Collecting Social Security While Living Abroad: What American Expats Need to Know

Introduction

The Social Security Administration will not put a single dollar into a bank account in Cuba or North Korea. That restriction applies to every beneficiary, citizen or not, no exceptions. But relocate to Portugal, Panama, or the Philippines instead, and a retirement check keeps arriving on schedule — direct-deposited in dollars or converted automatically into local currency, with no U.S. mailing address required.

Which of those outcomes applies to a given retiree depends on citizenship, marital history, and the specific country listed as their residence — and getting the details wrong can mean months of suspended payments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes the full rulebook in Publication No. 05-10137, *Your Payments While You Are Outside the United States*, but the practical version boils down to a handful of decision points: where you're moving, whether everyone on the benefit is a U.S. citizen, how you get paid, and how the money gets taxed on both sides of the border.

The General Rule: U.S. Citizens Keep Getting Paid

A U.S. citizen who qualifies for Social Security retirement, survivor, or disability benefits can generally keep receiving them indefinitely while living in almost any other country, for as long as they remain outside the United States (ssa.gov/international/payments.html). There is no residency test, no requirement to return periodically, and no cap on how many years a citizen can live abroad and still collect. This is different from the rules that apply to non-citizen dependents and survivors, covered below.

The amount itself is set by the same formula used domestically. For 2026, SSA applied a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), pushing the estimated average retirement benefit from about $2,071 to roughly $2,129 a month, and full retirement age is now 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later (ssa.gov, "Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026," October 24, 2025). None of that changes because a beneficiary lives overseas.

Where Your Check Can't Follow You

Two countries are entirely off-limits under U.S. Treasury sanctions: Cuba and North Korea. SSA cannot legally send a payment to anyone physically located in either country, regardless of citizenship. For U.S. citizens, the withheld payments accrue and can be paid retroactively once the beneficiary relocates to a country where SSA is permitted to pay them. For non-citizens, those months are generally lost entirely — they don't accrue and can't be recovered later (Publication No. 05-10137).

A second, less absolute restriction applies to seven additional former Soviet republics: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. SSA cannot mail checks or make direct deposits to addresses or banks in these countries, but citizens can often still collect by traveling to a neighboring country to receive payment, or by having funds accrue for later release. The specific country-by-country rules are maintained on SSA's international program pages (ssa.gov/international), and they change periodically as diplomatic and banking relationships shift — worth checking again shortly before any move to that region.

If Your Spouse or Dependent Isn't a U.S. Citizen: The Six-Month Rule

This is the rule that catches the most families off guard, and it has nothing to do with the primary worker's citizenship. Under federal regulation 20 CFR 404.460 (ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-0460.htm), a non-citizen who is outside the United States for six full consecutive calendar months generally stops receiving benefits starting with the seventh month — even if they're a legally entitled spouse, dependent, or survivor of a U.S. worker.

SSA recognizes several exceptions. A non-citizen typically keeps getting paid past six months abroad if they:

• Have at least 40 credits of U.S.-covered work history (roughly 10 years of covered earnings);
• Have lived in the United States for at least 10 years total;
• Are a citizen of a country that has a Social Security agreement (totalization agreement) with the United States;
• Were married to a U.S. worker who died while performing certain U.S. government or military service; or
• Meet one of several other narrower exceptions listed in Publication No. 05-10137, including specific rules for refugees, stateless individuals, and residents of NATO countries.

Because the exceptions are country- and fact-specific, any household with a non-citizen spouse or dependent planning an extended stay abroad should verify their exact situation against SSA's country reference lists before the six-month clock starts running, not after.

Getting Paid: Direct Deposit Options Abroad

SSA requires electronic payment for essentially all beneficiaries and offers two main paths for people living overseas. The first is keeping a U.S. bank account and having deposits arrive there as usual, which many expats maintain specifically for this purpose. The second is International Direct Deposit (IDD), which sends payments directly into a local bank account in the beneficiary's country of residence, converted into local currency at the deposit-date exchange rate. SSA's internal country list for IDD (POMS GN 02402.220, updated December 4, 2025) currently supports deposits into banks in more than 30 countries, covering most of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and a growing number of Latin American and Asian countries. Where IDD isn't available, a U.S.-based account — including many online banks that don't require a U.S. residential address to maintain — remains the fallback.

Taxes Don't Stop at the Border

U.S. citizens and green card holders owe federal tax on Social Security benefits the same way whether they live in Boise or Bangkok, because the U.S. taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of residence. Up to 85% of a benefit can be federally taxable, based on "combined income" (adjusted gross income, plus nontaxable interest, plus half of Social Security benefits): income above $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (married filing jointly) makes up to 50% taxable, and above $34,000 or $44,000 makes up to 85% taxable (IRS Publication 915). These thresholds were fixed in 1984 and have never been adjusted for inflation, which means they now catch far more middle-income retirees than originally intended.

For beneficiaries who are non-resident aliens for tax purposes — a smaller group, mostly non-citizen dependents and survivors living abroad — the treatment is different and harsher by default: SSA is required to withhold a flat 30% federal tax on 85% of the monthly benefit, which works out to withholding 25.5% of the total payment. A tax treaty between the U.S. and the country of residence can reduce or eliminate that withholding, but the beneficiary has to file the appropriate documentation with SSA to claim it (ssa.gov/international/AlienTax.html).

