Who can collect abroad, and where
The Social Security Administration pays benefits to U.S. citizens living in almost every country. The only places where payments cannot be sent are Cuba and North Korea — benefits accrue while you are there and are paid when you move somewhere payable. A short list of countries (currently Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) is “restricted”: a citizen living there must agree to receive payment in person at the embassy or under special conditions. Everywhere else — the Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Portugal, Germany, India, Japan — is routine.
The SSA’s Payments Abroad Screening Tool on ssa.gov gives a country-by-country answer in two minutes. Check it before you commit to a country, especially if the beneficiary is not a U.S. citizen.
The six-month rule for non-citizen beneficiaries
This is where expat families get surprised. A non-citizen receiving benefits on their own record or as your spouse, widow, or child generally has payments stopped after six consecutive calendar months outside the U.S., and they do not restart until the person has been back in the U.S. for a full calendar month. Exceptions that let a non-citizen keep collecting abroad:
- They are a citizen of a country with a totalization agreement with the U.S. (about 30 countries, including the UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and most of western Europe).
- They are a citizen of a country with a social insurance reciprocity arrangement that pays U.S. citizens abroad (the Philippines, Mexico, Israel, and a number of others are on the SSA list; check the screening tool for your spouse’s country).
- They lived in the U.S. for at least five years as your spouse, widow(er), or child (for a child, the citizen parent’s U.S. residence can sometimes count).
- They are a dependent of a U.S. military member or the beneficiary of a worker who died in U.S. service.
A Filipina widow of a U.S. retiree, for example, can usually continue collecting in the Philippines because the Philippines is on the SSA’s list of countries whose citizens are paid abroad; the detailed rules are in the Filipina family survivor benefits guide. A Thai or Vietnamese spouse with no U.S. residence history may not be so lucky. Run the screening tool for the spouse’s citizenship, not yours.
How you get paid: U.S. bank vs. International Direct Deposit
| Method | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. bank account | Benefit lands in your U.S. checking account on the usual schedule; you move money abroad as needed | Some U.S. banks close accounts with a foreign address. Keep a bank that explicitly supports expats (several large banks and credit unions do), and a mail-forwarding or family address if the bank insists. |
| International Direct Deposit (IDD) | SSA pays directly into a local bank in roughly 70 countries, in local currency or U.S. dollars depending on the country | Exchange is done at the SSA’s contracted rate; some countries only pay in local currency. Enrolment uses a country-specific form through the Federal Benefits Unit. The Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Germany, UK, Japan, and most of Europe are on the list; India is not for most banks. |
| Direct Express debit card | Prepaid card loaded with the benefit | Foreign ATM and purchase fees add up. Fine as a backup, poor as a primary method. |
| Paper check | Mailed to a foreign address | Slow, lost checks are common, and the SSA pushes everyone to electronic payment. Avoid. |
From experience: most long-term expats keep the U.S. account and transfer in bulk every few months with a low-cost transfer service rather than taking the SSA’s rate every month. Compare the two with the international transfer cost tool.
Federal Benefits Units and who you actually talk to
Once you live abroad, your Social Security file is handled by the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) at the U.S. embassy or consulate that covers your country, not by a U.S. field office. Large FBUs (Manila, London, Rome, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Mexico City) handle applications, address changes, direct deposit enrolment, SSN applications for citizen children born abroad, and the annual questionnaires. Smaller posts route to a regional FBU. The main U.S. 800-number can still help with general questions, but anything that touches your foreign address goes through the FBU, and the FBU usually works by email or appointment rather than walk-in.
Keep your my Social Security online account. It needs a U.S. address or an ID.me login that works abroad, and it lets you see payment history, download the SSA-1099, and update some details without the FBU.
The Foreign Enforcement Questionnaire (proof of life)
Every one or two years the SSA mails beneficiaries abroad form SSA-7162 (or SSA-7161 for representative payees). It asks whether you are alive, where you live, whether you have worked, married, divorced, or been imprisoned, and whether your citizenship changed. It usually arrives between May and July and must be returned within about 60 days.
