40 Credits of Social Security: What Your Statement Actually Means If You Leave the U.S.

You logged into ssa.gov and the page told you two things. It said you have 40 credits. And it showed an estimated monthly retirement benefit — a specific dollar figure, printed like a fact.

Most people misread both. The 40 is genuinely good news, and more durable than you think. The dollar figure is a projection resting on an assumption that probably does not describe your life: that you keep earning what you earn today, in the United States, until full retirement age.

If you are weighing a move back to India, that one assumption separates a number you can plan around from a number that will quietly mislead you. This page explains what each means for someone who will not spend a whole career here — and what happens to your spouse and children, where most of the confusion sits.

The number on your statement is not your benefit

Start with the sentence SSA prints near its own estimate and almost nobody reads: the projection generally assumes you keep working and earning about what you earn now until full retirement age.

For a career American that is harmless. For an H-1B or L-1 engineer who may be in Bengaluru in eighteen months, it is the whole ballgame. The portal is not estimating your likely benefit — it is estimating the benefit of a version of you who never leaves.

The actual formula: SSA generally takes your highest 35 years of earnings, indexes them for wage growth, and averages them into your AIME, from which your PIA — the benefit before any adjustment for claiming age — is computed. Thirty-five is a fixed divisor, not a target. If you have 10 years of U.S. earnings, the formula does not average 10 years. It averages 35, and fills the other 25 with zeros. That is what the statement never spells out, and why the 35-year rule matters far more to you than to your American colleagues.

One caveat in your favour: the formula is progressive, replacing a high share of the first slice of average earnings and a much smaller share above it, so the benefit does not fall by the same proportion the average does. It still lands well below the screen. And your own figure depends on which years you worked, how each indexes, and when you claim — this is arithmetic, not a quote.

So is the estimate on your statement accurate? It is accurate about the past and speculative about the future. For a defensible answer to how much Social Security you may get, model it with zeros in every year you will not be working here — SSA's detailed calculator accepts future earnings of zero, and that one change usually cuts the estimate hard.

This is not cause for panic. A benefit built on 10 U.S. years is real, inflation-indexed and paid for as long as you remain entitled and payable. It is simply not the number to size a relocation against: plan off the zero-years version and treat anything above it as upside.

Sources: SSA Publication 05-10070 — Your retirement benefit: how it's determined, SSA — Social Security benefit amounts (AIME and PIA) and SSA — Retirement age and benefit reduction.

How Social Security credits work — and why the 40th credit matters

Credits are earned on annual covered earnings, not on months worked, and no more than 4 credits can generally be earned in a calendar year. SSA sets the amount required for one credit each year and divides your covered earnings for the year by it.

For 2026 the figures are fixed and worth memorising:

Because that threshold is low relative to a professional salary, a person can earn all 4 credits for a year without working the entire year. Someone who starts on 1 October 2026 at a normal H-1B salary will generally pass $7,560 in covered earnings before 31 December and end the year with four credits, not one. The official term is still "quarter of coverage," but which quarter you actually worked stopped mattering for years after 1977.

That annual maximum is what connects credits to years. Since no more than 4 credits are generally creditable per calendar year, reaching 40 credits takes at least 10 calendar years of covered work if credits are earned at the maximum annual rate — and longer if some years produce fewer than 4. "40 credits" and "10 years" are not two names for one rule: 40 credits is the requirement, and roughly 10 years is what it takes to get there at full speed.

Credits generally do not expire. Once a worker earns the credits needed to become fully insured for retirement benefits, those credits remain on the Social Security record: leave at 34 with 40 credits, never work in covered U.S. employment again, and insured status for retirement does not lapse for the years spent abroad. The worker must still meet the applicable requirements to claim and receive benefits. (Disability is different, and is covered below.)

Source: SSA POMS RS 00301.250 — amount required for a quarter of coverage by year and SSA — Social Security credits and benefit eligibility.

