German Pension Refund
Getting Your Contributions Back When You Leave

If you worked in Germany and are now leaving for good, the pension deductions on every payslip do not have to stay behind. Under §210 SGB VI, many expats can claim a refund of their state pension contributions — the Beitragserstattung — from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV). Whether you qualify, how much you get back, and whether claiming is even a good idea depends on rules that most leavers never hear about. This guide walks through all three.

The Short Answer

The Beitragserstattung is a refund of your German pension contributions, paid by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung when you leave the German pension system for good. It is an exception in the system, not the rule — and it only ever returns your own share of the contributions: 9.3% of your gross salary for every month you were insured. Your employer's half is never refunded.

Three conditions must all be met before you can apply:

• You are no longer compulsorily insured in Germany — your German employment, and with it your obligation to pay into the system, has ended.
• 24 full calendar months have passed since your last compulsory contribution (more on this clock below — it does not start when you leave the country).
• You have no right to insure yourself voluntarily in the German pension system. This third condition is where your nationality decides everything.

A refund is also only one item on a longer leaving-Germany list — alongside deregistering your address (Abmeldung) and stopping charges tied to your German home, such as the broadcasting fee covered in our guide to deregistering the ARD ZDF Beitrag when leaving Germany. It is simply the largest amount of money on that list.

How Much You Get Back

While you worked in Germany, 18.6% of your gross salary went into the state pension every month. Half of that — 9.3 percentage points — was deducted from your pay; your employer paid the other 9.3 points on top. A Beitragserstattung returns only the share you paid yourself: 9.3% of your gross salary for every insured month. The employer's half stays in the system permanently, no matter how much it was.

Two reductions catch people out. If you paid contributions as a self-employed person, or you paid voluntary contributions at any point, those amounts are refunded at only half their value. Employee contributions from a normal job are the only ones returned in full.

The formula is simple: months worked × monthly gross salary × 9.3%. Two examples at steady salaries:

In practice the DRV calculates your refund from your actual insurance record, month by month, so pay rises, part-time phases and gaps are all reflected exactly. For most employed expats, the refund lands somewhere in the four-to-low-five figures.

Who Can Claim: The Nationality Rules

Everything turns on the third condition: whether you have the right to pay voluntary contributions (freiwillige Versicherung) into the German system from abroad. If you could simply keep paying in voluntarily, the DRV will not refund you — the law treats the refund as an exit only for people who genuinely have no way to stay in the system. That produces three very different groups:

Non-EU nationals from countries without a social security agreement. If your home country has no pension agreement with Germany — this covers most African states, Russia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and many others — you generally have no right to voluntary insurance, so a refund is possible regardless of how long you contributed, even well beyond five years. You must be living outside Germany when you claim; your residence is checked.

Nationals of agreement (treaty) countries. Germany has social security agreements with countries including the USA, Canada, Japan, India, Turkey and Morocco. Under these agreements, your insurance periods count in both systems — so you can normally keep building toward a pension, and a refund is generally only possible with fewer than 60 contribution months. At 60 months or more, you hold a German pension entitlement instead, and there is nothing to refund.

EU/EEA/Swiss citizens — and German citizens. In practice, there is no refund during working life: citizens of these countries can always insure themselves voluntarily, so the third condition is never met. Their only refund route opens at standard retirement age, and only if they never reached 60 months of contributions.

Dual nationals should note which passport counts: an EU/EEA/Swiss — or German — passport always wins. A German-Turkish dual national is treated as German and cannot claim a refund; a US-Italian dual national is treated as an EU citizen, with the same result.

Finally, some good news on timing: once the 24 months have passed, there is no application deadline. The claim does not expire and you can apply years later. The only downside of waiting is that the money sits idle — refunded contributions earn no interest in the meantime.

