FAQs

• • Indian employees who contributed to German social security system when they worked on a Work permit in Germany

  • The pension contributions should be less than 60 months.

  • No lower limit, it can be one month, 6 months or whatever.

  • Completed waiting period of 24 months after last contribution to German pension system (It is NOT waiting from date of leaving from Germany). e.g.

• • • • • 1. Employee worked till March 2018 and pension contribution was upto March 2018, then refund is possible from April 2020 onwards.

          2. Employee worked till March 2018, but the pension was paid up-to September 2009 only, then refund is possible immediately after return from Germany that is March 2018. Waiting up-to April 2020 is not required.

• Currently should be living out of Germany, UK & EU countries. So Indians living in countries like India, USA, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, Indonesia, Japan etc. are eligible to get refund.

• There is no interest paid (means it is zero percent). So it is advisable to withdraw money as early as possible and make your own investments.

• Yes, get in touch with us and we will help you.

• No. As per latest rules Indo-German Social Security Agreement has come into force effective from 01.05.2017, so it is not possible to get pension refund for 5 years and more(60 months and more) pension contributions. 

• You can claim monthly pension as determined by some formula of German Govt. after retirement age (67+years)

• Yes, refund is still possible for less than 60 months pension contributions.

We advise that you should claim for refund as soon as you complete 2 years, so that if you have to go again to Germany then 60 months period is not crossed (Because if you withdraw the previous contributions then months counting will start fresh).

• When can I get my refund of pension contributions?

• If you have worked in Germany till January 2022 or your last contribution to pension fund was before January 2022 but left Germany recently (due to social security agreement between India and Germany in Oct 2009, but you have stayed later also), which means it has been more than 2 years since last pension contributions, your refund claim can be done immediately.  

• If you returned after January 2022 contact us and we will guide you (free of cost!) to get your documents up-to-date so that you don't face any problems in refund later on and we will also remind you when you complete two years.

• Pension refund application can be submitted after completing 2 years of waiting period.

• This is true that only employee contributions are refunded, still it is advisable to get refund. Some facts we need consider to decide about this.

• There is no interest paid by German Govt. to the deposits.

• People who paid for < 5 years, can get employee contribution as refund. 

• People who paid for > 5 years, can't get employee contribution as refund. There is only 1 option [effective from 01.05.2017]

• Get monthly pension as determined by some formula of German Govt. after retirement age (67+years) 

• Employer's contributions are never refunded, in any case.

• Once  you get the refund, you can invest in India and get a better return and after 20 years it is going to be 4-5 times of employee contribution(with a conservative estimate of 8% return compounding).  You can get a much better pension on your own with this money.

• Please use our refund calculator to estimate your refund amount.

• Employee's contributions are refunded (as shown in your salary slips).

• To give an example of how much money you can get, following are calculations:

• The above calculations assumes 1 Euro = Rs. 80.

• You can send your salary slip of December months or LohnsteuerBescheinigung (Wage tax certificate) of every year to us to calculate your refund amount.  It is worth putting efforts to get your money back. 

Following documents are required:

1. At least one German Salary slip (Preferably given payslip of December month of every year) 

2. First page of current Passport

3. De-registration certificate Germany (Abmeldung Beschinigung) 

4. Lohnsteuerbescheinigung (German Wage tax certificates) for all the years 

• There are some specific forms that need to be filled up and submitted along with required documents.

• There is a form which needs to be completed by authorized personnel. German embassy is one of them. We are also happy to inform you that it is not required to go to German embassy to get documents signed.

• There are other options also available within your city. So relax and we will guide you to get this form filled and signed from this personnel also.

• With our consultancy, generally, it takes 2 to 3 months (on an average) to get refund money in your bank account. Sometime it may take even longer.

• There are no restrictions to work again in Germany after getting the pension refund. You can certainly work again. Your same Social security number will continue and it will start from zero balance (because you have already taken refund for earlier contributions). Our many clients are working again in Germany after getting their pension refund.

• We are happy to inform that it is not mandatory to have a German bank account to get your refund. It is possible to get the refund in your Indian bank account (Normal saving account as well as NRE Account) also. German authorities will directly credit refund into your Indian bank account. Our customers have got money refunded into their Indian bank accounts like ICICI, HDFC, State Bank of India, CitiBank, Kotak Mahindra, Axis bank etc. and also to German bank accounts e.g. Deutsche bank, Sparda bank, CommerzBank, Sprakasse, Targo Bank etc. Our 90% of client get the refund into their Indian bank account because they don't have any German bank account.  

• Certainly, for any consultation/query regarding the refund you can contact us. We take care of the complete procedure giving you complete peace of mind. All our customers (2300+) have already got benefited from our services. We have 100% track records for successful refunds.