Prepare Social Security when moving from the UK to an EU country

Hi,

I have finally made the move and managed to get to Finland. Innocently, I thought that moving within a country of the European Union, other than the one I come from, would be easy. I was very mistaken. First thing I needed to do in order to be able to register myself with Social Security here, was to go to the police to get myself registered as an immigrant and get Citizenship rights. As I have been with my Finnish boyfriend for more than 2 years, so we believed it would be easy, but no, first thing I needed was a document to prove that I was not married. I had to manage to find official documents coming from my home country, like a birth certificate in English or Finnish. I'm very lucky France now offers multi-lingual certificates.

Going to the police station turned out to be a lot more difficult time than I had expected, as the man we were talking to absolutely refused to speak English to me and kept on addressing my boyfriend in Finnish. Thinking that part of their job is to register foreigners, I believed you could expect they would be able to actually address you in English. My mistake! Apart from him though, everyone else I met was lovely and very friendly to me, which really made me feel better.

Now, l believe that all countries will be different so I will get on with my main subject, what does one need to register with Social Security in a member country of the European Union?

If like me you are leaving the UK you will need different documents to be able to get Social Security. When I went to Kela, the Finnish Social Security office, I was asked 1st the registration from the Police, of course, but also to bring in forms E301 and E104 available from the British Customer Operations - National Insurance Contributions Office.

The good news is that those 2 forms have now been grouped into one, called CA3916. This form will be needed to issue a statement of National Insurance contributions that the country you are moving to will need.

All the details of what you need are on the forms, but mainly the easiest thing is to have all your payslips for the last 3 years at hand, as you will be required to add photocopies of your last payslip of each employer you had for the last 3 years, as well as all your payslips for the months of March for the last 3 years. If you do not have these, you will have the possibility to send your P60s or P45s, but the payslips were easier for me, especially since I didn't yet receive my last P45...

The other documents needed by the Social Security office are:

- A confirmation from the last employer that you worked for them

- Your last P60 or P45, as well as a copy of your last payslip

- Your passport or official form of ID.

My advice here is that if you can do all that before leaving the UK you might win a considerable amount of time as you may have the necessary paperwork ready with you when you get to your destination. However, if you are waiting to be abroad to do it, like I did, I advise that you make sure you can find all your payslips or tax papers easily, as this too will be saving time.

Moving abroad is not something easy, there is a lot of things to think about and prepare for, so it is only natural that you may not have the time to do this kind of things before you leave. That's not much worry because all you need is an internet connection and you can find all you need, then it's all a question of waiting for the post. It may take a little more time, but at least you will manage to get everything you need.

I really hope I might have been able to help some of you and if you are looking to make the big move too, the best of luck to you in your new adventure! For the ones going back home from the UK, like my boyfriend, it might depend on the system within your country. He didn't need any paper other than P60 and proof of employment, the rest was recorded in their system. Lucky him!