Social Security And The Overseas American

[Mr Lee]

Note: Please do not turn this into a political discussion, this has not been posted for political reasons and no political comments will be allowed as per the rules. Please read all the items at the link below, it may affect many of those who are living outside the US or wish to do so. Comment on how you think it will affect you or others living overseas would be appreciated. The whole informational page at this link Here are just a couple items that bother me but do not affect myself or my wife. Foreign spouses of U.S. citizens must have been married to the U.S. citizen spouse and lived with the U.S. citizen spouse in the United States for five years to be eligible to receive dependency and survivor benefits. Children who cannot meet the residency requirement on their own may be considered to meet it if the requirement is met by the worker and the other parent. Children who are adopted outside the United States will not be paid any dependency or survivor benefits even if the prior U.S. residency requirement is met. Social Security benefits received by non-resident alien spouses of U.S. citizens are subject to U.S. income tax withholding of 30% on 85% the benefit amount which is the equivalent to a 25.5% tax on the full benefit.

[Gold Heart]

Note: Please do not turn this into a political discussion, this has not been posted for political reasons and no political comments will be allowed as per the rules.Please read all the items at the link below, it may affect many of those who are living outside the US or wish to do so. Comment on how you think it will affect you or others living overseas would be appreciated. The whole informational page at this linkHere are just a couple items that bother me but do not affect myself or my wife.Foreign spouses of U.S. citizens must have been married to the U.S. citizen spouse and lived with the U.S. citizen spouse in the United States for five years to be eligible to receive dependency and survivor benefits. Children who cannot meet the residency requirement on their own may be considered to meet it if the requirement is met by the worker and the other parent. Children who are adopted outside the United States will not be paid any dependency or survivor benefits even if the prior U.S. residency requirement is met. Social Security benefits received by non-resident alien spouses of U.S. citizens are subject to U.S. income tax withholding of 30% on 85% the benefit amount which is the equivalent to a 25.5% tax on the full benefit.

I'm not sure I understand the Child residency requirement. I shared the story of Dr. Maureen, married to an American via a Fiancee Visa in the US. She returned after a couple of years still on her green card back here to Philippines to continue her studies. They gave birth to a son here. The child never resided in the US and in fact is birth was never recorded with the US.After her husbands sudden death, she had to do all the work to record his birth and file for other services and support. Her son received his US passport and began receiving SS benefits. So the residency requirement for Children is associated with the US Citizen? If this is the case -- there would rarely be any issue. It is also not clear how residency is tracked. Do they go through immigration records to determine lenghts of stay outside the US? As we lived in the US for 10 years, I don't believe this would be an issue for us either. Edited April 16, 2010 by Gold Heart

[TheMason]

The social security rules are one of the primary reasons my wife and I are returning to the US. In the event I die before her, I want her to be able to collect the same benefits as if I had married a US citizen. Rather than worrying about the residency requirements, we plan on staying in the US long enough for her to get her citizenship. Once she has US citizenship, the residency rules are irrelevant.I don't really have an issue with the restrictions though. Rules have to be made on who qualifies and who doesn't. The govt. is up front on who is eligible for benefits and who isn't...so its up to my wife and I to follow the rules if we want her to be eligible.The ironic thing is, foreign spouses can get their US citizenship after only 3 years of living in the US....yet it takes 5 for social security. They should really standardize the rules for both of those things. If you are eligible to become a citizen, you should be eligible for benefits whether you actually become a citizen or not.