Social Security Outside The United States

Once you have been out of the U.S. for at least 30 days in a row, you are considered to be outside the country until you return and stay in the U.S. for at least 30 days in a row. If you are not a U.S. citizen, you also may have to prove that you were lawfully present in the U.S. for that 30-day period.

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.

If you are not a U.S. citizen, your payments will stop after you have been outside the U.S. for six full calendar months unless you meet one of the following exceptions:

• You are in the active military or naval service of the U.S.
• The worker on whose record your benefits are based had railroad work which was treated as covered employment by the Social Security program
• The worker on whose record your benefits are based died while in the U.S. military service or as a result of a service-connected disability and was not dishonorably discharged

If you receive benefits as a dependent or survivor of the worker, special requirements may affect your right to receive Social Security payments while you are outside the U.S. If you are not a U.S. citizen, you must have lived in the U.S. for at least five years. During that five years, the family relationship on which benefits are based must have existed.

Children may meet this residency requirement on their own or may be considered to meet the residency requirement if it is met by the worker and other parent (if any). However, children adopted outside the U.S. will not be paid outside the U.S., even if the residency requirement is met.

The residency requirement will not apply to you if you meet any of the following conditions:

• You were initially eligible for monthly benefits before January 1, 1985
• You are entitled on the record of a worker who died while in the U.S. military service or as a result of a service-connected disease or injury

If you are living outside the U.S., periodically the U.S. will send you a questionnaire. This lets them figure out if you still are eligible for benefits. Return the questionnaire to the office that sent it as soon as possible; if you do not, your payments will stop.

In addition to responding to the questionnaire, notify the U.S. promptly about changes that could affect your payments. If you fail to report something or deliberately make a false statement, you could be penalized by a fine or imprisonment. You also may lose some of your payments if you do not report changes promptly.

Social Security restrictions prohibit sending payments to individuals in Cambodia, Vietnam or areas that were in the former Soviet Union (other than Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia). Generally, you cannot receive payments while you are in one of these countries, and we cannot send your payments to anyone for you. However, exceptions can be made for certain eligible beneficiaries in countries other than Cuba or North Korea.

To qualify for an exception, you must agree to the conditions of payment. One of the conditions is that you must appear in person at the U.S. Embassy each month to receive your benefits.