What 40 credits does and does not establish

For workers born in 1929 or later, 40 credits generally satisfy the fully insured test — the duration-of-work requirement for retirement benefits on your own earnings record. That is a real and valuable thing to have. It is also a narrow one:

• Insured status is not a payment. Being fully insured means you have met the work requirement. You still have to reach claiming age, file an application, and satisfy every other requirement that applies to you before anything is paid.
• Insured status is not the amount, and extra credits do not raise it. Credits primarily determine eligibility. The number of credits above the required threshold does not increase the benefit amount — credit 41 and credit 60 add nothing to insured status and nothing to the payment. Retirement benefit amounts are based primarily on your earnings history and the age at which you claim, so additional earnings can still raise the benefit by replacing a zero in the 35-year average; additional credits, by themselves, cannot.
• Insured status is not the same as being payable abroad. That is a separate test, in its own section below.
• One extra requirement applies to some non-citizen workers. Under section 211 of the Social Security Protection Act of 2004, a worker who is not a U.S. citizen or national and whose SSN was first assigned on or after 1 January 2004 must additionally have been issued an SSN for work purposes at some point on or after that date (or have been admitted under a B-1 or D-1/D-2 status) to be fully or currently insured. H-1B and L-1 workers are issued work-authorised SSNs, so this is normally satisfied — but an SSN originally issued for non-work purposes does not count on its own.

Source: SSA POMS RS 00301.105 — Fully Insured Status and RS 00301.102 — additional requirements for alien workers.

If you are short of 40

39 credits are not enough to meet the usual 40-credit requirement for Social Security retirement benefits on the worker's own record. There is no partial retirement benefit at 39, and contributions are not refunded — which is why, if your exit date lands near the line, finishing the year that gets you to 40 is usually the highest-leverage item on your leaving checklist. The credits are still recorded on your Social Security history and may matter for other types of benefits.

Credits below 40 are not worthless, and it is wrong to treat 39 credits as the same as none. Credits already earned stay on the record and can matter in several other places:

• Survivor protection through "currently insured" status. A worker with at least 6 credits in the 13-quarter period ending with the quarter of death is currently insured, which can support certain survivor benefits and the lump-sum death payment even without 40 credits.
• Disability. Insured status for disability benefits uses different, generally smaller credit requirements for workers who become disabled before age 31.
• Medicare Part A at a reduced premium. Someone aged 65 with 30 to 39 credits can generally buy Part A at the reduced premium rate rather than the full one (2026 rates below).
• They keep counting. If you ever work in covered U.S. employment again, new credits add to the old ones — there is no reset.

So: wages paid to H-1B and L-1 employees are generally subject to Social Security and Medicare tax — 6.2% and 1.45% from the employee, matched by the employer — and an H-1B worker who reaches 40 credits is generally fully insured on the same terms as anyone else. The visa label itself does not create a special benefit rule, and it does not create identical tax treatment in every case either: FICA treatment depends on the type of employment, the individual's tax residency status and the exceptions in the Internal Revenue Code. The best-known of those is the student exception — F-1 and J-1 students treated as nonresident aliens and performing services allowed by their status are generally exempt from FICA, so those years usually earn no credits.

Source: IRS — Aliens employed in the U.S.: Social Security taxes and SSA — International (totalization) agreements.

How to read your Social Security statement, line by line

Open the statement itself, not the summary tile. Four things matter, and the last sits where most people never scroll.

1. The estimate box — monthly figures by claiming age, 62 through 70, with your full retirement age marked. Every one carries the continued-earnings assumption.
2. The earnings record — the year-by-year table of wages posted for you. Everything else derives from it.
3. The credits count — usually "you have earned XX credits." This is the insured-status line.
4. Disability and survivor estimates — what you would get if disabled now, what your family would get if you died now. Separate rules, separate insured-status tests.

Will SSA actually pay you in India?

Qualifying for a benefit and being able to receive it outside the United States are different questions, decided by different rules.

Payment of Social Security benefits outside the United States can depend on the beneficiary's citizenship, their residence, the type of benefit, the worker's work and insured status, any applicable exceptions, and the rules that apply to the country where the beneficiary lives. Your former U.S. visa status alone does not determine whether payments can continue.

