Can I collect Social Security if I live abroad? Yes. If you’re a US citizen, your retirement benefit keeps coming for as long as you live outside the US, in every country except nine. At the end of 2025, the Social Security Administration paid 733,078 people abroad, 480,167 of them retired workers. The average retired worker’s check was $2,087.52 in August 2026, and it doesn’t shrink because you moved.
What changes is the paperwork. And, if you aren’t a US citizen, the rules.
Can I collect Social Security if I live abroad as a US citizen?
Yes, with no time limit. The six-month rule people worry about is written for non-citizens. A citizen in Spain, Mexico or Panama gets paid in month 60 exactly as in month one.
The Payments Abroad Screening Tool on SSA’s site will confirm it for your exact situation in a few questions. It sorts every case into one of three outcomes: payments continue indefinitely, payments stop after six calendar months, or country restrictions apply.
The 9 countries where payments stop
| Country | Rule | What happens to your money |
|---|---|---|
| Cuba | Barred by Treasury regulations | Nothing is sent while you live there. For a US citizen, benefits can still accrue |
| North Korea | Barred by Treasury regulations | Same as Cuba |
| Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan | Restricted by SSA | Generally no payment. A special procedure pays some people who report in person to a US embassy or Federal Benefits Unit every six months |
SSA’s manual gives the reason for the second group plainly. It hasn’t secured assurances of free access to beneficiaries and to birth and death records in those countries. Older lists also named Moldova. The current version, dated August 2026, doesn’t.
If you’re not a US citizen: the six-month rule
Under 20 CFR 404.460, benefits generally stop for a non-citizen who stays outside the US for more than six full calendar months in a row.
The details matter:
- The clock starts after 30 consecutive days outside the US. From then on, you’re treated as continuously outside until you’ve come back and stayed 30 days.
- Once payments stop, they restart only after you’ve spent a full calendar month in the US. SSA means every hour of every day of that month.
- Exceptions exist, mostly tied to your citizenship and to US agreements with your country. The screening tool checks them.
- If you’re a non-citizen leaving for 30 days or more, SSA asks you to complete Form SSA-21.
A US citizen married to a non-citizen should check the spouse’s benefit separately. Their rules aren’t yours.
How the money reaches you
Two options work in most countries.
Direct deposit into a local bank. SSA’s International Direct Deposit list covers more than 100 countries and territories, including Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. The money arrives in your local account.
A US bank account. You can also keep the benefit going to your US account and move money as you need it. Before you rely on that, ask your bank in writing whether it’ll keep the account open once your address is abroad. The options are on US bank accounts when you move abroad.
Paper checks are on their way out. Under federal law and Executive Order 14247, federal benefits have had to be paid electronically since September 30, 2025, and SSA says it plans to finish moving every beneficiary to electronic payments in 2026. People in remote places without banks can ask Treasury for a waiver.
Where Americans collect it
SSA counts everyone it pays in each country, citizen or not. Retired workers, December 2025:
| Country | Retired workers paid | All beneficiaries |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 71,571 | 107,178 |
| Japan | 61,967 | 112,948 |
| Mexico | 36,095 | 60,395 |
| Germany | 23,679 | 37,519 |
| Philippines | 22,310 | 32,817 |
| Portugal | 12,185 | 15,706 |
| Colombia | 9,784 | 12,439 |
| Spain | 9,740 | 14,617 |
| Panama | 2,239 | 2,993 |
| Costa Rica | 1,111 | 1,552 |
Mexico pays more retired workers than Portugal, Spain, Panama and Costa Rica combined.
What you have to do once you’re there
Answer the questionnaire. SSA’s Foreign Enforcement Program mails Form SSA-7162 to people abroad every year or every two years, depending on age, country and benefit type. It checks that you’re alive and still eligible. Send it back promptly. If it doesn’t come back, payments can be suspended.
Report changes. Marriage, divorce, a change of citizenship, work. SSA wants to hear about events that can reduce or stop benefits.
Know who to call. Outside the US, SSA’s services run through Federal Benefits Units at US embassies and consulates, each covering a region.
Medicare doesn’t follow the check
This is the real downside. Medicare usually doesn’t pay for care outside the US. The exceptions are narrow: a cruise ship within six hours of a US port, a foreign hospital closer than the nearest US one in certain emergencies, and travel through Canada between Alaska and another state.
You can keep Part B anyway, for trips home or a future return. It costs $202.90 a month in 2026, normally taken straight out of the benefit. Drop it, and the late-enrollment penalty adds 10% for each full year you could’ve had it. That decision is laid out in does Medicare cover you abroad.
If you worked abroad: the 2025 WEP repeal
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, ended the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. They no longer apply to benefits from January 2024 on. SSA says the change raises benefits for some people whose work was covered by a foreign social security system, as well as for many US public employees with pensions from jobs that didn’t pay into Social Security. If a foreign pension once cut your US benefit, check that SSA has recalculated it.
Taxes are a separate question
Collecting the benefit and paying tax on it are two different rules. The US can tax a citizen’s benefit wherever they live. Whether your new country adds its own claim depends on its tax law and its treaty with the US. The country-by-country answer is on is Social Security taxed abroad.
Planning the budget around the check? See how much money you need to retire abroad and the wider money hub.