According to the EU laws (883/2004 and 997/2009) the people who live in a country and work from that country or people who are posted to that country for more than 24 months they need to register and pay social insurance to that particular country and not the country that their employer is based. Regarding pilots, the regulation 465/2012 which applies as of 28 June 2012, refers to “home base” as the only decisive criterion for determining the social security legislation which applies to flight crew members. The applicable legislation is directly connected to the "home base" as this is the location where the person is physically located and with which s/he has a close connection regarding her or his employment. All new contracts with flight and cabin crew members concluded after 28 June 2012 should, therefore, be assessed on the basis of the new Article 11(5) of the Regulation 883/2004.

In agreement with the previous paragraph and the EU laws, pilots who are based in Greece (therefore their “home base” is Greece) must pay their social insurance contributions in Greece at the relevant Greek authority called “IKA” (there is a possibility with the new Greek legislation that these authorities have been renamed to “EFKA”). However, to register to that authority, pilots need to have some other relevant numbers in advance. The first one is called “AMKA”, and it is the social security number. The second number that a pilot needs to obtain prior to the registration to IKA is called “AFM” and is a Tax identification number relating to the Greek tax authorities. Later in this file, there are specific instructions on how to obtain those numbers. However, it is highly advisable to the foreign pilots who are based in Greece, that they will have a Greek Speaking person with them, so they will not face problems in terms of communication with the Greek officers. 

After having obtained those two relevant numbers, a pilot must go to the social insurance centre (IKA) which is closer to her/his residential address to start the registration procedure. The registration is described later in this document. After the registration, having been completed, the pilots need to fill some forms “APD” and submit them every month. Those forms will contain information relating to the previous month, such as how many working hours the pilots worked, her/his income and the social insurance contributions that must be paid for the previous month according to the previously mentioned information and the Greek legislation. The latter form, will be filled out by us and will be sent by us. Then the pilot should be responsible for paying her/his contributions before the end of the next month. For example, someone will have to fill out this APD form for January in February and then pay the contributions relating to January before the end of February.