U.S. citizens. Benefits can generally continue to be paid to a U.S. citizen living in India for as long as they remain entitled. The alien nonpayment provisions do not apply to U.S. citizens. A short list of countries is subject to Treasury restrictions — currently Cuba and North Korea — and India is not among them.

Non-citizens, including lawful permanent residents. The starting rule is section 202(t) of the Social Security Act, the alien nonpayment provision (ANP): an alien who is outside the United States for six full consecutive calendar months generally cannot be paid benefits beginning with the seventh month of absence, unless an exception applies. A green card does not exempt you — for this rule, an alien is anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or national.

Two mechanics of that count are frequently mangled, so here they are as SSA states them:

• How the clock starts. Once a beneficiary has been outside the U.S. for 30 consecutive days, the six-month period is counted from the first full calendar month of absence. So the 30-consecutive-day point is what triggers counting; the six months themselves are measured in full calendar months.
• How it stops and restarts. Presence in the U.S. can interrupt the count — entering the U.S. for any part of a day during the first 30 days of absence, or spending 30 consecutive days in the U.S. during the six-month period. Once payments have been suspended under the provision, they generally cannot resume until the person has been back in the United States for one full calendar month — a whole calendar month, not any 30 days spanning two months.

The exceptions, and where India sits. SSA lists nine exceptions to the ANP. Two of them run off the worker's record: the worker has at least 40 quarters of coverage, or the worker resided in the United States for at least 10 years. Whether a given beneficiary can use those two exceptions depends on their country of citizenship, and SSA publishes that country-by-country status. India is listed as a country whose citizens may meet the 10-year-residence and 40-credit exceptions — the group SSA's public materials publish as Country List 4. India is not listed for the social-insurance or treaty exceptions, so those two routes are not available on an Indian passport.

Read the wording carefully, because it is the source of the most common misunderstanding on this page. These are separate rules that happen to reference the same number, not a single rule covering both:

• 40 credits can establish the worker's insured status for retirement benefits on their own record.
• Payment of benefits to someone living outside the United States is governed by its own rules — the alien nonpayment provisions — and the worker's 40 quarters of coverage is one of the facts that can support an exception under them for a beneficiary whose citizenship allows it.
• A spouse, dependant or survivor can face additional requirements beyond either of those, covered in the next section.

So the worker's record can answer the first two questions and still leave the third open.

Then two pieces of admin decide whether the money actually arrives. Direct deposit: SSA can pay Indian bank accounts via Form SSA-1199-IN, which collects your account details and IFSC code and credits payments in rupees; keeping a U.S. account and moving funds yourself preserves a dollar balance instead. Form SSA-7162, the proof-of-life questionnaire: sent periodically to beneficiaries outside the U.S., it must be completed and returned or payments can be suspended — one of the most common reasons an otherwise entitled beneficiary in India stops being paid, and commonly traceable to an out-of-date address.

Sources: SSA POMS RS 02610.001 — Alien Nonpayment Provisions, RS 02610.020 — Establishing absence and presence in the U.S., RS 02610.010 — Exceptions to the ANP, RS 02610.015 — Status of countries for ANP exceptions and SSA — Payments outside the United States.

Our companion guide on how Social Security payments work once you leave the U.S. covers the country-list logic and SSA's screening tool in more detail.

What your spouse and children get — and the rules that decide it

Almost everything written about 40 credits stops at the worker. The second half is where the confusion is, and it clears up as soon as you separate two questions that are genuinely separate:

A. Does the family member qualify for a benefit at all? That depends on your insured status plus their own relationship, age and other entitlement requirements.

B. Can SSA pay that benefit while the person is living outside the United States? That is decided by the alien nonpayment provisions, and for many dependants and survivors it includes an additional U.S.-residency requirement.

Neither question answers the other. A spouse can be fully entitled under (A) and still run into (B), and a spouse who lives in the U.S. never reaches (B) at all.

