Joining the voluntary OASI/DI insurance

To be entitled to join the voluntary insurance scheme, the following three conditions must be met:

  • you are a Swiss national or a citizen of a member state of the European Union or EFTA,
  • you reside outside the European Union or the EFTA , and
  • you have been insured in the compulsory OASI for 5 consecutive years immediately before your departure. You are not required to have actually contributed but to have been insured for 5 years. For minors and non employed spouses who are not required to pay contributions, years of residence in Switzerland do indeed count as years of insurance.

 

Whoever wishes to join the voluntary OASI insurance scheme should present his or her request,  to the Swiss compensation Office (SCO) in Geneva. This request must be sent in within one year of leaving the compulsory insurance scheme.

 

A Swiss citizen living abroad who is admitted to the voluntary insurance scheme is automatically insured both with the old-age and survivors insurance (OASI) and the disability insurance (DI).

 

When you are making your mind up about joining the voluntary OASI/DI insurance scheme, you should bear in mind that legislation on national old age and disability insurance in certain countries makes provision for reductions in pensions when the insured person has other sources of revenue, particularly foreign pensions.

 

Only those officials responsible for national insurance of the country concerned can give you precise information as to if, and to what extent, these sources of revenue are taken into account in the calculation of the pensions they grant.