The Price of a Refund: Read This Before You Apply

This is the section that matters most. When the DRV pays out your contributions, every pension claim built on those periods is extinguished. Not just your own payments disappear from the record — the pension those years would have bought you, funded by both halves of the 18.6%, is gone, along with every credited period attached to your account, such as child-raising years (Kindererziehungszeiten) and other credited times that cost you nothing but counted toward your pension.

The consequence for the future is just as stark: if you later return to Germany and work again, you start from zero months, as if you had never been insured — the old record cannot be bought back. One carve-out: if you previously received a benefit from the pension insurance, such as a medical rehabilitation measure, only contributions paid after that benefit can be refunded at all.

None of this makes a refund wrong. For a non-EU expat who is certain they will never live or retire in Germany, €12,000 in hand can easily beat a small German pension payable decades from now. But it is a one-way door, and it should be walked through with open eyes.

Refund or Keep the Pension?

The alternative to a refund is simply doing nothing — and for many leavers it is the better deal. Anyone with 60 or more contribution months owns a German pension entitlement for life. The DRV pays German pensions to almost every country in the world, so leaving Germany does not strand your entitlement; the money will reach you at retirement age wherever you live.

The refund returns only your half: 9.3% of gross. The pension you keep is calculated on both halves — the full 18.6% — plus credited periods. That is why treaty-country nationals approaching or past the five-year mark, and anyone who might plausibly return to Europe, usually come out ahead by keeping the entitlement, even if the monthly pension looks modest. Your annual pension statement (Renteninformation) shows where you stand, and the DRV advises on individual cases free of charge — ask before you sign a refund application.

If you do keep the German pension as one building block, it is worth planning the rest of your retirement savings around it; our guide to savings, ETFs and pensions for expats in Germany shows how the pieces fit together. And if you also hold private German pension contracts — a Riester policy, for example — read our breakdown of retirement savings cost traps before cancelling anything, because those contracts follow completely different rules from the state pension refund described here.

How to Apply, Step by Step

One tax note, because it is asked about constantly: how a refund payout is treated for tax depends on the rules of your new home country, not Germany's. Check the position locally before the money arrives — we cannot give you a reliable answer for every destination country, and neither can the DRV.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I have EU citizenship — can I get a refund? +
  Almost certainly not while you are of working age. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens always have the right to pay voluntary contributions into the German pension system, and that right alone disqualifies you from a refund. The only exception comes at standard retirement age: if you reach it with fewer than 60 months of German contributions, a refund of your own share is possible then.
• I worked in Germany for 6 years — can I still get a refund? +
  It depends entirely on your nationality. If you are a non-EU national from a country without a social security agreement with Germany, yes — a refund is possible even beyond 60 months. If you come from an agreement country such as the USA, Canada, Japan, India, Turkey or Morocco, no: with 60 months or more you hold a German pension entitlement instead, and the DRV will pay that pension to you abroad at retirement age.
• Does the 24-month waiting period run from the day I left Germany? +
  No. The 24 months are counted from your last month of compulsory pension contributions — not from your departure, your deregistration or the end of your visa. Leaving Germany earlier does not start the clock any sooner, and if you take another compulsorily insured job in Germany during the wait, the 24 months start again from the new last contribution.
• Can the refund be paid into my foreign bank account? +
  Yes. The DRV can transfer the refund to an account abroad — give your IBAN on the form, or your SWIFT/BIC details if your bank is outside the IBAN system. International transfers can add some processing time on top of the decision period, so allow roughly 6 to 9 months in total after the 24-month wait.
• I might return to Germany one day — should I take the refund? +
  Probably not. A refund dissolves your entire German pension insurance relationship: every claim built on those contribution periods is extinguished, including credited periods such as child-raising years. If you return and work in Germany again, you start again from zero months. Keeping the entitlement costs you nothing and it remains payable worldwide at retirement age.
• Is there a deadline to apply for the refund? +
  No. Once the 24 months have passed, there is no application deadline and the claim does not expire — you can apply years later. The only cost of waiting is that the money sits idle: refunded contributions earn no interest while they wait, and the DRV pays out the nominal amount you contributed.