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For HR teams and employer of record firms to hand to leaving staff

Leaving Germany? Your pension in three steps

Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Mein Kundenportal: Statutory pension insurance account, contribution history, and pension forecast. A pension from a person's own insurance (old-age, reduced earning capacity, child-raising pension) must be applied for within three months of meeting all the conditions; after a later application the pension normally starts only from the month of application.

PensionHunter is independent and not affiliated with the institutions named here.

The official routes come first here. Each line below names its official source and the date we read it. We identify; we do not advise.

1. What to keep before you leave

  • Your German pension insurance number and the dates of every German job.The system's own prompts never reach a short German career either: the automatic pension information and first insurance record are issued only once you are 27 and have five years of German contributions.Source: deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, read 3 October 2026
  • The countries and years you were insured outside Germany.The gate is five years of insurance, and Deutsche Rentenversicherung states that the German and the foreign insurance periods are added together to test it, so years insured elsewhere in the EU can carry you through a gate you assumed you had failed.Source: deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, read 3 October 2026
  • Any Riester pension contract.Riester subsidies are clawed back as schaedliche Verwendung where the holder's residence or habitual abode is outside the EU or EEA at the start of the payout phase, unless the Brexit carve out applies.Source: finanzamt.nrw.de, read 1 September 2026

2. The official route from abroad

  • Deutsche Rentenversicherung prints the problem itself: the pension does not come automatically when you reach pension age.Source: deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, read 3 October 2026
  • To see your insurance record online, registration requires a German identity card with the online identification function activated, a German electronic residence permit with that function activated, or a German electronic signature card.Source: deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, read 3 October 2026
  • There is no username and password route, all three are German issued, and the same service states that only German signature cards are supported.Source: deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, read 3 October 2026

Official contacts

3. Clocks that start on leaving

From our deadline register and the official sources it cites.

We write to most pension authorities in the countries we cover, stay in contact with them and update our facts as they answer. Read their written answers.

A full report is available from us at $99 per country, one report covering every country you tick. See pricing

Free to print and hand out. Printed from pensionhunter.ai/leaving/germany. Facts read up to 3 October 2026; each line carries its own read date.

More on this country: your pension after leaving Germany.