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Settling abroad
Updated : 12/2011
Your social security cover
If you are planning to settle in another EU country, the country responsible for your social security cover, including health insurance, depends on your economic status - whether you are employed, self-employed, unemployed, a student, posted abroad, working across the border from where you live, and so on. You may not choose which country you will be covered by.
Depending on your situation, you will either continue to be covered by the social security of your home country, or you will fall under the regime of the country you move to or work in. In both cases, you will need to make specific arrangements for your continued health and social security coverage.
The country responsible for your health care depends on your employment situation or your place of residence, not your nationality. To avoid potentially serious problems and misunderstandings, find out about the health system in the country where you are going to settle
before you leave.
Find out more about your healthcare if you are:
- a student
- a trainee
- a researcher
- a migrant worker (employed or self-employed)
- temporarily posted abroad by your employer
- working in one country but living in another
- a civil servant
- looking for work
- retired
Footnote
In this case, the 27 EU member states + Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland