Bryan Barnfellow
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
A friend has asked me for help on this question. I'm hoping someone here can shed some light...the SSA website is a bit confusing.
She is 71 years old, has never lived/worked in the US and is not a US citizen. Her husband, who died age 85 and who was a German national, lived and worked in the US before they met, and was receiving SS retirement benefits based on his (qualifying) record of employment and residency. These were sent to him to his residence in Switzerland by check.
They met and married after his time in the US. He died in Switzerland. Switzerland is defined by the SSA as a "totalization agreement" country with the US. However, they moved to Switzerland (from Great Britain) after he reached Swiss retirement age and so never paid into the Swiss social system.
We talked with the SS office in Maryland by telephone and they said she was not eligible for a survivors benefit as she was a non-US citizen. I read that non-US citizens can get survivor benefits as long as they lived in the US for at least 5 years (calculated variously). She never did. But there are exceptions, including that the NH (the Number Holder, her husband), lived in a totalization country.
But it isn't clear to me that he also had to have paid into the social security system of that country. In this case, her husband moved to Switzerland as a retiree, and so never had to pay into the Swiss system.
Does anyone have any direct experience with this kind of situation? Many thanks in advance. I know it's a long shot. My experience with the SSA is to verify what they tell you on the telephone.
-BB
She is 71 years old, has never lived/worked in the US and is not a US citizen. Her husband, who died age 85 and who was a German national, lived and worked in the US before they met, and was receiving SS retirement benefits based on his (qualifying) record of employment and residency. These were sent to him to his residence in Switzerland by check.
They met and married after his time in the US. He died in Switzerland. Switzerland is defined by the SSA as a "totalization agreement" country with the US. However, they moved to Switzerland (from Great Britain) after he reached Swiss retirement age and so never paid into the Swiss social system.
We talked with the SS office in Maryland by telephone and they said she was not eligible for a survivors benefit as she was a non-US citizen. I read that non-US citizens can get survivor benefits as long as they lived in the US for at least 5 years (calculated variously). She never did. But there are exceptions, including that the NH (the Number Holder, her husband), lived in a totalization country.
But it isn't clear to me that he also had to have paid into the social security system of that country. In this case, her husband moved to Switzerland as a retiree, and so never had to pay into the Swiss system.
Does anyone have any direct experience with this kind of situation? Many thanks in advance. I know it's a long shot. My experience with the SSA is to verify what they tell you on the telephone.
-BB
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