If you are a citizen of one of the countries listed below, you also may receive your payments as long as you are outside the U.S., unless you are receiving your payments as a dependent or survivor. In that case, there are additional requirements you have to meet-see Part 4.
Albania Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Bosnia-Herzegovina Brazil Burkina Faso Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador |
El Salvador Gabon Grenada Guatemala Guyana Hungary Iceland Ivory Coast Jamaica Jordan Latvia Liechtenstein Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Rep. of Malta Marshall Islands Mexico Micronesia, Fed. States of Monaco |
Nicaragua Palau Panama Peru Philippines Poland St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) San Marino Slovak Republic Slovenia Trinidad-Tobago Turkey Uruguay Venezuela Yugoslavia, Fed. Rep. of (formerly Serbia & Montenegro) |
(This list is subject to change from time to time.)
If you are not a citizen of the U.S. or a citizen of one of the other countries listed in Parts 3-A or 3-B above, your payments will stop after you have been outside the U.S. for 6 full calendar months unless you meet one of the following exceptions:
you were eligible for monthly Social Security benefits for December 1956; or
you are in the active military or naval service of the U.S.; or
the worker on whose record your benefits are based had railroad work which was treated as covered employment by the Social Security program; or
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; or
you are a resident of a country with which the U.S. has a Social Security agreement. Currently, these countries are:
Australia Austria |
Italy Korea (South) |
(This list is subject to change from time to time.)
However, the agreements with Austria, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland permit you to receive benefits as a dependent or survivor of a worker while you reside in the foreign country only if the worker is a U.S. citizen or a citizen of your country of residence; or
you are a citizen of one of the countries listed below and the worker on whose record your benefits are based lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years or earned at least 40 earnings credits under the U.S. Social Security system. If you are receiving benefits as a dependent or survivor, see Part 4 for additional requirements.
Afghanistan Australia Bangladesh Bhutan Botswana Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Islands Central African Rep. Chad China, People's Rep. of Congo Rep. Ethiopia Fiji Gambia Ghana Haiti Honduras |
India Indonesia Kenya Laos Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Myanmar Nepal Nigeria Pakistan St. Vincent & Grenadines |
Senegal Sierra Leone Singapore Solomon Islands Somali Dem. Rep. South Africa, Rep. of Sri Lanka Sudan Swaziland Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Tunisia Uganda Yemen |
(This list is subject to change from time to time.)
If you are not a citizen of one of the countries listed above, you cannot use this exception.
If you are not a U.S. citizen and none of these exceptions applies to you, your payments will stop after you have been outside the U.S. for 6 full months. Once this happens, your payments cannot be started again until you come back and stay in the U.S. for a whole calendar month. This means you have to be in the U.S. on the first minute of the first day of a month and stay through the last minute of the last day of that month. In addition, you may be required to establish that you have been lawfully present in the U.S. for that full calendar month period. For more information, you may contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or consulate or Social Security office.
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 5 years. During that 5 years, the family relationship on which benefits are based must have existed. For example, if you are receiving benefits as a spouse, you must have been married to the worker while living in the U.S. for at least 5 years.
Children who cannot meet the residency requirement on their own may be considered to meet it 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; or
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; or
you are a citizen of one of the countries listed in Part 3-A; or
you are a resident of one of the countries with which the U.S. has a Social Security agreement (see Part 3-C).
My statement stands, I have known Mexicans who work here (possibly legal - green card of legalized immigrants) who return to Mexico and as they put it "Live like Kings".
This is what leads me to believe this newest proposal is something entirely different.