🇻🇳 German Pension Refund for Vietnamese Citizens

Do I qualify for a German pension refund as a Vietnamese citizen?

The pension office asks three questions, all answered as of the filing date. A Vietnamese passport on its own answers question one in your favour; the other two are about your address and your calendar.

Citizenship — every citizenship you hold counts, and Vietnamese nationality is not lost just by acquiring another

Vietnamese citizenship on its own gives the pension office nothing to object to: no contribution-month ceiling — that belongs to citizens of eleven named countries, and to Japanese citizens while they live in Japan — and no citizenship-specific residence rule. The question is whether a second citizenship sits beside it, because every citizenship held is examined and the stricter rule wins: a German, EU, EEA, Swiss or British passport alongside means no refund before German retirement age (one narrow exception aside), a US, Canadian or Australian one imports that country's 60-month limit. Vietnam's Law on Nationality keeps this question alive: acquiring a foreign nationality is not by itself a ground for losing the Vietnamese one — loss normally comes through a renunciation permitted by the State or a deprivation — so a Vietnamese who became American, Australian or German without renouncing will generally still hold Vietnamese nationality, and both are counted in Germany. The date that matters is the filing date: a naturalisation completed after a valid application does not undo it, and one still pending is not yet a citizenship. Tell us about every citizenship you hold, or are about to hold, before anything is filed.

Residence — outside the EU, the UK and India

Check two is your current address, and for a Vietnamese citizen it passes whenever that address lies outside the EU, the UK and India — Hanoi or Da Nang, Seoul or Tokyo, Sydney, Houston or Toronto alike, and Oslo, Reykjavík, Vaduz or Zurich too, since Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland fall outside the residence rule. An address in Germany, elsewhere in the EU or in the UK holds the refund back until you have moved out (one narrow exception aside); an address in India holds it back for everyone but Indian citizens. Residence means a home, not a trip — a week at a Frankfurt trade fair or a holiday in Paris counts for nothing. Your address is also one of the inputs for the responsible pension office (below).

The 24-month waiting period — counted from your last contribution month, not from your flight home

The third check is a calendar: 24 full months, counted from your last month of mandatory pension insurance in Germany or in another EU state, the UK, Türkiye or an ex-Yugoslav state (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) — Deutsche Rentenversicherung sets out the rule here. That contribution month is the anchor; the day you deregistered or flew home is not. Filing becomes possible on the first day of the 25th month after it, and filing earlier gains nothing — the period does not shorten, and extra confirmation requests can follow. Vietnamese social insurance under a local labour contract in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City — with no compulsory German pension insurance continuing under a posting from Germany — does not touch the count, and neither does mandatory insurance in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein for citizens outside the no-refund group; only a return to mandatory insurance inside the listed area moves it — take an insured job in Amsterdam or London after Germany, and the 24 months are counted from that job's last contribution month. No deadline applies to a first application; no interest is paid for the years before it. Our waiting-period calculator turns your last contribution month into the date.

Is there a 60-month limit for Vietnamese citizens — and does the missing agreement matter?

No limit, and the missing agreement is the reason. Eleven citizenships carry the 60-month rule — the USA, India, Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, the Philippines, Albania, Moldova, North Macedonia and Uruguay — and Japanese citizens carry it while they live in Japan: for them a refund before retirement age needs 59 or fewer German months — contribution months plus the German months credited to the account (child-raising periods, for instance, or months on unemployment benefit, though not every line of the insurance record counts) — with nothing from any other country added. The rule is a by-product of social security agreements that hand those nationalities a right to voluntary German insurance, and whoever holds that right cannot take the money out early. Vietnam has no such agreement with Germany; a person holding Vietnamese citizenship alone and living outside the EU, the UK and India holds no such right, and German law refunds the contributions of everyone in that position however many months they cover — 56 or 156. Sixty German months do change one thing: by then a German old-age pension at retirement age has been earned too, payable in Vietnam like anywhere else, and the refund replaces it — one payment of the entire balance, after which the refunded months never become pension months again (later German work builds new entitlements). The more German years you have, the more carefully that comparison deserves to be made.

What you need to start

Three illustrative journeys — Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, San Jose

Worked examples, not client cases.

The nurse who trained first. A three-year nursing apprenticeship in Hamburg (36 months, October 2018 to September 2021) at €1,150 training pay, then twenty months as a qualified nurse on the same ward (October 2021 to May 2023) at €3,400 gross, then home to Hanoi in June 2023. Every month was pension-insured — training contracts are, and training pay is outside the Übergangsbereich rules — so the whole record counts: €106.95 a month for the apprenticeship, €316.20 a month afterwards, roughly €10,200 in refundable employee contributions across the 56 months. The language course she took before the apprenticeship carried no insurance and changes nothing. Her last contribution month was May 2023, so an application has been possible since 1 June 2025.

