Luxembourg - Usual residence
This chapter provides information on the conditions required to establish your main residence in Luxembourg and the consequences on your rights to Luxembourg social security benefits.
What is a "usual residence"?
In Luxembourg, the "usual residence" is your legal place of domicile. To establish your legal place of domicile in Luxembourg, you must be permitted to live there, legally declared through registration in the community population register and have your main residence there.
As a citizen of an EU-EEE country or Switzerland, you have the right to stay in Luxembourg or establish your place of residence there, without prior authorisation, as long as you have a valid identity card or passport.
To establish your main residence in Luxembourg, you must first carry out a declaration of arrival with the local authorities in the area in which you live, within 8 days. The area in which you live may then provide you with a residence certificate, which will be useful for your employer and for your social coverage procedures.
Within a period of 3 months, you should then carry out a registration declaration for all the members of your family. This will enable you to obtain a registration certificate.
What conditions do I need to meet?
If you work in Luxembourg, either as a salaried employee or self-employed, you must be affiliated with social security for all branches: sickness-maternity insurance, workplace accident and occupational illness insurance, nursing care insurance, pension insurance, family benefits and unemployment coverage.
As a worker you can benefit from Luxembourg social security benefits, even if you do not live in Luxembourg, as long as you meet the required conditions: sickness benefits, maternity and workplace accidents, healthcare, funeral grants, accident and damage benefits, occupational integration measures, nursing care benefits, old-age and invalidity pensions, family benefits.
One single exception: in the event that you lose your job, you will get unemployment benefits in your country of residence. The same applies if you are self-employed. However, if there is no unemployment system for self-employed persons in the country in which you live, you may receive unemployment benefits in Luxembourg. You can, however, register as a jobseeker in both Luxembourg and in your country of residence.
Please note that your insurance also extends to members of your family, even if they do not live in Luxembourg, on the condition that they are not personally insured as part of their professional activity. Under certain conditions, they have the right to healthcare, funeral grants, survivors' pensions and benefits, psychological damage compensation, nursing care benefits and family allowance.
If you live in Luxembourg, you have the additional rights unrelated to your professional activity. Social assistance is paid in certain situations of need, potentially in addition to your professional income or to social security benefits: social inclusion income (REVIS), cost-of-life allowance, contribution to costs related to sheltered accommodation for elderly people, income for severely disabled people. These benefits are subject to conditions governing resources.
What am I entitled to and how can I claim?
You can view detailed information relating to the various benefits, along with the methods of putting in claims, in their respective chapters.
Know your rights
The link below provides a legal definition of your rights. It is not a European Commission website, nor does it represent the views of the Commission:
Commission publications and websites: