Collecting Social Security While Living Abroad (2024)

FAQs

Collecting Social Security While Living Abroad? ›

If you earned Social Security benefits, you can visit or live in most foreign countries and still receive payments. Look up the country on the SSA Payments Abroad Screening Tool to be sure you can receive your payments.

If you are a U.S. citizen, you may receive your Social Security payments outside the U.S. as long as you are eligible for them. However, there are certain countries to which we are not allowed to send payments.

If you leave the U.S., we will stop your benefits the month after the sixth calendar month in a row that you are outside the country. You can make visits to the United States for specific periods of time, depending on how long you've been outside, to continue receiving your benefits.

Note: if you had a my Social Security account prior to moving overseas, you will need to create an ID.me credential to use it from an international address. Once you have created your personal my Social Security account, you will be able to: Check your earnings. Get your benefit estimates.

The Social Security five-year rule is the time period in which you can file for an expedited reinstatement after your Social Security disability benefits have been terminated completely due to work.

Not working long enough is the most obvious reason someone wouldn't be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits. You must have a work history of at least 10 years to earn the credits you need to be eligible for Social Security as a retiree.

The United States generally considers a person with dual U.S. and foreign citizenship a U.S. citizen for Social Security purposes. This does not apply if you are a U.S. citizen and a citizen of a country the United States has an international social security agreement with.

Generally, if you are a U.S. person, you are subject to U.S. income tax filing requirements and your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you live. SSA will not withhold tax from your benefits if you are a U.S. person.

How does foreign income affect social security? ›

If you already have enough credits under the U.S. Social Security system to qualify for a benefit, we will not count your credits in the other country. If we need to count your foreign work credits, you will receive a partial U.S. benefit based on how long you worked under U.S. Social Security.

International social security agreements can be bilateral agreements concluded by two countries in order to coordinate their specific regulations, or multilateral agreements allowing several countries to coordinate parts of their social security regulations.

You should contact the SSA before you move. This ensures that you will receive your payments at your new address if they are mailed to you and any future communications from the SSA regarding your benefits. You can change your address in these ways: Online.

Have you heard about the Social Security $16,728 yearly bonus? There's really no “bonus” that retirees can collect. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a specific formula based on your lifetime earnings to determine your benefit amount.

Social Security income can be taxable no matter how old you are. It all depends on whether your total combined income exceeds a certain level set for your filing status. You may have heard that Social Security income is not taxed after age 70; this is false.

If your employer hired you to work in an agreement country, you generally will pay social security taxes only to that country. This also applies if you are in a country to work for more than five years. You will be exempt from paying U.S. Social Security taxes1.

Lawfully present noncitizens of the United States who meet all eligibility requirements can qualify for Social Security benefits. This rule also applies to noncitizens authorized to work in the United States who got a Social Security number after December 2003. For more information visit our Immigration page.

Jobseeker's Benefit (JB) and Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed) may be transferred to another EEA member state for up to 13 weeks (78 days), if you are looking for work there.

You Can Lose Some of Your Benefits to Taxes

If you earn more than $25,000 as a single filer or $32,000 as a joint filer, up to 85% of your Social Security benefits are fair game to the IRS. Twelve states also tax Social Security benefits as income.