The engineer who went home. Four years with a Stuttgart machine builder (48 months, January 2021 to December 2024) at €5,200 gross, then Ho Chi Minh City from January 2025. His 48 months at €483.60 add up to roughly €23,200 in refundable employee contributions — no limit applies to him — and 1 January 2027, the first day of the 25th month after December 2024, is the earliest application date. Under 60 months, no German pension entitlement competes with the refund.

The analyst who moved on to California. Forty-two insured months in Berlin (February 2018 to July 2021) at €3,900 gross, then San Jose on a green card. A green card is not a citizenship, so her Vietnamese passport still sets the rule — no limit — and the USA passes the residence check: €362.70 a month, roughly €15,200 in refundable employee contributions, claimable since 1 August 2023. What her US address decides is the pension office: a Vietnamese citizen living in the USA is routed to DRV Nord, the USA's liaison office, unless Knappschaft-Bahn-See ever insured her or DRV Bund was the last carrier of her account. Were she to naturalise as a US citizen before filing, the US 60-month limit would apply (42 months sit inside it) — and because Vietnamese law does not strip her Vietnamese nationality automatically, she would, unless she renounced it, hold both, the stricter rule counting; naturalising after a valid application leaves the claim untouched.

Run your own months through the free refund calculator.

Which of your years in Germany actually paid pension contributions?

Before any month is counted, each stretch of your time in Germany is sorted by one question — was statutory pension insurance paid for it?

• Employment based in Germany under German social insurance — the normal result when you are employed by a German employer on an EU Blue Card, a skilled-worker permit, a research permit or any other work permit — brings pension insurance from the start: every month counts and the employee share is refundable. Lower pay is the exception: for months in employment covered by the Übergangsbereich rules for the relevant year (in 2026, regular pay between €603.01 and €2,000 a month) the refund is half of the total pension contributions paid for them — 9.3% of gross pay is the wrong sum for those months, so a part-time job at €1,500 a month in 2026 is insured and every month counts, but its refund follows the half-of-total rule (for years before 2023 the band's upper limit was lower, so the year decides).
• Ausbildung contracts — nursing, hotel, mechatronics or any other dual training — are pension-insured from the first month, and the Übergangsbereich rules are not applied to training pay, so the employee share is refundable at the full employee rate. (Only where training pay was €325 a month or less did the employer bear the whole contribution; those months count, but hold no employee share.) Recognition periods worked as a care assistant under a German contract are ordinary insured employment. Language-course months before the contract carry no insurance and neither count nor block.
• A secondment from Vietnam follows the general rule: sent for a period fixed in advance with the employment relationship left in Vietnam, German law may have treated you as not insured in Germany (the Einstrahlung rule), and then no German contributions exist. A local contract with the German company is ordinary German insurance from its first month.
• Werkstudent jobs are pension-insured although students pay no health, care or unemployment insurance through that employment; above the minijob limit the months count and the contributions come back.
• Minijobs turn on one choice made at the time: if the small employee top-up (the default since 2013) was kept, the months count and the top-up is refundable; if it was waived, only the employer's flat-rate contributions were paid, nothing of yours is in the record, and those months neither block nor restart the waiting period, though they can still earn partial credit toward the five-year qualifying period.
• A scholarship or stipend without an employment contract — a DAAD or government grant, say — involves no pension insurance at all, however many years it ran; a doctoral or postdoc position on an employment contract is insured like any job. Freelance or self-employed work usually falls outside mandatory insurance, and where voluntary or compulsory self-employed contributions were paid, the refund is half of them.

Old payslips and memory produce estimates; the count that is actually refunded comes from the official insurance record (Versicherungsverlauf), which we obtain and review in a managed claim where required.

How much comes back — and what about tax in Vietnam?

The refund is your own share of the contributions — 9.3% of gross pay since 2018, charged up to the monthly ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze: €8,450 in 2026, €8,050 in 2025) — and normally the whole of it; the employer's share stays in the system, and pay above the ceiling was never insured. The main exceptions change the calculation: voluntary contributions and the compulsory contributions of self-employed people are refunded at 50%; months in employment covered by the Übergangsbereich rules for the relevant year at half of the total contributions paid for them; and where Deutsche Rentenversicherung once funded a benefit for you — a rehabilitation programme, say — only the contributions paid after it are refundable, while the completed refund still closes the whole record. These are checked before anything is filed. The legal basis is § 210 SGB VI.

Across our retained completed paid cases — all nationalities — the average refund was €11,571.66 and the median €10,327.10 (calculated 24 August 2026), with completed refunds on record from under €200 to over €53,000. Our refund calculator applies the actual statutory employee contribution rate and monthly ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze) of every year back to 1975 — including Deutsche-Mark periods and East/West differences — rather than a flat percentage.

On the German side the refund is paid out without income tax; the exemption is written into German law and confirmed by the Federal Fiscal Court. Vietnam looks at it separately: a tax resident of Vietnam is taxed on worldwide income, and whether a German contribution refund falls into that net in your case is a question for a local adviser — we do not provide individual tax, pension or legal advice.

