CNAP Luxembourg: applying for your pension, forms and contacts
Skimming?
We've prepared the shortcut for you.
Your to-do, in 5 steps
Check your career statement
- When: every year, by post
- Who for: if you paid contributions the year before
- Cost: free It lists your insurance periods in Luxembourg. A missing employer or period should be reported right away, not at 64.
Ask for your estimate
- Age: between 56 and 64
- How: MyGuichet.lu or by post
- You need: your 13-digit identification number
- Link: Request the estimate on Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) The CNAP reconstructs your career, sets your earliest possible retirement date and calculates your pension for up to two dates.
Gather your supporting documents
- Studies: certificate or diploma
- Career abroad: career record
- Bank: bank details (RIB) in your name Without a foreign career record, give at least your foreign social security number, your exact periods and the fund you were insured with.
Send your pension application
- When: 2 to 6 months before retirement
- Career abroad: at least 6 months before, recommended
- Several schemes in Luxembourg: 6 months before
- How: by post, signed by hand
- Link: “Demande de pension” form on Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) If you're a resident, you send it to the CNAP. If you're a cross-border worker, to the pension fund of your country of residence, or directly to the CNAP if you last worked in Luxembourg. If you've never worked in your country of residence, your application goes to the last country where you worked. If you also worked for the State, a municipality or the CFL, your application goes to the scheme you were last affiliated with, which isn't necessarily the CNAP.
Follow your file until the decision
- Acknowledgement of receipt: sent by the CNAP
- Timeframe: a few weeks to several months
- End: decision with the right to appeal Write your Luxembourg social security number on every document you send afterwards.
This is for you if
You work or have worked in Luxembourg in the private sector, as an employee or self-employed, and your retirement is getting close.
You're looking for the right CNAP form: pension, estimate, survivor's pension, baby year, buying back periods.
You want to reach the CNAP without wasting time.
You're a cross-border worker and wondering which fund to contact.
you work for the State, a municipality or the CFL: you fall under a special pension scheme, with its own rules (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
Career statement and estimate: knowing where you stand
Your pension depends on your insurance career: the years recognised and the contributions paid (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). Two documents let you check it.
The annual career statement. The CNAP sends it every year to every insured person who isn't yet receiving a pension and who paid contributions in Luxembourg the previous year. From age 56, if you have at least 120 months of insurance, it also shows an estimated amount. Careful: this amount only counts your Luxembourg periods, without your years abroad or your supplementary periods such as studies (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
The estimate on request. Between 56 and 64, you can ask the CNAP for a real estimate. It completes your career (foreign periods, studies), sets the earliest date your pension can start, and calculates your pension for up to two dates. You don't need to live in Luxembourg, but you do need your 13-digit national identification number. You apply on MyGuichet.lu, with or without LuxTrust or an eID card, or by post. The CNAP may accept only one request per person: prepare your file carefully before sending it (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
The estimate is only indicative, and the CNAP doesn't provide one for the survivor's pension. If your career in Luxembourg is short, also look at how the minimum pension works. That's often where the question comes up: “will it be enough for me?”. If the gap with your current salary worries you, the simplest step is to see what tax-deductible retirement savings would change for you.
Which form for which procedure?
The CNAP points to Guichet.lu for most of its forms (CNAP, forms (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)):
| Your situation | The procedure |
|---|---|
| You're between 56 and 64 and want a figure | Pension estimate request (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| You retire at 65 | Old-age pension (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| You retire at 57 or 60 | Early old-age pension (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| Your health stops you from working | Invalidity pension (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| Your spouse or partner has died | Survivor's pension (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| One of your parents has died | Orphan's pension (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| You raised a child | Baby year (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| You want to buy back periods | Retroactive purchase (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
| You want to reduce your working hours before retirement | Certificate for the progressive pension (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) |
How to send it. Unless the procedure is done on MyGuichet.lu, the completed and signed form goes as an original, by post, with its documents, to: Caisse nationale d'assurance pension, L-2096 Luxembourg (CNAP (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). The pension application, the baby year, the retroactive purchase and the refund of contributions can't be sent by email (CNAP, contact (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). Your pension application must bear your original signature and come with a bank details form (RIB) in your name (CNAP, FAQ (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
Contacting the CNAP
- Pensions hotline: (+352) 22 41 41 65 00.