The questionnaire goes to the address on file. If you moved and did not tell the SSA, or the local post is unreliable, you never see it, payments are suspended, and restoring them takes months through the FBU. Update your address within 10 days of any move, ask the FBU whether you can return the form by email or fax (many accept it), and keep a copy with the date sent.
What you must report to the SSA
- Change of address — including moves within the same foreign country.
- Change of citizenship — yours or a dependent’s.
- Marriage, divorce, or annulment — affects spousal and survivor benefits.
- Work — see the foreign work test below.
- Eligibility for a foreign pension — historically relevant to the Windfall Elimination Provision; see below.
- A child beneficiary leaving your care, marrying, or stopping school.
- Death of a beneficiary — the family must notify the FBU promptly; benefits paid for the month of death and after must be returned.
Working abroad before full retirement age
Inside the U.S., the earnings test reduces benefits if you earn over an annual limit before full retirement age. Outside the U.S., a different rule applies to work that is not covered by U.S. Social Security: the foreign work test. If you are under full retirement age and work more than 45 hours in a month in employment or self-employment not subject to U.S. Social Security tax, you lose the benefit for that month regardless of how much you earn. Work 45 hours or fewer and the benefit is paid in full. If the foreign work is covered by U.S. Social Security (for example, you are self-employed and paying U.S. SE tax from abroad because there is no totalization agreement — see self-employment abroad), the ordinary annual earnings test applies instead. After full retirement age neither test applies.
Foreign pensions: WEP and GPO are gone
For decades, expats who also earned a pension from a foreign employer or national scheme (a UK state pension, a German Rentenversicherung pension, an Australian super pension, a Qatari end-of-service payment treated as a pension) had their U.S. benefit cut by the Windfall Elimination Provision, and spouses by the Government Pension Offset. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed in January 2025, repealed both for benefits payable from January 2024 onward. If your benefit was reduced because of a foreign pension, the SSA should have recalculated it and paid the back amount during 2025; if yours was not adjusted, raise it with the FBU in writing. New claimants with foreign pensions are no longer reduced.
Totalization agreements: combining credits
If you split your career between the U.S. and a country with a totalization agreement, the agreement lets you combine credits from both systems to qualify for a benefit you would otherwise miss (you need 40 U.S. quarters, or at least 6 plus enough foreign coverage under an agreement), and it stops you paying into both systems at once while working abroad. The U.S. currently has agreements with about 30 countries — Canada, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, most of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, and Iceland among them. It does not have one with the Philippines, Thailand, India (long negotiated, not in force), the UAE, Qatar, Singapore, or China. Claims under an agreement are filed with either country’s system, which forwards it to the other.
How Social Security is taxed when you live abroad
U.S. side
As a U.S. citizen you are taxed the same way as a resident: up to 85% of the benefit is included in income once your “combined income” (adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest plus half the benefit) exceeds $25,000 single or $32,000 married filing jointly — thresholds that have never been indexed. Note that the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion does not apply to Social Security; it is not earned income. Benefits are reported from the SSA-1099, which the SSA mails abroad and posts in your online account each January. For tax years 2025 through 2028, taxpayers aged 65 and over get an additional deduction of up to $6,000 (phased out at higher incomes), which reduces the tax on benefits for many retirees without removing the inclusion itself.
Treaty residence countries
Several U.S. tax treaties give the country of residence the exclusive (or primary) right to tax U.S. Social Security. Under the U.S.-Canada treaty, for example, a resident of Canada pays only Canadian tax and 15% of the benefit is exempt; under the treaties with the UK and Germany, among others, U.S. Social Security paid to a resident of that country is taxable only there. In those cases you claim the treaty position on your U.S. return (Form 8833 where required) and report the benefit in your country of residence. Other countries — the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Portugal, Spain — either have no such clause or share the taxing right, so you report in the U.S. and claim a credit or exemption locally according to the treaty and local law. Country specifics are in each country guide.
