If you stay and work in a third country, the extent of your social security coverage depends on whether Austria and your destination country have concluded an agreement. 

If there is an agreement between Austria and your destination country and they are therefore "contracting states", the social security law of the country in which you work applies, regardless of your place of residence.

  1. The details of your social security coverage depend on the respective agreement and the branches of insurance it covers.
  • This link will give you more information on the social security agreements that Austria has concluded with other countries.
  • The Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) provides information on social law issues relating to employment in third countries at this link. 

If you are staying and working in a country with which Austria has not concluded an agreement, you are subject to the social security law of your destination country if you work there for more than one year. Under certain circumstances, your insurance relationship in Austria may remain valid and you may therefore be doubly insured and have to pay insurance contributions in both countries. 

To do: Be sure to seek personal advice from your social security provider on the subject of social security in third countries. In most cases, it is also advisable for Austrians to take out health insurance abroad. 

Insurance periods in third countries

If you are employed in a country outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland, Austria will only recognise your insurance periods if an agreement on the recognition of insurance periods has been concluded between the two countries. 

In these agreements, Austria and the third country undertake to recognise each other's insurance periods and to take them into account when assessing a person’s entitlement to national insurance benefits. 

Attention: If Austria has not concluded an agreement with the country in which you have acquired insurance periods, these insurance periods will not be recognised when checking your entitlement.

The following third countries have concluded an agreement with Austria to take insurance periods into account:

Albania

Australia

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Canada 

Chile

India 

Israel

Macedonia

Moldova

Montenegro

Philippines

Republic of Korea

Serbia

Tunisia

Turkey

Uruguay

USA