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How to find a pension you built up abroad
6 min read · Updated 2026-07-14
Pension rights do not expire when you leave a country. They stay recorded under a national insurance number until you claim them — but nobody will contact you first, so tracing them is your job.
Start from your work history, not from the institutions
List every country, employer and approximate start and end date. Even a rough timeline tells you which national schemes to query, and payslips, contracts or tax returns are usually enough to reopen a missing period later.
Find your national insurance number in each country
Most schemes index your record by a personal number: the codice fiscale in Italy, the Versicherungsnummer in Germany, the NAF in Spain or the numéro de sécurité sociale in France. Old payslips almost always show it.
Request the official statement, then store it
Each institution issues a contribution statement listing insured periods. Download the PDF, keep the certified version where one exists, and upload it so your record is evidence-based rather than remembered.
Frequently asked questions
- Can a foreign pension be lost if I never claim it?
- Rights are not deleted, but they are not paid automatically either. If you never file a claim, most schemes simply hold the entitlement, and in several countries arrears are only paid for a limited period before the application date.
- How few years of work abroad are still worth tracing?
- Even one year matters. Under EU coordination rules short periods are added to your other insurance periods to open entitlement, and the country where you worked pays a proportional share.
- Do I need to hire an intermediary?
- No. Every institution covered here issues contribution statements directly to the insured person, free of charge, through its own portal or by post.
Country guides
Official institution, login method, document name and expected waiting time for every country we cover.
Related articles
- Contribution years explained: weeks, months, quarters and daysCountries count pension periods in different units. Learn how weeks, quarters and days convert into years — and why totals differ between statements.
- EU pension coordination: how Regulation 883/2004 worksThe EU does not create one pension. It coordinates national schemes: periods are aggregated for entitlement and each country pays its own proportional share.
- Pro-rata pension calculation, step by stepSee how an institution turns your European insurance record into a proportional pension, and which figures drive the result the most.
Informational content, not legal or financial advice. Always confirm your situation with the competent national institution.