A. Qualifying on your record

On paper the entitlements are generous, and they are percentages of your PIA:

• Spouse: generally up to 50% of your PIA at their own full retirement age, permanently reduced if claimed earlier, and subject to the other spousal requirements — even if they never worked in the U.S.
• Surviving spouse: generally up to 100% of what you were receiving or entitled to receive, depending on age at claiming and other conditions.
• Divorced spouse: generally qualifies if the marriage lasted 10 years or more, they are unmarried, and they meet the age and other requirements — and it does not reduce your benefit or your current spouse's.
• Children: generally unmarried children under 18, or 18–19 and still in secondary school full time, or disabled before age 22, can claim on a living or deceased parent's record — typically up to 50% of your PIA, and up to 75% as survivors.
• Family maximum: the household total is capped — SSA puts the total for you and your family at roughly 150% to 180% of your full retirement benefit. When claims exceed it, dependants' benefits are scaled down; the worker's own benefit is not.

The first twist follows from everything above: all of these are percentages of your PIA. Half of a benefit built on 10 U.S. years with 25 zeros is half of a smaller number. A spousal benefit is not a second pot of money; it is a fraction of the same figure.

B. Being paid outside the United States — the 5-year residency requirement

This is the part most often reported as "your spouse must live in America for five years." That is not the rule. The accurate version:

The practical consequence for a family that moves back to India is narrower and more specific than "the spouse loses everything": it is that a non-citizen spouse or child who is entitled on your record and living in India may face a payment restriction under the ANP if the 5-year requirement is not met and no exception applies. Whether it applies to a given family depends on citizenship, when eligibility first arose, how long the family lived in the U.S. while the relationship existed, and which exceptions are available — which is exactly the kind of question SSA's Payments Abroad Screening Tool and the Federal Benefits Unit exist to answer.

A worked example of the pattern SSA's own manual uses: an engineer works in the U.S. for twelve years, reaches 40 credits, returns to India and marries there. The spouse has never resided in the United States while married to the worker, so although the spouse may be entitled to a spousal benefit at full retirement age, the 5-year residency requirement is not met on those facts, and payment while residing outside the U.S. would generally be restricted unless an exception applies. Reverse the facts — the couple married in the U.S. and lived here together for six years — and the requirement is generally satisfied.

If your family's benefit is load-bearing in your plan, the residency history is worth tracking separately from your credit count, and it is one of the few variables a change in your departure date can still affect. More on the dependant rules in our guide on do you keep Social Security if you return to India.

Sources: SSA POMS RS 02610.025 — 5-year residency requirement for alien dependents and survivors, RS 02610.030 — 5-year residency for spouses, children and parents and SSA — Benefits for family members.

Social Security disability is a different system — and you may already be uninsured

Disability benefits add a recent-work test on top of lifetime credits. Being fully insured with 40 credits is generally necessary but not sufficient. For workers who become disabled at 31 or older, insured status for disability generally also requires about 20 credits earned in the 40-calendar-quarter (10-year) period ending with the quarter the disability begins. Younger workers face proportionally smaller requirements.

Work that through. You left the U.S. six years ago with 44 credits. For retirement you remain fully insured. For disability you have earned no credits in the last 24 quarters, so on those facts you would generally not meet the 20-of-40 recent-work test. You can be fully insured for retirement and not insured for disability at the same time — and nobody tells you when that crossover happens, roughly five years after your last covered work.

SSI is a different programme entirely, and the two are conflated constantly. Supplemental Security Income is means-tested support for aged, blind or disabled people with very limited income and resources — not based on work credits and not payable outside the United States. An individual is not eligible for SSI for any calendar month spent entirely outside the U.S., and someone outside the U.S. for 30 consecutive days is generally not eligible again until they have returned and been present for 30 consecutive days. When a forum post claims you can collect "Social Security disability" in India after a short U.S. stint, it is usually describing SSI, and it is wrong.

