Social Security & Benefits

For US citizens, retirement does not have to end at the border. As the Social Security Administration explains in its booklet "Your Payments While You Are Outside the United States" (SSA Pub. No. 05-10137), a US citizen who is otherwise eligible can continue to receive Social Security retirement, survivors, or disability payments in almost any country in the world. The only blanket exceptions are Cuba and North Korea, where US Treasury regulations prohibit SSA from sending payments; benefits withheld during a stay in those countries are released once a US-citizen beneficiary moves somewhere SSA can pay. The rules are stricter for non-citizens, whose benefits generally stop after six full calendar months outside the US unless a specific exception (such as a totalization agreement or qualifying country list) applies. SSA's online Payments Abroad Screening Tool is the fastest way to confirm how a particular nationality and destination are treated.

Key Points

• 1Collecting abroad: A US citizen who qualifies for Social Security can be paid in nearly every country. SSA cannot send payments only to Cuba and North Korea (US Treasury rules); a citizen recovers withheld payments after relocating elsewhere. Non-citizens generally lose benefits after 6 full calendar months outside the US unless an exception applies — use SSA's Payments Abroad Screening Tool to check your case.
• 2Totalization agreements: The US has 30 in force (incl. Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Spain, and Switzerland). They eliminate double Social Security taxation for cross-border workers and let you combine US and foreign credits. You can totalize with as few as 6 (and fewer than 40) US credits; with 40+ US credits you already qualify and foreign credits aren't counted.
• 3Medicare is essentially useless abroad: Medicare generally will not pay for care or supplies received outside the US, with only rare exceptions (e.g., emergencies near the US border or aboard ships in US territorial waters). Some Medigap plans cover limited foreign-travel emergencies. Crucial trap: if you drop Part B abroad and re-enroll later, you can owe a 10%-per-year lifetime late-enrollment penalty.
• 4Veterans benefits travel with you: Most VA benefits — including disability compensation — are payable regardless of where you live or your nationality. The VA Foreign Medical Program (FMP) pays foreign providers directly for care of service-connected conditions (and related emergencies). Register with VA Form 10-7959f-1, use any licensed local provider without prior authorization, and file claims within 2 years of care.
• 5Working abroad uses a different test: Before full retirement age, the foreign work test withholds your benefit for ANY month you work more than 45 hours in work not covered by US Social Security — regardless of how much you earn. This differs from the US annual earnings test ($23,400 in 2025, $1 withheld per $2 over; $62,160 in the FRA year, $1 per $3).
• 6Retirement age rules are the same overseas: Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. You can claim as early as 62 (a permanent reduction up to about 30%) or delay past FRA to earn delayed retirement credits of 8% per year up to age 70. Location does not change these calculations.
• 72025 policy update — Social Security Fairness Act: Signed January 5, 2025, it repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) for benefits payable January 2024 onward. This directly helps people whose work was covered by a foreign social security system; by mid-2025 SSA had issued about 3.1 million retroactive payments totaling roughly $17 billion.