- Switchboard: (+352) 22 41 41 1.
- Reception for insured persons: 34-40, avenue de la Porte-Neuve, L-2227 Luxembourg, Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 15:30.
- Post: Caisse nationale d'assurance pension, L-2096 Luxembourg.
Sources: Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet), CNAP (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet).
In writing, online. The CNAP has a contact form for individuals (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet), reserved for current and future pensioners. You can't use it to ask for an individual appointment. Electronically, it only accepts three changes, each with its supporting document: address (certificate of residence), bank account (RIB), civil status (marriage certificate, partnership contract, death certificate). A life certificate sent by email is refused (CNAP, contact (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
Cross-border worker? Together with the pension funds of Germany, France and Belgium, the CNAP organises international information days (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet), where specialists answer your questions about a career split across countries. The basic rules for a career in several countries are in our guide CNAP pension: calculation and retirement age.
French cross-border worker: Carsat, cross-border form and P5000
Where to submit your application. Do you live in France? Your pension application normally goes to the fund of your country of residence, your Carsat, which then applies to the CNAP for your Luxembourg pension on your behalf. Exception: if you last worked in Luxembourg, you can choose to send it to Luxembourg or to your country of residence (Guichet.lu, non-residents and cross-border workers (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). The fund that receives your application becomes your “contact institution”: it liaises with the other countries and, once they have all made their decision, sends you a summary note (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
One application, several pensions. With a “mixed” career, each country where you were insured for at least one year pays you its own pension, when you reach the retirement age set by that country (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). For a Luxembourg pension, you need at least one year of insurance in Luxembourg and at least ten years counting your periods in the other European Union countries. Below one year, your Luxembourg months are taken into account by the other country (CNAP, European Union (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
The Carsat Alsace-Moselle cross-border form. If your fund is the Carsat Alsace-Moselle, attach its “document à rajouter impérativement” (mandatory additional document) to your retirement application: you state the country concerned on it (Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland or other). It goes together with the signed retirement application form, a copy of your ID, a copy of your family record book and your bank details (RIB) (Carsat Alsace-Moselle, form (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). The Carsat recommends submitting your application at least 5 months before your retirement date (Carsat Alsace-Moselle, cross-border workers (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)); Guichet.lu recommends at least 6 months before for a career in several countries (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). Keep the wider margin: 6 months.
What is the P5000? A European electronic form that pension funds exchange to pass on your career to each other. It is reserved for institutions: you have nothing to fill in (Chamber of Deputies, parliamentary answer no. 7601 (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). Updating your foreign periods isn't automatic: it happens through these exchanges between funds (P5000, P8000) while your pension is being processed (Carsat Alsace-Moselle (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). For its part, the CNAP itself asks each foreign fund for an official certificate of your periods. This exchange can take time, and the CNAP has no influence on how your file is handled abroad (CNAP, FAQ (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
If the exchange drags on. To guarantee you a first payment in the month you retire, the Carsat may offer you a “liquidation provisoire” (provisional settlement): your French pension is calculated based on your record as it stands, without the missing foreign periods, then recalculated once your career is up to date, with back payments from the start (Carsat Alsace-Moselle (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
To get ready. From age 60, you can ask for your foreign periods to be added to your French career record, with the online service “Compléter ma carrière et déclarer mes enfants” in your lassuranceretraite.fr account (Carsat Alsace-Moselle (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). For your Luxembourg part, ask the CNAP for an estimate between 56 and 64 (see above).
After your application: decision, payment, certificates
The processing. The CNAP sends you an acknowledgement of receipt. It checks your age, your insurance period and, if you retire before 65, your professional income. If periods are missing, it asks you questions, then requests official documents itself from other administrations, in Luxembourg and abroad (CNAP, FAQ (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). Allow a few weeks to several months, longer if a foreign fund has to reply (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
The first payment. In general, the CNAP pays you an advance while your last salaries are being recorded by the Centre commun de la sécurité sociale, which takes about 2 to 3 months after your pension starts. The procedure ends with a decision, with the final calculation, which you can contest (CNAP, FAQ (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
The payment. The pension is paid every month, in advance (Guichet.lu (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). As a rule, the transfer goes out on the third-to-last working day of the month; the exact dates for 2026 are in the table below.