Disability benefits that are being paid follow the same payments-abroad framework as retirement — the six-month provision, the citizenship-based exceptions, and the same 40-credit route.

Sources: SSA — How you qualify for disability benefits and SSA POMS SI 00501.410 — SSI ineligibility due to absence from the U.S..

What you may be taxed on U.S. Social Security in India

Three different things get mixed together here — what SSA withholds, what you actually owe in the U.S., and what India does — so take them one at a time.

1. U.S. withholding for nonresident aliens. Under U.S. law, 85% of the benefit paid to a nonresident alien is generally subject to a 30% withholding rate, which works out to an effective 25.5% of the gross benefit, unless a treaty exempts it or applies a lower rate. Beneficiaries in this position receive Form SSA-1042S each January rather than the SSA-1099. SSA's own guidance is that the withholding does not apply to U.S. citizens, or to aliens who are U.S. residents — including aliens who are outside the U.S. but have kept their resident status.

2. Withholding is not the same as your final tax. 25.5% is the resulting withholding rate in circumstances where the 30%-of-85% rule applies; it should not automatically be interpreted as your final worldwide tax liability. Whether it also represents your final U.S. federal liability, whether a Form 1040-NR is required, and whether any of it is refundable depend on your residency status for U.S. tax purposes, your other U.S.-source income and the treaty position you are entitled to claim. Possible Indian taxation is a separate question again — covered in point 4 below — and so are the treaty provisions and exceptions that may apply to your facts.

3. What the U.S.–India treaty does and does not do. Residents of a handful of treaty countries — Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Romania and the United Kingdom — are exempt from U.S. tax on these benefits, and residents of Switzerland are taxed at a lower 15% rate. India is not on the exemption list for ordinary workers. Its carve-out is narrower: benefits paid to someone who is both a resident and a national of India are exempt from U.S. tax to the extent the benefits are based on services performed for the U.S. federal, state or local government. A private-sector H-1B or L-1 career generally produces none of that. SSA also notes that its systems cannot withhold at a variable rate — where only part of a benefit qualifies, withholding generally continues on the whole amount and the beneficiary is told the exempt percentage and directed to claim a refund from the IRS.

4. Which country has the taxing right. Article 20 of the U.S.–India income tax treaty provides that social security payments and other public pensions paid by one contracting state to a resident of the other are taxable only in the paying state — here, the United States. It is the mirror image of the private-pension rule covered in our US–India DTAA guide. How that interacts with an Indian return in practice — treaty relief has to be claimed, and Indian reporting of foreign income and assets can still apply — is a question for a chartered accountant who handles returning-NRI returns, not something to infer from treaty text.

U.S. citizens and green card holders who retain U.S. tax residency are not subject to the flat nonresident withholding at all. They are taxed under ordinary Form 1040 rules wherever they live, with up to 85% of benefits includible in income depending on their combined income — which may or may not work out better than 25.5% off the top, depending on the taxpayer's circumstances.

Sources: IRS Publication 915 — Social Security and equivalent railroad retirement benefits (nonresident aliens), SSA POMS GN 05010.010 — beneficiaries subject to the withholding tax, GN 05010.165 — tax treaty with India and IRS — India tax treaty documents.

What the repeal did not change: the payments-abroad rules, the 5-year residency requirement for certain dependants and survivors, and the nonresident withholding. That machinery all still runs.

Source: SSA — Social Security Fairness Act.

Does 40 credits get you Medicare too?

Not automatically, and not on its own — but it is a large part of the answer. Having 40 qualifying Social Security credits can generally help a person qualify for premium-free Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) when they become eligible for Medicare, subject to Medicare's other eligibility requirements. Premium-free Part A at 65 generally requires being age 65 or older and eligible for monthly Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits, and the credit count is what supports that eligibility. There are additional requirements: an application is generally needed unless you are already receiving monthly benefits at least four months before turning 65, in which case Part A entitlement is generally automatic. Medicare eligibility can also arise on other bases entirely — disability after a waiting period, or end-stage renal disease — with their own rules.