Non-citizens
A non-resident alien receiving U.S. Social Security (a foreign widow, for instance) has 30% withheld on 85% of the benefit, an effective rate of 25.5%, unless a treaty reduces or eliminates it. The SSA applies this automatically based on citizenship and residence; the SSA-1042S shows the amount.
Medicare does not travel with you
Enrolling in Social Security at 65 or later also enrolls you in Medicare Part A and, unless you decline it, Part B. Medicare pays for nothing outside the U.S. in all but a few border and cruise-ship cases. Whether to keep paying Part B while abroad — to avoid a permanent late-enrolment penalty if you ever return — is a real decision with real money attached; it has its own guide: Medicare while living abroad.
Claiming for the first time from abroad
- Start three to four months before you want benefits to begin. The online application works from many countries; otherwise the FBU takes the claim by phone or appointment.
- Have your passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate (for spousal benefits), and the foreign spouse’s documents translated if not in English.
- Decide the payment method and, if using IDD, get the local bank’s SWIFT and account details in the format the FBU specifies.
- If you have foreign work credits under a totalization agreement, say so on the application so both systems are queried.
- Check the first payment, the SSA-1099 the following January, and the first questionnaire when it arrives.
Broader planning for retiring abroad — pensions, IRAs, RMDs, state residency — is in U.S. taxes for retirees living abroad.
Frequently asked questions
Can I collect Social Security if I move to the Philippines, Mexico, or Thailand?
Yes. All three are countries where the SSA pays U.S. citizens without restriction. For a non-citizen spouse or child the answer depends on their own citizenship: the Philippines and Mexico are on the SSA’s list of countries whose citizens can keep receiving U.S. benefits abroad; check the SSA screening tool for Thailand and any other country.
Will my non-citizen wife lose her spousal or survivor benefit if we live in her country?
Possibly. A non-citizen’s benefit normally stops after six consecutive months outside the U.S. unless her country of citizenship has a totalization agreement or payment arrangement with the U.S., or she lived in the U.S. for five years as your spouse. Use the SSA Payments Abroad Screening Tool for her citizenship to check.
Is Social Security still taxed by the IRS if I live abroad?
Yes, for U.S. citizens: up to 85% of the benefit is taxable under the same thresholds as in the U.S., and the FEIE does not apply to it. Some treaties (Canada, the UK, and Germany among them) make the benefit taxable only in your country of residence, in which case you claim the treaty position on your U.S. return.
What is the Foreign Enforcement Questionnaire and what happens if I do not return it?
It is form SSA-7162, mailed to beneficiaries abroad every one or two years to confirm you are alive and that nothing affecting your benefit has changed. If it is not returned, payments are suspended until the SSA hears from you, and reinstatement through the Federal Benefits Unit can take months.
Can I have Social Security deposited into a foreign bank?
In about 70 countries, yes, through International Direct Deposit. The SSA converts at its contracted rate and some countries receive only local currency. Many expats prefer to keep a U.S. account and transfer in bulk.
Does a foreign pension still reduce my U.S. Social Security?
No. The Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset were repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act in January 2025, effective for benefits from January 2024. If your benefit was previously reduced because of a foreign pension, the SSA should have recalculated it.
Can I keep working abroad while collecting early retirement benefits?
Under full retirement age, if the work is not covered by U.S. Social Security you lose the benefit for any month in which you work more than 45 hours. If the work is covered by U.S. Social Security, the ordinary annual earnings test applies. After full retirement age there is no limit.
Sources and references
SSA — Payments outside the United States · SSA — Payments Abroad Screening Tool · SSA Publication 05-10137, Your Payments While You Are Outside the United States · SSA — Totalization agreements · SSA — Service around the world (Federal Benefits Units) · SSA — Social Security Fairness Act (WEP/GPO repeal) · IRS Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits · IRS — U.S. income tax treaties A to Z.