Collecting a retirement pension in Spain after having worked abroad

It is possible to collect a retirement pension in Spain if you have also worked in a foreign country.

In order to be able to collect your retirement pension in Spain, the second country where you have worked must belong to the European Union, or to the European Economic Space or, if it does not belong to any of these, there has to be a Bilateral Convention signed between Spain and this other country.
In this cases, years of contribution outside Spain will be taken into account thanks to the European principle of ‘aggregation’ and ‘preservation of acquired rights’ which apply in this type of situation.

On the other hand, another European principle that shall also be applied in these cases is the ‘principle of equal treatment’, therefore workers from other countries will enjoy the same Social Security benefits under the same circumstances as Spanish citizens and vice versa.

Well, once the calculation of your worked years has been done, in order to achieve that recognition of those worked years abroad, you may apply for your pension in the country where you are living at the time of retirement. If you are living in a different country when that moment comes, the application must be processed in the country where you last paid contributions.

It is enough to apply once because the Administrations are bound by the principle of ‘good administrative cooperation’, by which they have to communicate with each other and send each other the necessary information and documentation. Thanks to the principle of ‘exportability’, the monthly payments will be received in the country where the request was made.

The principle of exportability implies a prohibition on reducing, suspending, modifying, withdrawing or confiscating a social security benefit solely because the beneficiary has established residence in a Member State other than the one in which the institution responsible for payment is located.

It is to be appreciated the flexibility that currently exists regarding the calculation of pensions and the good cooperation between the different countries that allows their citizens to work in different territories, guaranteeing their rights to future benefits.