If you do not qualify for premium-free Part A, Part A can generally be bought: for 2026 the premium is $311 a month with 30–39 credits and $565 a month with fewer than 30, and buying Part A generally requires enrolling in Part B as well. Part B (outpatient and physician services) carries a monthly premium — $202.90 standard in 2026, higher for higher incomes — regardless of your credit count.

The caveat that changes the decision: Medicare generally does not cover health care received in India. Outside a few narrow exceptions, Medicare does not pay for care outside the U.S. and its territories. Premium-free Part A is of little practical use to someone who never seeks care in the U.S.; it is not an India health plan.

Part B is the live decision, and it is genuinely a trade-off:

Special enrolment periods exist for some situations — coverage through current employment is the common one — and no late-enrolment penalty applies where an SEP is available. Living abroad without U.S. coverage does not by itself create one.

If you move abroad permanently, evaluate whether continuing Medicare Part B makes sense for your circumstances. Dropping Part B can have consequences if you later return to the United States, including potential late-enrolment penalties: ten years without Part B, with no special enrolment period available, would generally mean a penalty of roughly 100% on top of the standard premium for as long as you hold the coverage. This is educational information, not a recommendation about your own coverage — the right answer depends on your health, your finances and how likely a return is.

Sources: CMS — Original Medicare (Part A and B) eligibility and enrolment, Medicare — 2026 costs at a glance, Medicare — avoid late enrolment penalties and Medicare — travel outside the U.S..

If you're deciding your exit date

Four things to do before you fix a date, in order:

Behind all four is one point: every additional U.S. year can replace a zero in your 35-year average, so it can raise the benefit directly — while protecting the 40-credit threshold and adding to your family's U.S. residence history. Nothing else here has that much leverage, and it stays in your control until the day you leave.

For the wider version of this decision, the return-to-India planning hub covers the sequence, what happens to your 401(k) when you leave handles the retirement account that is portable, and the NRI wealth checkup shows which parts of your situation need attention first.

Frequently asked questions

Do H-1B holders pay Social Security tax?

Generally yes. Wages paid to H-1B, L-1 and green card employees are normally subject to the full 6.2% Social Security tax plus 1.45% Medicare on covered wages, with an employer match, and no totalization-agreement exemption is available on the India route. Treatment is not identical in every case — it depends on the employment, the individual's tax residency status and the exceptions in the Code. F-1 and J-1 students treated as nonresident aliens and working within their status are generally exempt.

Can I get a refund of Social Security tax when I leave the U.S.?

No. Social Security contributions are not a personal account and are not refunded when you leave, however many credits you accumulated. The money comes back only as a benefit, which for retirement generally requires meeting insured status — unlike your 401(k), which is portable.

What happens if I leave with fewer than 40 credits?

39 credits are not enough to meet the usual 40-credit requirement for Social Security retirement benefits on the worker's own record, and there is no partial retirement benefit at 39. The credits are still recorded on your Social Security history and may matter for other types of benefits: they can support currently-insured survivor protection, count toward disability insured status for younger workers, and at 30–39 credits allow Medicare Part A to be bought at a reduced premium. If you ever work in covered U.S. employment again, new credits add to the old ones.

Can I collect U.S. Social Security while living in India?

Often yes, but it is a separate question from eligibility. Payment outside the U.S. depends on citizenship, residence, benefit type, the worker's insured status and applicable exceptions. For a non-citizen beneficiary the six-month alien nonpayment rule applies unless an exception is met; India is listed as a country whose citizens may meet the exception based on the worker having at least 40 quarters of coverage or 10 years of U.S. residence. U.S. citizens are not subject to the alien nonpayment provisions at all. Dependants and survivors generally face an additional 5-year residency requirement.

Is there a U.S.–India totalization agreement?

No — none is in force as of this review. Indian EPF and EPS contributions cannot be combined with U.S. credits to satisfy U.S. eligibility requirements, and U.S. credits cannot support an Indian entitlement. Wages on H-1B status are also generally subject to U.S. Social Security tax with no agreement-based exemption.

