🇹🇷 German Pension Refund for Citizens of Türkiye
For Turkish citizens, the German refund rules run on insurance, not geography: no 60-month cap exists, living in Türkiye never blocks a claim — and the one clock that matters is the 24 months since your last mandatory pension insurance, Turkish SGK included. Sixty German months or two hundred, the employee share you paid is claimable once that clock has run and you live outside the EU, the UK and India.
⭐ Over 4.9/5 on ProvenExpert from more than 1,250 reviews
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✅ Our retained completed paid cases across all nationalities show an average refund of €11,572
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✅ On record: completed refunds from under €200 to over €53,000
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✅ No German bank account required
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✅ More than three quarters of our 300 most recent completed refunds reached the client escrow account within three months
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✅ No refund, no fee — success-based only
No cap on months — and what that means
The 60-month restriction that stops American, Indian or Brazilian claims at five years does not exist for Turkish citizens: the entire employee share is refundable whatever the length of your German record. For records of 60 months or more, a German old-age pension at retirement age exists as the alternative — and it is strictly an alternative, because a completed refund pays out the entire refundable balance and dissolves the old insurance relationship, leaving no months behind for a pension. Which routes stand open in your case is what our free eligibility check is for.
The SGK clock — insurance matters, not your address
Under the German–Turkish social security agreement, what suspends eligibility is mandatory pension insurance, wherever it runs. Working in Türkiye with mandatory SGK coverage keeps the German refund out of reach — and the 24-month waiting period only starts counting once those contributions end, exactly as it would after German, EU, UK or ex-Yugoslav insurance. Your address in Türkiye, on its own, changes nothing: it's the insurance that matters, not where you live.
We know foreign pension rules are complicated, especially years after you left Germany. That's why our eligibility check is completely free — no charge just to learn whether you qualify. If you're eligible, we explain the process clearly before you commit to anything. Our service is exclusively available for non-EU passport holders.
The full checklist
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Citizenship: Turkish, and no German, EU, EEA, Swiss or UK passport alongside it — a second citizenship blocks even if the passport has never been used.
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Residence: outside the EU, the UK and India. Türkiye itself is fine, and so is anywhere else beyond those three. (India blocks residents of every nationality except Indian citizens.)
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The 24 months: your last mandatory pension insurance — in Germany, the EU, the UK, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Serbia — ended more than 24 full calendar months ago, counted from the final contribution month, not from deregistration. One insured day fills a month; new mandatory insurance in a listed country restarts the count from its end.
One rare historical exception — voluntary insurance before April 1987
Voluntary German insurance begun for periods up to 31 March 1987 can keep old voluntary-insurance rights alive — and a live voluntary-insurance right blocks the refund regardless of everything else. This touches a small group of long-standing accounts; if your German history includes voluntary contributions from that era, ask us before applying. The pension-at-retirement route may remain open.
What comes back
Our retained completed paid cases across all nationalities show an average refund of €11,571.66 and a median of €10,327.10 (calculated 24 August 2026) — on record: completed refunds from under €200 to over €53,000. The legal composition: 100% of the employee pension contributions deducted from your German salary, 50% of voluntary or self-employed contributions, plus or minus adjustments from a divorce-court pension equalization. The employer's half stays in the system. Since 2018 the employee rate has been 9.3% of gross salary, capped at the monthly Beitragsbemessungsgrenze — €8,450 in 2026 (2025: €8,050); pay above the cap carried no deductions.
Estimate your figure with the free refund calculator →
The fee
9.75% of the refunded amount, capped at €2,500 including VAT — you pay only after your money arrives, with nothing upfront and no minimum fee. The cap covers the agreed managed administrative scope; regulated legal support within that scope comes from our external German partner law firm — we ourselves provide administrative support, not legal advice or representation. Ordinary German correspondence and the decision are explained and translated into English as part of the service; certified translations require a separate agreement, and separate representation in an objection, appeal or court proceeding is not included automatically.
What to have ready
Turkish passport; German pension number (Versicherungsnummer — our guide shows where to look); approximate German employment dates and employers; current address and payout account; Abmeldung if it survived the years. Missing pieces resolve along the way: we can help recover your pension number, German deregistration is available as an optional €50 add-on (including VAT), and we obtain and review the relevant account information during the managed process where required.
How much happens online
Nearly the whole client side, for most clients — details, signatures and document exchange run digitally while we manage the pension-office correspondence within the agreed scope. The single analog step for everyone is the Certificate of Life and Nationality we prepare, confirmed by a notary or another authority accepted by the responsible pension office; online notarization is often accepted, and any local notary or certification cost is borne by the client. And when DRV Oldenburg-Bremen is the office responsible for your refund, we prepare the power of attorney and payment declaration and ask you to send us the signed originals — a limited exception rather than the rule.
Getting paid
No German account needed at any point: the refund arrives in the escrow account operated by our German partner law firm, the agreed fee is deducted, and the balance is transferred to the bank account you nominate — Turkish accounts included. A third-party account can be used where the required account-holder declaration and compliance checks are satisfied. Account-holder checks, international sanctions and banking restrictions can limit where — and in which currency — the money can be sent.
How long it takes
The current audited set: more than three quarters of our 300 most recent completed refunds reached the client escrow account within three months — 229 of 300 (76.3%) within 90 days of complete submission — see the full data and methodology. Individual processing times vary; the responsible office sets its own tempo, 93.3% of our latest 300 completed refunds reached escrow within six months, and German law can provide 4% annual interest from the seventh calendar month after a complete application.
Our contribution is a file that invites no follow-up questions — a process designed to avoid preventable delays — plus a status update at least every four weeks during an active claim, with known response deadlines tracked within the managed scope. An inactivity action (Untätigkeitsklage) can become available after six months as a case-dependent last resort; in our operating history, none has yet been required.
Not a Turkish citizen, but living in Türkiye?
The same insurance logic serves you: residence in Türkiye blocks nobody, but mandatory SGK contributions block while they last and restart the 24-month clock when they end. Once the clock has run, your eligibility follows your own citizenship's rules — check your passport's position in under a minute.
Frequently asked questions
Is there really no month limit for Turkish citizens? None. Sixty, one hundred or two hundred German contribution months — the full employee share is claimable once the SGK-inclusive 24-month waiting period has run and you live outside the EU, the UK and India.
I still pay SGK in Türkiye — can I claim? Not yet. Mandatory Turkish pension insurance suspends eligibility, and the 24-month clock starts only when those contributions end.
What about my voluntary German contributions from before April 1987? They can keep old voluntary-insurance rights alive, which blocks the refund regardless of other conditions. Ask us before applying — the pension route may remain open.
Refund or pension at 60+ months? One or the other: a completed refund dissolves the old insurance relationship, so refunded months never become pension months. Our free check shows which routes stand open.
What is the fee? 9.75% of the refunded amount, capped at €2,500 including VAT — nothing upfront, no minimum fee, covering the agreed managed administrative scope including our partner law firm's support within that scope. Separate representation in an objection, appeal or court proceeding is not included automatically. No refund, no fee.
Do I need a German bank account? No — escrow (operated by our German partner law firm) first, then the account you nominate, Turkish accounts included. Account-holder checks, international sanctions and banking restrictions can limit where — and in which currency — the money can be sent.
Claim your pension refund today
The clock may already have run — starting your claim takes less than one minute, and you pay only when your money arrives.
Want the full rules, forms and process in detail? Read our complete guide: How to Claim a German Pension Refund: Complete 2026 Guide