Apply for an A1 Certificate
If you are working temporarily in an EU/EEA country or in Switzerland or in a country which has signed a social security agreement with Finland, you can be covered by Finnish social security.
The certificate states which country’s social security applies to you while working abroad. If you meet the requirements, the Finnish Centre for Pensions grants you the certificate (A1 certificate in EU countries and Switzerland). If you cannot apply for the certificate or if the certificate is not granted, you cannot be covered by Finnish social security.
Please apply for the certificate well ahead in time before you start working abroad.
Apply for the certificate via our eServices. You can also apply for an extension (for example, if your posting is extended) online. The service is available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
Login to our eServices
To use the eServices of the Finnish Centre for Pensions, you must identify yourself in the Suomi.fi service (using, for example, your online banking credentials, mobile ID or certificate card).
Our eServices do not work on Internet Explorer.
Acting on behalf of a company requires authorization
As a rule, the employer applies for the certificate for its employees. If you are an employee, you can apply for the certificate yourself only if you have several employers while you work abroad.
Acting on behalf of a company requires authorization. Make the authorization in the section e-Authorization in the Suomi.fi service. Select “Handling social security matters relating to work in other countries”. For more information, go to Suomi.fi.
You can temporarily use our service with your Katso authorization. It is confirmed automatically when you have logged into the service with your Suomi.fi credentials. However, please activate your Suomi.fi authorization as soon as possible as the Katso authorization can be used only temporarily.
If you are applying for an A1 certificate on behalf of another company via our eServices, you don’t have to send us a separate power of attorney, just make the required authorizations via e-Authorization in Suomi.fi.
The online service includes instructions on how to fill out the application form.
When you are posted to another EU/EEA country or Switzerland, you need an A1 certificate to prove that you are covered by Finnish social security.
If you are posted to a social security agreement country, you need a certificate of the applicable legislation.
As a rule, your employer will apply for the application via our eServices.
If you are self-employed and will work temporarily in another EU Member State, you need an A1 certificate to attest that you are covered by Finnish social security legislation.
If you are self-employed and will work temporarily in a social security agreement country, you need an A1 certificate of the applicable legislation.
Apply for the certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions via our eServices.
If you are a grant recipient who will work temporarily in another EU Member State, you need an A1 certificate to prove that you are covered by Finnish social security.
If you are a grant recipient who will work temporarily in a social security agreement country, you need a certificate of the applicable legislation.
Apply for the certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions via our eServices.
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If you work in several EU Member States, you must notify the social security authorities in the country in which you live of your work in more than one EU Member State. In other words, you have to apply for an A1 certificate to show which country’s social security will apply to your work.
As a rule, if you work for only one employer, your employer will apply for the certificate. If you work for several employers, you have to apply for the certificate yourself.
Apply for the certificate via our via our eServices.
If you are a member of a flight crew and your home base is in a different country than in the one you live or in which you also do other work, you need an A1 certificate to determine which laws should be applied to your work.
As a rule, your employer is to apply for the A1 certificate via the online application service of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. If necessary, you can also apply for the certificate yourself.
If you are a sailor and work on a vessel that sails under the flag of another country than then one in which you live, or if you do other work, as well, you need an A1 certificate to determine which country’s laws are to be applied to your work.
As a rule, your employer is to apply for the A1 certificate via the online application service of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. If necessary, you can also apply for the certificate yourself.
As a freelancer you can work in en employment relationship or as a self-employed person. Typically, freelancers work for more than one employer. Whether you will be granted an A1 certificate of coverage under Finnish social security laws while you work abroad depends on whether you work as an employee or a self-employed person.
Apply for an A1 certificate if you work as a self-employed person
- in another EU country on a temporary basis, and
- you have taken out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act.
State on your application if you will be working abroad for other periods, as well, in the next 12 months.
Apply for an A1 certificate if you work as an employee
- repeatedly in several EU countries, and
- in an employment relationship.
