Starting Social Security

[talfarlow]

I'm wondering if anyone here knows if it's now possible to initiate or start your Social Security retirement payments from overseas or can it only be done within the US?

I'm also curious if anyone has started retirement benefits from either inside or outside the US with "loose" residency within the US. I've been working outside the US for some time and I'm concerned that when the time comes, I'll have issues having residency in any particular state. I've got various part of my life in different states as a result of being overseas and just trying to keep everything above water....Will any US address due or do you have to prove your residence similarly to getting a drivers license (utility bills, voter registration etc..)?

Thanks for any thoughts or experiences on this.

Regards
Tal

[bigrod]

Contact the following: https://ph.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/social-security/

Chuck

[M.C.A.]

There's also outreach groups from our US Embassy, US Citizen Services that hit area's outside of Manila and Luzon to get these notifications you sign up for their emails on this website.  https://step.state.gov/step/

[talfarlow]

I'm in Vietnam but could call the Manila #. I've tried before and had some trouble getting through. Will try again.
Thank you.

[bigrod]

There is an E-mail address on the link.

Chuck

[talfarlow]

There is an E-mail address on the link.

Chuck

Yes, I've tried the email in the past with zero response. I'll try calling this round. Thank you.

[M.C.A.]

You'll be able to get help in starting your Social Security from any country that has a US Embassy and the US Citizen Services branch link as Chuck gave you above for the Philippines and here's the link for Vietnam https://vn.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/  and also you can find out what your Social Security check will be another link https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/

[talfarlow]

Thanks to everyone (MCA, etc.),

I'll definitely shoot for a conversation on the phone. I'm getting a bit ahead of the curve on retiring :-) but I'm trying to avoid weird residency issues given my overseas time. I also don't want to get "snagged" on a state issue with income earned overseas and so on....just trying to keep it simple if possible.

Next return, I may even end up hitting South Dakota for a couple of days to wrap up a bunch of things - residency, transfer a license, voter registration while avoiding taxes.....

[lost_in_samoa]

I'm also curious if anyone has started retirement benefits from either inside or outside the US with "loose" residency within the US.

Here is a related article that I ran across this morning.

Here are the countries with the most US retirees collecting Social Security

[spin]

Hum, someone told me they applied online.  Guess I need to get busy researching this better. Thanks