Insurance in Germany as a foreigner: what you need to know

5 things you should know about insurance in Germany

• Health insurance is mandatory in Germany.
• Most employees automatically pay into the German social security system.
• If you are about to lose your job, you must register in time or risk losing part of your unemployment benefits.
• Students from abroad may still need a German insurance notification for enrolment, even if they already have health cover at home.
• Private liability insurance is optional, but widely seen as one of the most important policies in Germany.

If you move to Germany, you will quickly come across a range of insurance rules. Some types of insurance are mandatory, especially if you work or study here. Others are optional, but still highly recommended in everyday life.

This guide gives you a practical overview of the most important types of insurance in Germany for foreigners.

Are you an employee in Germany?

If you work as an employee in Germany, you usually pay into the social security system. In general, employer and employee share the contributions equally. The exception is statutory accident insurance, which is paid by the employer alone.

Germany’s social security system has five main branches:

• health insurance
• long-term care insurance
• pension insurance
• unemployment insurance
• accident insurance

Health insurance: statutory or private?

Germany has both statutory health insurance and private health insurance.

For most employees, statutory health insurance is compulsory. If your regular income is above a certain threshold, you can usually choose between staying in the statutory system voluntarily or switching to private health insurance.

Long-term care insurance

Long-term care insurance is linked to health insurance:

• if you are in the statutory system, you are automatically covered by statutory long-term care insurance
• if you are privately insured, you must take out private compulsory long-term care insurance

Pension insurance

Germany has a statutory pension system. For the regular old-age pension, you generally need a minimum insurance period of five years.

If you have worked in other European Union countries, these insurance periods may also count when your pension rights are assessed.

Accident insurance

Statutory accident insurance covers accidents at work and on the direct way to and from work. As an employee, you do not need to arrange this yourself.

Are you unemployed or about to lose your job?

If you are unemployed, or if you already know that your job will end, timing matters.

When do you need to register?

If the end of your employment is already foreseeable:

• register as a jobseeker at least three months before your job ends
• if you find out later, register within three days

If you actually become unemployed, you must also register as unemployed by your first day without work.

When can you receive unemployment benefit?

To receive unemployment benefit, you generally need to:

• be unemployed
• register with the Federal Employment Agency
• meet the qualifying period

As a rule, this means that you must have been in insured employment for at least 12 months within the 30 months before registering as unemployed.

What happens to your insurance while you receive unemployment benefit?

If you receive unemployment benefit, you are generally covered by statutory:

• health insurance
• long-term care insurance
• pension insurance

Are you studying in Germany?

Students also need health insurance in Germany.

If you come from another European Union or European Economic Area country, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or a country with a social security agreement with Germany, your home-country insurance may often be recognised.

What do you need for enrolment at a German university?

For enrolment, the university usually needs an insurance status notification from a German statutory health insurer.

In practice, this means:

• you contact a statutory health insurer in Germany
• the insurer checks your documents, for example your European Health Insurance Card or another proof of cover
• the insurer then sends the necessary notification to your university

So even if you are insured abroad, you may still need to contact a German statutory health insurer for the enrolment process.

What if you work while studying?

Whether you have to pay social security contributions depends on the type of job.

Minijob

If you have a minijob, the earnings limit is 603 euros per month in 2026.

As a rule:

• you do not pay health, long-term care or unemployment insurance contributions through this job
• pension insurance contributions usually still apply
• you can usually apply for an exemption from pension insurance

Working-student job

If you have a working-student job, the working-student privilege may apply.

In that case, the job is generally exempt from:

• health insurance contributions
• long-term care insurance contributions
• unemployment insurance contributions

Pension insurance contributions usually still apply.

Whether this rule applies depends above all on the actual nature of the employment, especially your working hours and whether your studies remain your main focus.

Which optional insurance is strongly recommended?

Not every useful insurance policy is mandatory. But one type of insurance is particularly important in everyday life.

Private liability insurance

We strongly recommend private liability insurance.

It can protect you if you accidentally cause damage to another person or to someone else’s property and are legally liable for it. In Germany, this is widely regarded as one of the most important private insurance policies.

Household contents insurance

Another common product is household contents insurance. It covers damage to your belongings, for example caused by:

• fire
• storm or hail
• tap water
• burglary

This insurance is optional, but it can make sense if you have valuable belongings at home.

Do you own a car in Germany?

If you want to register a car in Germany, you must have motor third-party liability insurance.

Without it, the car cannot be registered.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.