The certificates. Once you're a pensioner, you can order a pension certificate online, with or without the amount, delivered in 1 to 2 working days. Every year, the CNAP also sends you by post the certificate you need for your tax return (CNAP, certificates (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
CNAP pension payment dates in 2026
As a rule, the CNAP transfers pensions on the third-to-last working day of the month. A pension is paid the month before: the one for January 2026 went out on 22 December 2025 (CNAP, payment calendar (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
| Pension for | Payment date |
|---|---|
| January 2026 | 22 December 2025 |
| February 2026 | 28 January 2026 |
| March 2026 | 25 February 2026 |
| April 2026 | 27 March 2026 |
| May 2026 | 28 April 2026 |
| June 2026 | 27 May 2026 |
| July 2026 | 26 June 2026 |
| August 2026 | 29 July 2026 |
| September 2026 | 27 August 2026 |
| October 2026 | 28 September 2026 |
| November 2026 | 28 October 2026 |
| December 2026 | 26 November 2026 |
| End-of-year allowance | 1 December 2026 |
Source: CNAP, 2026 payment calendar (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet).
The date shown is the bank value date: the time the money reaches your account depends on your bank, and you should allow one extra day if your bank has no direct relationship with the CNAP. For an account abroad, the timing follows the rules for transfers between international banks. The CNAP also offers the calendar as an .ics file, to add to your calendar app (CNAP (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
And to top up your pension?
- A prévoyance-vieillesse contract (the 3rd pillar) is prepared years before retirement, and its premiums are deductible from your taxes from this year, as special expenses, if you're a resident or an assimilated non-resident (Guichet.lu, prévoyance-vieillesse (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
- How much would it save you? Run the numbers with our 111bis retirement simulator, then ask for a call back if you want to go further.
Common mistakes
Waiting for the CNAP to contact you.
The pension isn't automatic, even if you meet all the conditions. The only exception: an invalidity pension automatically becomes an old-age pension at 65.
Sending your application by email.
It has to go by post, with your original signature and bank details (RIB).
Writing to the CNAP when you live in France, Belgium or Germany.
As a rule, you go through the fund of your country of residence, unless you last worked in Luxembourg.
Taking the amount on the annual statement as your final figure.
It ignores your years abroad and your studies.
Replying to a text message in the CNAP's name.
The CNAP warns of fraudulent text messages circulating in its name (CNAP (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)): don't click on any link.
Frequently asked questions
Through the CNAP pensions hotline on (+352) 22 41 41 65 00, or at the reception desk, 34-40 avenue de la Porte-Neuve in Luxembourg, Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 15:30.
On the CNAP forms (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet) page, which links to Guichet.lu: pension application, estimate, survivor's, orphan's and invalidity pension, baby year, retroactive purchase.
Between 2 and 6 months before your retirement date if you have only worked in Luxembourg. Preferably at least 6 months before if you have also worked abroad, and 6 months before if you were affiliated with several pension schemes in Luxembourg.
The estimate, yes, on MyGuichet.lu. The pension application itself goes by post, signed by hand, with your bank details (RIB).
As a rule, no: you submit your application to the fund of your country of residence, which forwards it to the CNAP. Exception: if you last worked in Luxembourg, you can contact the CNAP directly. If you've never worked in your country of residence, your application goes to the last country where you worked.
From a few weeks to several months, depending on your file and the replies from foreign funds.
Not under that name. The CNAP pays an end-of-year allowance to anyone entitled to a pension on 1 December. It depends on your years of insurance (40 at most), and is calculated pro rata, one twelfth per month of pension, if your pension started during the year (CNAP, general information (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)). In 2026, it is paid on 1 December (CNAP, calendar (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).
The electronic form through which European pension funds exchange your career. You don't have to fill it in: it circulates between your Carsat and the CNAP while your application is being processed (Chamber of Deputies (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet), Carsat Alsace-Moselle (ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)).