If you are a United States citizen, you can travel or live in most foreign countries without affecting your eligibility for Social Security benefits.
However, if you reside in Cuba or North Korea, you cannot receive your Social Security benefits because of the U.S. Treasury Department payment restrictions. Also, if you go to any of the following countries you can receive your Social Security benefits only if you meet and agree to certain restricted conditions. These countries are:
- Azerbaijan;
- Belarus;
- Georgia;
- Kazakhstan;
- Kyrgyzstan;
- Moldova;
- Tajikistan;
- Turkmenistan;
- Ukraine;
- Uzbekistan; and
- Vietnam.
If you are not a United States citizen, the law requires us to stop your payments after you have been outside the United States for six consecutive calendar months unless you meet one of several exceptions in the law allowing your benefits to continue. Most of these exceptions are based on your country of citizenship, residence or on other conditions.
If you are planning to be outside the United States for six consecutive calendar months or more, you can find out if you can receive your Social Security payment by using the Payments Outside the United States screening tool.
If you work outside the United States, different rules may apply in determining if you can get your benefit checks. Most people who are neither United States residents nor United States citizens will have 25.5 percent of their benefits withheld for federal income tax.
For more information about receiving benefits abroad, we recommend you read: Your Payments While You Are Outside the United States and International Agreements, Payments Outside the United States, and Social Security in Other Countries.
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