Which German pension office handles a Vietnamese citizen's claim?

There is no pension liaison office (Verbindungsstelle) for Vietnam in the German system, so a Vietnamese citizen's claim is routed by three things — the insurance record first, a second citizenship next, the country of residence last. DRV Knappschaft-Bahn-See takes the claim if it ever insured you; otherwise DRV Bund if it was the last carrier of your account; otherwise the liaison office of a second citizenship where you hold one (DRV Nord for a US or Canadian citizen); otherwise the liaison office of the country you live in, where one exists (DRV Nord for the USA and Canada; DRV Oldenburg-Bremen for Australia; DRV Braunschweig-Hannover for Japan, South Korea and the Philippines; the rest are in our guide); and for a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan or the Gulf, the regional office holding the account. Land at the wrong office and the claim is passed on — the filing date survives, weeks do not; our guide to the responsible pension office walks the decision tree and has the office finder. In a managed claim, our German partner law firm files the claim with the recommended office we identify from your record.

Getting paid in Vietnam — or wherever you live

No German bank account is required. In a claim we manage, your refund is paid through the escrow account operated by our German partner law firm; after the agreed service fee is deducted, the remaining balance is transferred to the bank account you nominate — a third-party account can be used where the required account-holder declaration and compliance checks are satisfied. Account-holder checks, international sanctions and banking restrictions can limit where — and in which currency — the money can be sent, so the route for a transfer to Vietnam or elsewhere is checked shortly before the money moves. Eligibility and payment route are separate: a valid refund may require an account in a permitted country if transfers to the residence country are restricted.

Digital for most clients — a German mission, or sometimes your bank, where a certified signature is needed

Most clients can complete their entire part of the process digitally: you submit your details and sign online. Every client has their identity and signature confirmed using their passport or an accepted equivalent; depending on the route, that confirmation can be completed digitally or, where a certified signature is needed, in person. Where one is needed, we prepare the document and you have it certified by one certifier — no combination of certifiers is ever required. In Vietnam the route to try first, and usually the cheaper one, is a German mission, which certifies signatures on documents for use with a German authority whatever your nationality: the Embassy in Hanoi by appointment through its online booking system, the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City without an appointment at present — the missions' page on signature certification has the details, and you appear in person with your passport or another accepted ID. The alternative is a bank or another local authority whose certification the responsible pension office accepts for that particular document — some banks certify for their customers, while other local authorities usually want an official translation of the document first, which costs more and takes longer. Required local certification, notary or translation costs are borne by the client. If DRV Oldenburg-Bremen is responsible for your refund, we prepare the power of attorney and payment declaration and ask you to send us the signed originals — for a Vietnamese citizen that office is the usual result of living in Australia, unless Knappschaft-Bahn-See ever insured you or DRV Bund was the last carrier of your account.

You may apply directly to Deutsche Rentenversicherung without using our service; the pension office charges no application fee. From Vietnam that route is paper: form V0901 travels by post, because ordinary email is not accepted for identity reasons and fax is no longer available. In a self-filed claim, the official application form provides for your personal data to be certified on the form itself — so the application travels to the certifying body, from Vietnam in practice a German mission, or a bank where its certification is accepted for that form. In a managed claim, the analog step is a single page we prepare for you. Our V0901 guide walks through the form section by section, and the pension-office guide tells you where to send it.

Living in Vietnam with another citizenship?

For anyone living in Vietnam with another passport, the address is the easy part: Vietnam lies outside the EU, the UK and India, and Vietnam's compulsory social insurance never blocks a German refund, never restarts the 24 months and never adds to any German month total, whatever the citizenship. The citizenship sets the rule: most nationalities have no limit; the eleven 60-month countries named above — US, Korean, Australian, Canadian, Indian and Filipino citizens among them — have the 60-month limit, counting German months only; German, EU, EEA, Swiss and British citizens cannot claim before German retirement age (one narrow exception aside); Japanese citizens outside Japan have no limit. Two citizenships mean two rules, and the stricter one is applied. The full table by nationality is in our guide for citizens of other countries.

A family member's German contributions

Where a spouse, registered partner or parent has died with German contributions on record, the closest family — the surviving spouse or registered partner and, in the cases the law provides for, the children — can be entitled to a refund of those contributions where no German survivor's pension is payable because the deceased had not met the five-year qualifying period (allgemeine Wartezeit). Checking that period means looking beyond the German months — at foreign periods that count toward it (periods under Vietnam's compulsory social insurance never do; there is no agreement) and at the rules that treat it as met in special cases. Survivors need not wait 24 months, but their claim can become time-barred four years after the end of the year of death. Where the qualifying period was met, a German survivor's pension may be payable instead — worldwide, Vietnam included. Our German widow's pension guide and the survivors chapter of the complete guide explain who can claim, in which order and with what evidence.

Frequently asked questions