Insuring an employee coming to Finland from abroad

Your employee’s pension cover is your responsibility also when you hire an employee from abroad to work in Finland. This applies to both Finnish and foreign employers.

Take care of the pension cover of your employee coming from abroad

If your employee comes to Finland from abroad, you should usually take care of his or her pension cover in accordance with Finnish legislation.

Your employee will be covered by Finnish earnings-related pension insurance from the very beginning of his or her employment, if he or she works directly for a Finnish employer and concludes an employment contract with a Finnish employer.

What country will your employee arrive from?

EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. (The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020.)

Great Britain departing from the EU affects how work abroad is insured. The new Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the Great Britain and EU came into force on 1 January 2021. Read more on Finnish Centre for Pensions' website (etk.fi).

EEA countries: Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Social security agreement countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, China, India, Israel, Korea, the Province of Quebec and the USA. The social security agreement between Finland and Japan will enter into force on 1 February 2022.

When hiring a foreign employee to work in Finland, first find out whether they have been granted a certificate for posted workers or an A1 certificate in their country of origin.

If your employee has not been granted an A1 certificate or is not a posted worker, you are responsible for arranging pension and social security for the employee. Take out TyEL insurance for the employee.

Buy TyEL insurance


Read more about TyEL insurance

If your employee has been granted an A1 certificate, their pension and social security must be provided in the country that has granted the certificate. In that case, your employee’s pension insurance cannot be provided in Finland and they will be covered by the social security of the country of origin.

The provision of insurance for those working in more than one EU or EEA country or Switzerland must also be settled, and they can get a certificate for posted workers depending on the situation. Read more on the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ website (etk.fi).

Based on the EU’s social security regulations and international social security agreements between countries, an employee is covered by only one country’s legislation at a time.

The Finnish Immigration Service will provide you with information on a foreign employee’s right to work and need for a residence permit. Go to the Finnish Immigration Service’s website (migri.fi).

If you represent a foreign employer and you post your employee to Finland, you do not need to arrange your employee’s pension cover in Finland if they work in Finland for a maximum of two years and the pension cover has been arranged in the country of origin.

However, you should arrange their pension cover in accordance with Finnish legislation if

  • so required by the social security agreement between your country and Finland or the EU’s social security regulation. 
  • your employee was covered by the Finnish social security system immediately before starting working in Finland. 
  • the posting of a worker posted to Finland or transferring to Finland within the company lasts more than two years. 

As a foreign employer, you may be eligible for an exemption from arranging pension cover for a maximum of five years if

  • you post your employee to work in Finland for more than two years
  • you have posted your employee to work in Finland for less than two years but the work continues more than two years for unpredictable reasons 
  • you have arranged pension cover for your posted employee in some other way for the duration of the work carried out in Finland.

  1. Are you posting an employee to work abroad from Finland?

    As an employer, you are also responsible for taking out insurance for your employee leaving Finland to work abroad.

    Read more about insuring an employee moving abroad from Finland