International social security agreements can be divided into three types by their nature:
- Proportionate agreements – they are based on the principles of equal treatment, single insurance, aggregation of periods of insurance, and the exportability of benefits. When assessing the entitlement to pension, each contracting country awards and pays out the pension in dependence on the period of insurance in its own territory. The Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) has concluded these agreements with the following countries: Australia, Bulgaria, France, Chile, Croatia, India, Israel, Japan, former Yugoslavia (Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro), Canada, South Korea, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Moldova, Germany, Poland, Quebec, Austria, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States.
- Territorial agreements – are based on the principle of permanent residence of the insured person. This means that the benefit is awarded by the country in which the applicant has permanent residence on the day when he/she becomes entitled to the benefit. The only agreement based on the territorial principle was concluded with the former Soviet Union. The agreement was terminated on 31 December 2008 in relation to the Russian Federation and on 22 September 2009 in relation to the other successor states of the former USSR (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). New agreements were then negotiated with Ukraine and Moldova, with effect from 1 April 2003 and 1 October 2012, respectively. A new, proportionate agreement with the Russian Federation entered into force on 1 November 2014.
- Combined agreements (proportionate agreements with a territorial element) – agreements with Slovakia, Ukraine, and Russia.
Not all international agreements cover the entire area of social security. Such specific agreements are the following:
- the agreement with the Netherlands of 2001, which only provides for export of social security benefits,
- the government agreement between the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the USA of 1968, which only provides for mutual payment of pensions in both countries, and
- the intergovernmental agreement on the settlement of pension security claims between the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and Greece of 1985, which regulates pension claims of repatriated Greeks.
The full wording of international social security bilateral agreements and implementing regulations (administrative provisions) is available on the website of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.