Employee posted abroad or expatriate: what effects on retirement?

Verified 15 September 2023 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)

Your pension rights vary depending on whether you are leaving as a posted employee or as an expatriate and depending on your host country. We present you with the information you need to know.

An online service allows you to obtain information on how years worked abroad are taken into account in your French retirement:

Information course on expatriation

Seconded employee

You are an employee posted abroad if your employer based in France sends you temporarily abroad to engage in paid employment.

During your secondment, you remain bound by an employment contract with your company in France and you continue to contribute to the Social Security Pension Insurance (basic pension) and theAgirc-Arco: titleContent (supplementary retirement) as if you were still in France.

Your employer also continues to contribute to these 2 pension plans for you.

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Posting to the European Economic Area or Switzerland

If you are detached in theEuropean Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland, you are exempt from pension contributions in the country where you work.

The calculation of your retirement takes into account your entire career, including foreign periods.

However, if you have worked at a time in a country the European Union (EU) and in Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, the calculation of your pension takes into account the following periods:

  • European Union + Switzerland
  • or European Union + Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway (EEA but not EU)

That's the most advantageous amount that's paid out.

There can be no aggregation of all periods completed in the EU + EEA + Switzerland.

The country that is not selected can pay the portion of its pension according to its own rules.

Posting to another country

You pay different rates depending on whether you are posted to a country that has signed a social security agreement with France.

Your host country has signed an agreement

You are exempt from pension contributions in the country in which you work.

If you have worked in several countries with which France has signed a social security agreement, the calculation of your pension is done by agreement.

There is no single calculation covering all periods completed in all foreigner countries.

Your host country has no agreement with France

You have to contribute both in France and in the country in which you work.

And your pension is calculated in each country, without taking into account the periods validated in the other.

Expatriate employee

You are an expatriate employee if your company based in France sends you abroad on a mission long-term or if you are employed by a company established outside France.

You are covered by the mandatory pension plan of the country in which you work and, upon retirement, you receive a pension from each plan to which you have been affiliated.

However, provision is made for European coordination of pension schemes between the Member States of the European Union (EU).

Pension coordination is also planned between the EU and the countries that are only members of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and between the EU and Switzerland.

Thus, periods completed in a country covered by a European Regulation are taken into account as if they had been completed in France.

In addition, France has signed bilateral social security agreements with about forty other countries. These agreements provide for the taking into account, for the calculation of the French pension, periods of activity completed in the other country.

However, if you are an expatriate in a country that is not covered by a European regulation or a bilateral agreement, the Social Security Pension Insurance calculates your pension based solely on periods completed in France without taking into account periods completed in the other country.

This country calculates your pension entitlements based on its legislation alone.

Warning  

In some countries, pensions are not paid when you do not live in the country.

You can also subscribe voluntarily insurance from the Caisse des français de l'foreigner (CFE). This subscription allows you to continue to contribute for your French retirement.

You still have to pay into the pension plan of the country in which you work.

To take out CFE insurance, you must meet one of the following conditions:

  • Have contributed 6 months to the compulsory old-age insurance before your departure from France and have ceased to be covered by this scheme for less than 6 months on the date of receipt of your application for subscription
  • Or have been covered by a French compulsory health insurance scheme, for at least 5 years continuously or discontinuously, if you were not born in France
  • Or to have been covered by a French compulsory health insurance scheme without duration conditions if you were born in France

Membership of the CFE may not relate to periods already completed abroad.

You can request a quote for the amount of your membership fee and join the CFE online.

Caisse des français de l'foreigner - Pension insurance - Estimate your contributions and subscribe online

You can also join the CFE by mail using a form:

Membership of the Caisse des Français de l'Foreigner (CFE)

You can purchase insurance voluntarily from Malakoff Humanis International Africa-Arco.

You can contribute to this organization either through your employer or on an individual basis.

If your employer has set up a collective agreement for its expatriate employees with Malakoff Humanis International Agirc-Arco, it may, with your agreement, affiliate you to this fund.

Otherwise, you can join individually (unless you are a national of the country in which you are employed).

In the 2 cases, you must meet one of the 2 following conditions:

  • Contributing to the Agirc-Arco Plan for a previous activity
  • Contribute to the old-age insurance of the Caisse des Français de l'foreigner (CFE) for the activity carried out abroad

If you join as an individual, you have 12 months to join.

After this period, the date of accession shall be 1er January of the current year, except for late-payment surcharges.