Colombian citizens may contribute to pension schemes in 14 countries to qualify for retirement benefits

Colombia signed the Ibero-American Social Security Agreement, which protects the social security of migrant workers and their families. Under this agreement, workers who have worked in one or more of the 14 signatory countries throughout their working lives will be able to accumulate contributions towards old-age, disability, and/or survivor’s pensions.

The signatory countries are Argentina, Ecuador, Portugal, Bolivia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Spain, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico.

The benefits of this agreement are:

• Avoiding the loss of contributory rights.
• Guaranteeing the preservation of acquired rights, i.e., that benefits will not be lost when moving to another country.
• Equal treatment of workers regardless of nationality when working in a different country.
• Administrative and technical cooperation between managing institutions will be taken into account in order to facilitate the application of beneficiaries’ rights.