Can my wife claim on my record if she never worked in the U.S.?

Qualifying and being paid abroad are two questions. She may be entitled to a spousal benefit on your record — generally up to 50% of your PIA at her full retirement age, subject to the spousal requirements — without ever having worked in the U.S. Separately, if she is not a U.S. citizen and lives outside the U.S., payment is governed by the alien nonpayment provisions, which for a dependant first eligible after December 1984 generally include a requirement of five years of U.S. residence while the marriage existed, subject to the listed exceptions. Check the specific facts with SSA rather than assuming either outcome.

Do my Social Security credits expire?

Generally no. Credits generally remain on your record once earned, so you can leave at 35 with 40 credits, not return to covered work, and still be fully insured for retirement later — subject to meeting the applicable requirements when you claim. Disability is the exception: it uses a recent-work test — roughly 20 credits in the last 40 quarters for workers disabled at 31 or older — which can be failed years after leaving.

Does an Indian EPS pension reduce my U.S. Social Security?

Not any more. The Windfall Elimination Provision, which reduced U.S. benefits for people also drawing a pension from non-covered work including foreign social security, was repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act signed 5 January 2025, for benefits payable from January 2024 onward.

How much U.S. tax is withheld on Social Security paid to India?

For a nonresident alien, 85% of the benefit is generally subject to a 30% withholding rate — an effective 25.5% of the gross — reported on Form SSA-1042S. India's treaty carve-out covers only benefits based on U.S. federal, state or local government employment for someone who is both a resident and a national of India, so a private-sector career generally sees no reduction. Withholding is not the same as final liability: whether a return is required or any refund is available depends on the taxpayer's circumstances.

The bottom line

Two numbers, two truths. The 40 credits are solid — earned, durable, and generally enough to make you fully insured for retirement on your own record. The dollar estimate is a story about a career you may not have, and the honest version, with a zero for every year you are not here, is a materially smaller number.

And the third thing, which is neither of those numbers: whether benefits can actually be paid to you and your family in India is decided by its own rules — citizenship, residence, benefit type, insured status and exceptions. That is the part worth checking against your own facts before you fix a departure date, because your family's U.S. residence history is one of the few inputs a change of date can still affect.

Full source list

Credits and insured status

• SSA — Social Security credits and benefit eligibility
• SSA POMS RS 00301.250 — amount required for a quarter of coverage, by year
• SSA POMS RS 00301.105 — Fully insured status and RS 00301.110 — Currently insured status
• SSA POMS RS 00301.102 — additional requirements for alien workers (SSPA 2004)

Payments outside the United States

• SSA — Payments outside the United States and the Payments Abroad Screening Tool
• SSA Publication 05-10137 — Your payments while you are outside the United States
• SSA POMS RS 02610.001 — Alien nonpayment provisions, RS 02610.010 — Exceptions, RS 02610.015 — Country status for exceptions and RS 02610.020 — Absence and presence in the U.S.
• SSA — Country List 4

Family members

• SSA — Benefits for family members
• SSA POMS RS 02610.025 — 5-year residency requirement for alien dependents and survivors and RS 02610.030 — Spouses, children and parents

Disability and SSI

• SSA — How you qualify for disability benefits
• SSA POMS SI 00501.410 — SSI ineligibility due to absence from the U.S.

Tax

• IRS Publication 915 — Social Security and equivalent railroad retirement benefits
• IRS — India tax treaty documents
• IRS — Aliens employed in the U.S.: Social Security taxes
• SSA — Nonresident alien tax withholding, SSA POMS GN 05010.010 and GN 05010.165 — Tax treaty with India
• SSA — Social Security Fairness Act (WEP and GPO repeal)

Medicare

• CMS — Original Medicare (Part A and B) eligibility and enrolment
• Medicare — Costs at a glance and avoiding late enrolment penalties
• Medicare — Travel outside the U.S.

Forms

• Form SSA-1199-IN — International direct deposit (India) and Form SSA-7162 instructions