When moving to another city for work, transfer your pension and medical insurance to the new place of enrollment; contribution years keep adding up, so do not withdraw from pension insurance

No money needed. After enrolling and paying contributions at the new location, your new employer or you submit a transfer application, at a service counter or online. The pension transfer takes several dozen working days across its stages; medical insurance takes around 15 working days.

Under the Social Insurance Law, when you move elsewhere for work (formally, across pooling areas), your pension insurance relationship transfers with you and contribution years are accumulated. Employee medical insurance works the same way: the insurance relationship follows you, and contribution years are accumulated. At retirement, the pension is calculated in segments and paid through one channel. Interprovincial pension transfers follow the transfer and continuity measures forwarded by the State Council General Office. Before reaching the age for receiving benefits, you may not terminate the pension insurance relationship or withdraw from the scheme. The Social Insurance Law also prohibits early withdrawals from personal accounts. All principal and interest in the personal account transfer with you. The employer-funded portion, called the pooled fund, transfers at 12% of your actual contribution wage for each year from 1998 onward. At retirement, the calculation uses your contribution wages and contribution years, together with the average wages for each year at the place where you receive benefits. After enrolling and paying contributions at the new location, your employer or you apply in writing to that location. The new location reviews the application within 15 working days; after receiving the letter agreeing to accept the transfer, the old location completes its transfer-out within 15 working days. After receiving the insurance relationship and funds, the new location completes processing within another 15 working days. The 2020 list of interprovincial government services required this service to become available across provinces by the end of that year. Apply at the receiving location; you do not need to return to the old one. To apply to transfer employee medical insurance, coverage must first be stopped at the old location and you must already be enrolled at the new one. Apply online through the National Healthcare Security Service Platform or at a service counter. The old location transfers out within 10 working days and the new one transfers in within 5 working days, including the personal-account balance. If the contribution gap before transfer is no more than 3 months, making up contributions under the new location’s rules removes the waiting period: reimbursement is available in the month of payment, and the gap can be reimbursed retroactively. If the gap exceeds 3 months, the waiting period follows local rules and in principle does not exceed 6 months (nationwide in China).

全国人大常委会 (2010, 2018 修正). 社会保险法（第十四、十九、三十二条）. https://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2021-10/29/content_5647616.htm；人力资源社会保障部、财政部 (2009). 城镇企业职工基本养老保险关系转移接续暂行办法（国办发〔2009〕66 号转发，第二、三、四、五、六、七、八、十一条）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2009-12/29/content_8104.htm；国务院办公厅 (2020). 关于加快推进政务服务「跨省通办」的指导意见（国办发〔2020〕35 号，附件第 7 项）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-09/29/content_5548125.htm；国家医保局办公室、财政部办公厅 (2021). 基本医疗保险关系转移接续暂行办法（医保办发〔2021〕43 号，第五、六、八、九、十一、十二、十三条）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-11/28/content_5653856.htm；国家医保局 (2021). 《基本医疗保险关系转移接续暂行办法》政策解读（国家医保服务平台网址 fuwu.nhsa.gov.cn）. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2021-11/28/content_5653855.htm

If you move to another province that is not your household-registration province and are a man aged 50 or above or a woman aged 40 or above, your pension insurance relationship stays at the old location. The new location opens only a temporary account recording all employer and personal contributions. The rules for where you receive your pension at retirement are as follows. If the insurance relationship is in your household-registration province, receive it there. If it is elsewhere but you have accumulated 10 years of contributions at the location holding the relationship, receive it there. If that location has less than 10 years, transfer back to the previous location where you accumulated 10 years and receive it there. If no location has 10 years, consolidate the contributions at your household-registration location and receive it there. Different receiving locations use different average wages in the pension calculation. Each province sets its own rules for transfers between cities within the province; ask the local social insurance agency. People already receiving a pension do not transfer their insurance relationship again. For how contribution years count after a lapse and which entitlements require continuous contributions, see Section 7, item 18 (interrupted social insurance contributions). For paying social insurance yourself without an employer, see Section 31, item 11 (flexible employment).