By Pedro Bianco
The Social Security Act includes a condition that many foreign beneficiaries do not know about: to receive monthly payments, it is not enough to have paid in enough; they also need to have legal presence in the United States.
That rule is in Section 202(y) of the law and says that for each full calendar month in which a foreign national does not have legal presence in the country, the Social Security Administration (SSA) does not pay that month’s benefit.
What Section 202(y) says
Section 202(y) sets a legal-presence requirement for payment of Social Security benefits (Title II benefits: retirement, disability and family and survivor benefits) to people who are not U.S. citizens.
Specifically, it says benefits will not be paid for any full calendar month during which the foreign beneficiary is not legally present in the United States, as determined under the country’s immigration rules.
A foreign national who meets all the requirements to collect, including the needed years of contributions, still does not receive payment for any full months in which they do not have legal status in the country.
What is meant by “legal presence”
The SSA does not define legal presence itself; immigration rules do that, now through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Broadly speaking, in addition to U.S. citizens and nationals, foreign nationals who are in the country lawfully under certain categories are considered to have legal presence.
When Social Security benefits stop being paid
Under this rule, the SSA stops paying the monthly benefit to a foreign beneficiary for each full calendar month in which they do not have legal presence in the United States. If the person did not have legal status for the entire month, that payment is not made. No special “cutoff” notice is needed for this to happen, because the requirement applies month by month based on status during each period.
Payments resume starting in the month the person regains legal presence. The following benefits can be paid again, as long as the other conditions are met. So rather than a permanent termination, the measure works like a switch tied to immigration status: it turns off in months without legal presence and can turn back on once that status is restored.