Moving abroad to live is a life decision, but also a series of insurance formalities. Each has its own rules, and two of them involve deadlines that cannot be made up: joining voluntary AHV/AVS, and tracing forgotten pension assets, which becomes harder as time goes by.
Basic insurance ends when you leave
The obligation to be insured is tied to residence in Switzerland. Cover ends when the insured person ceases to be subject to that obligation. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) puts it this way: if you move your residence abroad, compulsory healthcare insurance ends when you leave Switzerland.
For foreign nationals holding a permit, the insurance ends on the departure date registered with the residents' registration office, and in any case on the day of actual departure. Notifying your departure to the commune and to your insurer therefore fixes the end date, and avoids paying premiums beyond it.
Returning to Switzerland follows the general rule: a person who takes up residence in Switzerland again must take out insurance within three months. If they do so within that deadline, the insurance takes effect from their return; otherwise, only from the date they join, with a possible premium surcharge. The former insurance is not restored automatically.
The exceptions: pensioners, cross-border workers, posted workers
The FOPH states that a few exceptions exist for certain groups of people, notably pensioners, cross-border workers and posted workers, under the agreement on the free movement of persons with the European Union and the EFTA Convention. People receiving a Swiss pension who live in the EU, EFTA or the United Kingdom must therefore, as a general rule, be insured in Switzerland.
Outside the EU, EFTA and the United Kingdom, some insurers may offer to continue the insurance relationship on a contractual basis. This is then no longer compulsory insurance, but a contract whose conditions are set by the insurer. Complementary insurance, for its part, follows its own conditions and must be cancelled or adjusted separately.
Voluntary AHV/AVS: a one-year deadline
Swiss nationals and nationals of an EU or EFTA state who settle in a state outside the EU and EFTA may join voluntary AHV/AVS if they were insured without interruption for at least five years before leaving compulsory insurance. For a move to an EU or EFTA state, joining is not provided for.
The deadline is strict. According to the AHV/AVS leaflet on voluntary insurance, the application must be submitted within one year of leaving compulsory insurance; after that deadline, joining is no longer possible. A year without contributions reduces the future pension, as our guide on AHV/AVS gaps explains.
An example: a Swiss national who has lived and worked in Switzerland for ten years moves to Canada. She meets the condition of five uninterrupted years, and can join voluntary AHV/AVS provided she submits her application within the year after leaving compulsory insurance. If she moves to France, on the other hand, joining is not provided for, and it is the coordination rules with the European Union that apply.
The second pillar: cash payment, within limits
The insured person may demand cash payment of their termination benefit when they leave Switzerland permanently. A person who is married or in a registered partnership needs the written consent of their spouse or partner. But the law sets an important limit: the mandatory part of the assets cannot be paid out in cash if the person remains compulsorily insured against old age, death and disability in a European Union state.
The BVG/LPP Guarantee Fund specifies that this restriction applies only to the mandatory part of pension provision: the extra-mandatory part can be paid out. The fund also runs the Central Office for the 2nd Pillar, to which a written request can be sent to trace forgotten assets held by former pension funds.
In practice, if a person who settles in a European Union state remains compulsorily insured there against old age, death and disability, only the extra-mandatory part of their assets can be paid out to them in cash when they leave. It is better to know this before planning a project that would rely on the full amount.
Before you leave
- Notify the residents' registration office and your health insurer of your departure, with the actual departure date.
- Request an AHV/AVS account statement before leaving, to check that no year is missing for the period spent in Switzerland.
- Check whether you fall under one of the exceptions: pensioner, cross-border worker or posted worker in the EU, EFTA or the United Kingdom.
- For a move outside the EU and EFTA, decide on voluntary AHV/AVS within the year after leaving compulsory insurance.
- Take stock of your vested benefits assets, and ask the Central Office for the 2nd Pillar if in doubt about a former employer.
- Keep the vested benefits statements from each former employer: they make it possible to trace assets years later.