Applying for an A1 certificate for an employee who is posted abroad in Europe

Are you an employer and planning to send employees abroad temporarily? To ensure that German social security law continues to apply, you must apply for an A1 certificate for your employees.

If you, as an employer based in Germany, temporarily relocate employees of your company to

• another member state of the European Union,
• to a signatory state to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA),
• Switzerland
• to Great Britain or Northern Ireland,

German social security law continues to apply to these employees under certain conditions.

These employees are then not subject to social security contributions in the other country. This applies, for example, in the case of a business trip or employment of up to 24 months. The A1 certificate proves that German social security law continues to apply.

You can apply for the A1 certificate for

• employees with statutory health insurance from the relevant health insurance fund,
• employees not covered by statutory health insurance from the German Pension Insurance,
• employees who are not covered by statutory health insurance and who are members of a professional pension scheme from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsständischer Versorgungseinrichtungen (ABV).

If you use a system-approved payroll accounting program in your company, you can apply for the A1 certificate using this program. Alternatively, you can use a system-checked completion aid to transmit the data to the competent institution.

The Informationstechnische Servicestelle der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (ITSG GmbH) offers the SV-Meldeportal, a system-checked completion aid that you can use to submit your application.

If the A1 certificate itself is not available in time, the application confirmation can be used as proof of application.

No documents are required

• The registered office of your company is in Germany.
• The employment is subject to German social security law.
• The posting is limited to a maximum of 24 months.
• The posted person does not replace another posted person.

An appeal can be lodged against the refusal to issue an A1 certificate.

You must submit the application for an A1 certificate electronically. You can submit the application yourself or instruct your external service providers such as tax consultants, payroll offices and service data centers to do so. If you use a system-checked payroll accounting program, you can submit the application using this program.

Alternatively, you can submit the application online via the SV-Meldeportal.

Online application:

• Call up the program.
• Register as a new user if you do not yet have an account.
• Log in with your login details and your Elster organization certificate.
• Under "Forms", select the "Application and certification procedure A1" tile and then the "A1 application for posting" form.
• Complete the form. All fields are provided with help texts. A manual is also available.
• Submit the application.
• You will find messages and feedback in your mailbox in the SV registration portal.
• You will receive an application confirmation for each A1 application.
• Send the A1 certificate to the person who will be working abroad so that they can show it during checks.
• Save the application confirmation and the A1 certificate or print them out and add them to the remuneration documents.

Under EU law, you must apply for an A1 certificate whenever possible before starting work.

Confirmation of the application: usually within around 15 minutes.

Electronic provision of the A1 certificate: depending on the individual case, between a few hours and several days.

The service is basically free of charge. If you use the SV-Meldeportal, user fees apply.

Users who use the SV-Meldeportal exclusively as self-employed persons as part of the A1 application procedure, or users who use the SV-Meldeportal exclusively to apply for paying agent numbers or separate sender numbers, are exempt from the user fee.

If you, as an employer, wish to submit an application to conclude a so-called exemption agreement for a person who is employed in aanothermember state of the European Union (EU), in a signatory state to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or in Switzerland without, for example, a posting, you must also use the A1 electronic application and certification procedure.

The same applies to

• persons normally employed in the maritime sector
• employed members of flight or cabin crews
• civil servants and civil servants' equivalents in the public sector and
• persons resident in Germany who are employed exclusively by an employer based in Germany and who usually work in several Member States.

If, on the other hand, a person resident in Germany who usually works in several Member States submits their application for an A1 certificate themselves in exceptional cases or if there is a constellation of usual gainful employment in several Member States other than those mentioned above, the application form provided, for example, by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), German Liaison Office for Health Insurance Abroad (DVKA) should be used.

Self-employed persons who, in the course of their normal gainful employment in Germany, are temporarily resident in another member state of the European Union (EU), in a signatory state to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, in Great Britainor Switzerland also require an A1 certificate to prove that German social security law continues to apply. Application forms can be downloaded from the homepage of the DRV Bund and the GKV-Spitzenverband, DVKA.