Heidi › Cross-border workers
Retirement as a cross-border worker: AVS, the 2nd pillar and the second right to choose
Three separate claims, and not one of them starts by itself. Your AVS pension is claimed from France, through your French pension fund: a single claim opens your rights in both countries.
The 2nd pillar does not follow: that is another fund, another letter, and if your savings are sitting in a vested benefits account, they will only come out as a lump sum.
And on the day your Swiss pension is notified to you, your health insurance right to choose starts again — you have three months. Miss that deadline and you are signed up in Switzerland automatically.
For a full AVS pension
Every missing year costs you at least one forty-fourth.
To make your health insurance choice again
From the notification of your Swiss pension. The choice is final.
Claiming your AVS pension: one step for two countries
You have worked in Switzerland and in France: you do not file two claims. You file one, in France, and it is your French fund that sets the process going in the other country.
| Your working life | Where to file the claim |
|---|---|
| Mixed France–Switzerland The case for most cross-border workers |
With the CARSAT for your region — the CNAV in Île-de-France — telling them about your Swiss years |
| Swiss only | With your last Swiss compensation fund, which passes it on to the Caisse suisse de compensation, in Geneva |
File the claim four to five months before the date you want. You need at least one full year of AVS contributions to open a Swiss right. The funds then exchange your working record on form P 5000, and you receive a summary of the decisions, form P 1.
What the AVS pension is worth
| From 1st January 2027 | Per month |
|---|---|
| Maximum full pension 44 years of contributions | 2,560 CHF |
| Minimum full pension | 1,280 CHF |
| Ceiling for a couple | 3,840 CHF |
The Swiss pension counts your Swiss years only. Twenty years as a cross-border worker means a partial pension of about twenty forty-fourths of the scale — the rest of your retirement comes from your French years.
Since 2026, the AVS has paid one extra month in December, equal to one twelfth of the annual pension. It applies to old-age pensions only: survivors' and invalidity pensions are still paid twelve times.
The age, and what it costs to change it
The reference age is 65. For women it is going up by three months a year: 64 years and 6 months in 2026, 64 years and 9 months in 2027, then 65 from 2028.
| If you shift the date | Effect on the pension |
|---|---|
| One year early Possible from 63 | −6.8% |
| Two years early | −13.6% |
| One year deferred | +5.2% |
| Two years deferred | +10.8% |
| Five years deferred The maximum | +31.5% |
The reduction and the supplement are permanent: they apply for as long as the pension is paid. Early retirement is worked out to the month.
You may reach the French age before the Swiss one, or the other way round. If so, you claim on one side only and you tell the CARSAT that you are not claiming abroad. You file again once you reach the Swiss age.
Without that, the claim can go through as early retirement on the Swiss side — and the reduction, once applied, cannot be undone.
The 2nd pillar: pension or lump sum
It all depends on where your savings are when you retire.
| Where your savings are | What you can do with them |
|---|---|
| In a Swiss employer's pension fund You are still working in Switzerland |
A pension for life, at the fund's conversion rate — at least 6.8% of the mandatory portion. The law guarantees you at least a quarter as a lump sum, and many fund rules allow more |
| In a vested benefits account You left your Swiss job earlier |
A lump sum, and nothing but a lump sum. The account is emptied in one go: no pension, no part payment |
You can withdraw from a vested benefits account in the five years before or after the reference age. From 2030, past 65 you will also have to still be working. Your spouse's written consent is required for any lump-sum payment.
Your fund's rules may require your decision up to three years before you retire. Announce it too late and the lump-sum option is refused — and the mandatory portion then goes out as a pension, for good.
The tax on a lump sum is covered in detail in our page on the 2nd pillar when you leave: Swiss withholding tax, French taxation, and the refund on proof.
The second right to choose: the blind spot
You chose LAMal or French insurance when you became a cross-border worker. That choice does not follow you into retirement: you have to make it again, even to keep the cover you had.
| What you receive | What applies |
|---|---|
| A Swiss pension only | A new right to choose between LAMal and French health insurance. Three months to say so, and then it is final |
| A Swiss pension and a French one A mixed working life, the most common case |
No choice: you come under the French system, and your pensions bear French social contributions |
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Count your three months
The deadline runs from the notification of your Swiss pension — the first payment — or from your move to France if you arrive at that point.
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If you choose the French system
The "Choix du système d'assurance maladie" form is filled in by your CPAM, then sent to the Institution commune LAMal, in Olten, within the deadline.
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If you stay with LAMal
You send your CPAM a copy of your S1 form, which opens up your access to care on both sides of the border.
If you do not reply within three months, you are signed up in Switzerland automatically, with LAMal premiums to pay out of your own pocket and no employer to share the cost. And the choice is final: neither a marriage, nor a divorce, nor a birth reopens the deadline.
And the tax
Your Swiss pensions — AVS and 2nd pillar alike — are taxable in France if you live there: you declare them like a French pension.
Social levies depend on your health insurance: if you come under the French system, your Swiss pensions bear CSG, CRDS and Casa, according to your reference taxable income. If you stay with LAMal, you are not liable for them — but you pay your Swiss premiums in full.
Ask for your AVS individual account statement two or three years before you retire: it lists the years you have paid in. That is the moment to make up a gap or correct a mistake, not when you file the claim.
And look for forgotten savings with the Centrale du 2e pilier: a short Swiss job twenty years ago left savings somewhere. Nobody will write to remind you.
The three most common mistakes
- Thinking the Swiss pension arrives on its own. Nothing starts without a claim, and lost time cannot always be made up.
- Letting the three months for the right to choose go by. That means being signed up in Switzerland automatically, at your own expense, with no going back.
- Deciding pension or lump sum on the day you retire. Your fund's rules may require the decision three years earlier.
On what date, with whom, and with what consequences in your case?
Heidi's cross-border mode builds the timetable for your retirement.
The questionnaire, the rules that apply to you, the thresholds and the deadlines are free. The figures — net pay, the cascade, the cost of the commute — are in Heidi Plus.
Read next
- What happens to my second pillar when I leave my Swiss job?
- Cross-border workers: LAMal or French cover? The right to choose explained
- How retirement works in Switzerland: the three pillars
Sources
- Mémento AVS 3.01 — Old-age pensions: reference age, scale 44, the 13th pension, claiming from abroad
- Mémento AVS 3.04 — Flexible retirement: early retirement and deferral rates
- OFAS — AVS/AI pension amounts applicable from 1st January 2027
- Cleiss — Pensioners of the Swiss system only, living in France: the right to choose, the three-month deadline
- Frontaliers Grand Est — Retirement procedures: where and when to file the claim
Written by the Heidi team and updated on 7 November 2026. The AVS amounts quoted are those applicable from 1st January 2027. Your pension fund's rules are set out in its regulations, which take precedence for everything to do with the 2nd pillar. Particular situations — invalidity, widowhood, self-employment, moving back to Switzerland — follow rules of their own.