If you have not taken out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act and you do not work abroad in an employment relationship, contact a pension provider to find out if you are under obligation to take out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act. If you take out pension insurance for the self-employed, apply for the A1 certificate as a self-employed person.
Do not apply for an A1 certificate if
- you work abroad in an employment relationship for a foreign employer only for one period, or
- you do not or cannot take out insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act.
In these cases, we cannot grant you the A1 certificate. Instead, you have to notify Kela that you are going abroad to work.
Note! We will expedite applications only if there are strong grounds for doing so. In that case, your employer must submit a statement from the authorities in the target country that explains that you cannot work or get paid for your work without the A1 certificate
Certificate of pending application
In our eServices, you can print out a certificate to attest that your application is pending.
Downloading the A1 certificate
You can download a granted certificate and cover letter from our eServices. You can print them yourself or download them to a mobile device. The Finnish Centre for Pensions will send you an e-mail when the certificate and cover letter are ready to be downloaded.
You will also get the certificate and cover letter on paper by post.
Status of application and decisions
You can check the status of your application in our eServices. It lists your applications that are in hand, in force, have expired or that you have drafted. The data is available for the past three years. You can also print a separate Excel file of the list.
Our eService also shows whether a certificate has been granted or rejected. Only granted certificates can be downloaded in the service. Rejections are sent by post to the parties concerned.
Notify the Finnish Centre for Pension of changes to your work abroad
The A1 certificate that the Finnish Centre for Pensions grants is valid for a fixed period of time.
If any of the following circumstances of your work abroad change while your A1 certificate is valid, please notify the Finnish Centre for Pensions of the change:
- you will return to Finland or your posting is interrupted more than 30 days before the certificate stops being valid,
- your employment relationship ends,
- your employer changes or you start in a parallel employment or start working as a self-employed person,
- you move abroad permanently,
- your work abroad is interrupted because you are laid off, you fall ill, you take unpaid leave, you take a family leave, you take a job alternation leave, or you take an equivalent leave
- you are a member of flight crew and your home base changes.
If your posting lasts for more than 30 days after your certificate has expired, you must apply for a new certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. If you have applied for a certificate through our eServices, you can use the pre-filled form to apply for an extension. You cannot copy old applications made with Katso authorisation, nor can you use them to make pre-filled applications for an extension.
Online form on social security coverage
Use primarily our eServices to expedite the handling of your application. If you cannot fill out the application online, fill out the application form on our website and print it via the link below.
You cannot use our eServices if you work abroad and do not have a Finnish ID number. As an employer you cannot apply online if you do not have Suomi.fi e-Authorization (for example, foreign employers or household employers). However, you will be able to identify yourself in the Suomi.fi service and apply for an A1 certificate online at some point during the spring of 2020 (more details to follow later).
You can send the filled out application by post. As a private customer, you can also attach your application to a Suomi.fi message.
When you are using a paper form to apply for an A1 certificate for a posted employee, make sure you are using the most recent version of the form. We will scan your paper application to make it electronic. When you use the most recent version of the form, it will be forwarded to the right place without delays when we sort it electronically.
If you are applying for a certificate with a paper form on behalf of another company, attach a freely formulated proxy to the application.
- Employees, civil servants, mariners, flight or cabin crew members (ETK 2146, pdf)
- Self-employed persons and entrepreneurs (ETK 2147, pdf)
- Grant recipients (ETK 2161, pdf)
Kela is notified of a granted certificate
We will notify the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) of the A1 certificate that we have granted. Without a separate application, Kela will send a European health insurance card to you if you are working in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland and are still covered by health insurance in Finland. The card gives you the right to care and to compensation for care given within the statutory health care system of the country in which you live.
Contact Kela also in the following situations:
- if you go to work in India, China or South Korea, or
- you are posted to a country that doesn’t have a social security agreement with Finland, for example, to Russia (since we cannot grant your employee an A1 certificate, you must apply for residence-based coverage under Finnish social security laws from Kela);
- if any of your family members come to live with you abroad. They have to fill in a separate form for coverage under Finnish social security and submit it to Kela.
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