Didn’t work for 10 years in the US? The Social Security loophole that saves Green Card holders

Workers in the United States are required to accumulate at least 40 Social Security credits, the equivalent of 10 years of work, in order to qualify for federal retirement benefits. However, in a globalized world companies send their workers abroad, there are digital nomads, and people immigrate.

This can result in those people’s work history being split between two or more countries. Fortunately, the U.S. has established bilateral agreements with 30 countries around the world, which are listed below, that allows these people’s work outside the U.S. to count towards qualifying to claim U.S. Social Security benefits.

Loophole for Green Card holders to qualify for Social Security

The United States requires workers to earn 40 work credits before they can qualify for Social Security retirement benefits, but if they have equivalent work credits from another country that has a totalization agreement, also known as a Social Security agreement, with the U.S. they may be able to combine the two. How does it work?

In order to be able to combine your work credits from another country or countries, you must have at least 6 Social Security credits, the equivalent of one and a half years of qualifying work. If you have sufficient work credits from another totalization agreement country, you could be eligible to apply for Social Security retirement benefits.

However, only your earnings history in the U.S. will be used to calculate the amount of benefit that you will be able to receive. The Social Security Administration looks at your 35 highest-earning years to determine how much you will receive each month.

Every year that your earnings were not subject to U.S. income and Social Security taxes will count as zero dollars. This can result in Green Card holders seeing smaller monthly payments even if they’ve accumulated the necessary 40 work credits.

The SSA says that “people generally do not need to take action concerning Totalization benefits under an agreement until they are ready to file a claim for retirement, survivors or disability benefits. A person who wishes to file a claim for benefits under a Totalization agreement may do so at any Social Security office in the United States or the foreign country.”

For more information regarding the United States’ Social Security totalization agreements program, the SSA urges you to write to the address below:

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

ATTN: International Agreements

Office of Data Exchange, Policy Publications, and International Negotiations

4700 Annex Building

6401 Security Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21235

The following countries have totalization agreements with the United States:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Slovak Republic
• Slovenia
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• Uruguay

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