Posted Workers in the EU: The 24-Month Rule Explained

If your employer sends you to work in another EU or EEA state or Switzerland, there is a rule that keeps you in your home social security system rather than moving you into the host country's. It has one number and two conditions, and both conditions matter.

Accurate as of 24 August 2026. Every figure on this page is quoted from the primary source linked in Sources and was checked on that date. EUR-Lex serves its text to browsers rather than to automated fetchers, so open these links in a browser to read the provision.

The rule

Per Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (consolidated), a posted employee remains subject to the legislation of the sending state "provided that the anticipated duration of such work does not exceed 24 months and that he/she is not sent to replace another posted person".

Article 12(2) applies the same 24-month ceiling to self-employed people who temporarily pursue a similar activity in another member state.

The detail most summaries miss

The test is on anticipated duration, assessed at the outset, not a retrospective day count. That is a genuinely different kind of rule from most of what we cover on this site. A posting intended to last eighteen months sits within the rule from day one; a posting openly planned for three years does not, even on its first day.

The second condition is the one that catches employers rather than individuals. You cannot be sent to replace another posted person doing the same work. Rotating staff through the same role to keep resetting the clock is precisely what the provision is written to prevent.

Posting is not multi-state working

These two situations are frequently confused and they follow different rules entirely. Posting is being sent temporarily to one other state. Habitually working in two or more states is governed instead by the residence-and-substantial-part test, where the marker is the 25 per cent indicator. If your pattern is really "based at home, sometimes in Berlin", you are likely in the second category, not the first.

Paperwork

The A1 certificate evidences which system covers you and should be obtained before the posting begins. Inspections in the host state ask for it, and obtaining one retrospectively is harder than obtaining one in advance.

Counting these days automatically

Postings extend, overlap and turn into something else, and the compliance question is decided by facts recorded at the time. The Days Monitor iPhone app logs your days by country and state automatically, runs custom rules with rolling windows of any length, warns you before you cross a line, and exports a timestamped PDF or CSV record if you are ever asked to evidence it. Download it on the App Store.

Sources

• Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (consolidated) (accessed 24 August 2026)

All sources checked 24 August 2026.

This article is general information, not tax, legal or immigration advice. Day-counting rules interact with treaties, your immigration status and your individual facts. Verify current rules with the relevant authority and take advice from a qualified professional before relying on any threshold.