On top of U.S. tax, the country of residence may also tax the benefit under its own rules, creating a real risk of double taxation. Some U.S. tax treaties assign exclusive taxing rights over Social Security income to one country or the other; where that's the case, claiming the treaty position on a U.S. return typically requires filing Form 8833 with the IRS. The treaty language varies enough by country that this is worth confirming with a cross-border tax preparer rather than assuming a favorable outcome by default.

Totalization Agreements: Avoiding Double Social Security Taxes

A separate issue from benefit taxation is Social Security *contribution* taxation — what happens if an expat is still working and a foreign country wants to collect its own social security payroll tax on top of U.S. self-employment or FICA tax. The U.S. has totalization agreements in force with 30 countries as of 2026 (23 in Europe, 4 in the Americas, 3 in Asia-Pacific) that prevent this double taxation and let workers combine credits earned in both systems to qualify for benefits (ssa.gov/international/agreements_overview.html).

Notably, several of the most popular expat and retirement destinations have no totalization agreement with the United States, including Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, India, and China, along with most of Central and South America outside of Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. Retirees drawing benefits only don't need to worry about this — it mainly matters for expats who are still actively working, whether for a foreign employer or self-employed, in a country without an agreement.

The Social Security Fairness Act Changed the Math for Some Expats

A change with direct relevance to many longtime expats: the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, eliminated both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which for decades reduced Social Security benefits for people who also received a pension from work not covered by Social Security — including many who spent part of their careers working under a foreign country's social security or pension system, as well as U.S. state, local, and federal government retirees (ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html).

SSA began issuing retroactive lump-sum payments and adjusting ongoing monthly benefits starting February 25, 2025, with increases applied back to January 2024. Anyone who had a benefit reduced in the past because of foreign government pension income, and hasn't seen a corrected payment or retroactive lump sum, should contact SSA directly to confirm their record was recalculated.

Applying for Benefits From Abroad

SSA has no field offices outside the United States and its territories. Applications and service for people living abroad are handled through Federal Benefits Units embedded in U.S. embassies and consulates, through SSA's Office of Earnings and International Operations in Baltimore, or online through a my Social Security account at ssa.gov (ssa.gov/faqs/en/questions/KA-01891.html). Retirement applications can generally be started online regardless of country of residence; more complex cases — disability claims, foreign pension coordination under a totalization agreement, or first-time applications for non-citizen dependents — usually require contacting the embassy's Federal Benefits Unit directly.

The Annual Check-In: Form SSA-7162

Once payments to a foreign address begin, SSA periodically mails a Foreign Enforcement Questionnaire (Form SSA-7162, or SSA-7161 if a representative payee manages the benefit) to confirm the beneficiary is still alive, still resides where SSA has on file, and hasn't had a change in marital status that affects eligibility. The mailing frequency varies by country — commonly every one to two years depending on how SSA classifies that country's reporting risk. Failing to return the questionnaire within the deadline printed on the form typically results in payments being suspended until it's completed, so expats should keep their mailing address current with SSA and treat this form as time-sensitive when it arrives.

One related note: Original Medicare generally does not cover care received outside the United States, so retirees planning to draw Social Security abroad long-term need a separate plan for health coverage — that's a large enough topic to require its own research rather than a summary here.

Practical Takeaways

• **Check the country before you move.** Confirm your destination isn't Cuba or North Korea, and check whether it's on SSA's restricted-payment list for the seven other affected countries.
• **Verify non-citizen dependents' status separately.** If a spouse or dependent on the benefit isn't a U.S. citizen, confirm which six-month-rule exception applies before an extended stay, not after payments stop.
• **Set up your deposit method in advance.** Decide between keeping a U.S. bank account or using International Direct Deposit, and confirm your destination country is on SSA's IDD list if you want local-currency deposits.
• **Plan for taxes on both sides.** Estimate U.S. combined income against the $25,000/$32,000 and $34,000/$44,000 thresholds, and check whether a tax treaty affects double taxation in your country of residence.
• **Confirm your totalization status if still working.** If you're employed or self-employed abroad, check whether your country has a U.S. totalization agreement to avoid paying into two social security systems at once.
• **Follow up on WEP/GPO if it ever applied to you.** If a foreign or government pension previously reduced your benefit, confirm SSA has processed your Social Security Fairness Act adjustment.
• **Respond to Form SSA-7162 immediately.** Missing the deadline suspends payments until the form is returned.
• **Report address and status changes within 10 days.** Report moves, marriages, divorces, and deaths promptly through your my Social Security account or the nearest embassy's Federal Benefits Unit.

Conclusion

For the large majority of U.S. citizens, Social Security keeps paying overseas exactly as it does at home — the friction points are concentrated in a short list of restricted countries, non-citizen family members, and the paperwork that keeps payments flowing. Before finalizing a move, confirm your destination country's status directly at ssa.gov/international, update your address through a my Social Security account, and — if a non-citizen spouse or a still-working arrangement is part of the picture — get the six-month rule and totalization questions answered before departure rather than after a payment goes missing.