fund you paid into last or hold most rights in and it forwards your application to the others, so from abroad you need identify only one fund.
Citizens of contracting states cannot have their contributions refunded on leaving, so the money is still there. Act No. 129/1997 permits but does not require a refund to foreign nationals moving away where no international agreement forbids it, a discretion under each fund's rules, and the Association states that a citizen of a contracting state may not apply for reimbursement of pension contributions on moving away from Iceland, even holding more than one nationality. Contracting states include all EU and EFTA states, the USA, Canada, the UK, the Faroe Islands and Switzerland. Hold one of those nationalities and you could not have cashed out, so your pot was never paid away.
The state pension is residence-based and claimed through the institution of your country of residence, not directly. Living abroad, you contact the equivalent institution to Tryggingastofnun in that country, so having no island.is login is not a reason to stop. Nothing pays out automatically: before applying to TR you must apply to all funds you paid into, and backdating is capped at up to two years retroactive, so silence costs arrears.
Yes. Membership is compulsory for employees and the self-employed from 16 to 70 under Act No. 129/1997, with a minimum contribution of at least 15.5 per cent of the contribution base, and membership follows the collective agreement that sets minimum terms. Anyone who worked in Iceland even for a season almost certainly has an account in a fund they never picked, so not remembering joining anything is the expected state, not evidence of absence. The occupational fund has no residence test at all.
Start here
$99
Country Pension Identification Report, Iceland
Within 24 to 48 hours
Full refund if we find nothing material.
Enhanced Pension Identification Report, $499: your Action Pack, a complete request pack for every fund we identify, written in your voice and ready to send, delivered within five working days of your intake form. Global Pension Identification Report, $799: the same across every country you worked in, up to all 41 we cover, within ten working days. Full refund if we find nothing material, decided at identification.
At the Country Report you contact the administrators yourself, using the routes in your report. On Enhanced and Global: We stay with your case after delivery. If an administrator asks you a question, refuses, or simply does not reply, send it to us and we will tell you exactly what to send next. That continues until every fund we identified has answered you, or the route is exhausted and we say so plainly.
Identification only. We do not open credential-protected accounts, and we do not transfer, negotiate, or make decisions regarding any pension. Everything below is the free official route, and it stays free: you are welcome to use it instead.
Important Information
PensionHunter is a research and administrative assistance service only. We search pension registries and employer records to identify whether pension entitlements may exist in your name, we do not provide financial advice, manage pension funds, arrange pension transfers, or assist with claiming or accessing pension funds.
PensionHunter is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or any equivalent financial-services or pensions regulator in your jurisdiction. Our service is limited to research and information provision. We charge a fixed research fee paid in advance, Full refund if we find nothing material.
All decisions about your pension, including whether to contact providers, transfer funds, or take any other action, remain entirely yours. We strongly recommend consulting a qualified independent financial adviser regulated in your jurisdiction before making any decisions about any pension we locate.