Can Green Card Holders Get Social Security Benefits?

Green card holders can get Social Security benefits on the same terms as U.S. citizens. What matters is your work history, not your citizenship: if you earned enough credits through jobs where Social Security taxes came out of your pay, you qualify. Most people need 40 credits, or roughly ten years of covered work, to draw a retirement benefit.¹

How You Qualify: The Work Credit System

Social Security runs on credits. You earn them by working at a job, or through self-employment, where payroll taxes are withheld. In 2026, one credit costs $1,890 in earnings, and four credits (the annual maximum) come at $7,560.² Credits stay on your record permanently. A gap in employment doesn’t erase what you built up before.

Retirement benefits require 40 credits. Disability benefits use a different, age-based test: a younger worker needs fewer credits, and someone who becomes disabled at 27, for example, would need just 12 credits earned in the six years before the disability began.³ Survivor benefits paid to your family draw on the credits you accumulated during your working life.

Which Benefits You Can Claim

Meeting the credit requirements opens the same three categories that citizens can access.

Retirement payments can start as early as age 62, but claiming before full retirement age permanently reduces the monthly amount. If you were born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67.⁴
Disability benefits go to workers with a severe medical condition that prevents them from working, provided they pass both a recent-work test and a duration-of-work test.³
Survivor benefits go to eligible family members after a worker dies. A surviving spouse can begin collecting at 60, or at 50 with a qualifying disability.⁵

Work You Did Before You Got Your Green Card

Employment you had before becoming a permanent resident still counts, as long as you were lawfully present and Social Security taxes were withheld. Years spent on an H-1B or L-1 visa build credits the same way any other covered job does.

One exception trips people up. Students and exchange visitors on F-1, J-1, or M-1 visas are generally exempt from Social Security taxes during their first five calendar years in the U.S.⁶ Because no tax was withheld, those earnings produce no credits. On-campus jobs and authorized practical training fall under the exemption. Once the visa holder becomes a resident alien or moves to a non-exempt status, earnings start generating credits normally.

Combining U.S. and Foreign Work

If you split your career between the U.S. and another country, you might not hit 40 credits in either system. Totalization agreements between the U.S. and 30 countries let you combine credits from both sides to qualify for a partial benefit from each.⁷ You still need at least six quarters of U.S. coverage for the agreement to activate.

The countries with active agreements include most of Western Europe (the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and others), along with Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, among others.⁷ If your home country isn’t on the list, your foreign work won’t help you qualify. And foreign credits only help fill a shortfall; if you already have 40 U.S. credits, they don’t increase what you receive.

Foreign pensions used to reduce U.S. benefits under the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. Neither applies anymore. For benefits payable January 2024 and later, both were eliminated.⁸

What Happens If You Live Outside the United States

This is the area where the rules for green card holders diverge from those for citizens. If you leave the country, the SSA will stop your retirement, disability, or survivor payments after your sixth consecutive calendar month abroad.⁹ To keep the payments coming, you need to return and stay in the U.S. for at least 30 consecutive days before that sixth month ends.

Once benefits are suspended, restarting them requires being lawfully present in the U.S. for an entire calendar month.⁹ Residents of countries with totalization agreements or other treaty obligations may have exceptions, and the details depend on the country. The SSA offers a payments-abroad screening tool worth checking before an extended stay.

Removal is a separate matter. If your green card is revoked or you’re formally removed from the country, benefits stop entirely after the month the SSA receives notice, and can only resume if you’re later re-admitted as a lawful permanent resident.¹⁰

SSI Is a Different Program

Supplemental Security Income is easy to confuse with Social Security, but the two programs work nothing alike. Social Security is an earned benefit funded by payroll taxes. SSI is needs-based, funded by general tax revenue, and available to people who are 65 or older, blind, or disabled and have very limited income and resources.¹¹

Green card holders face an extra hurdle for SSI. If you entered the United States on or after August 22, 1996, you’re generally ineligible for SSI during your first five years as a permanent resident, even if you otherwise qualify.¹¹

The two programs also carry different immigration consequences. USCIS does not consider Social Security retirement benefits in a public charge determination; you paid into the system, and collecting what you earned carries no immigration risk. SSI is treated differently because it’s needs-based cash assistance, and USCIS does weigh it in the totality-of-circumstances analysis.¹² That doesn’t automatically disqualify anyone, but it’s worth discussing with an immigration attorney before applying if you have future immigration proceedings ahead.

How to Apply

Applications can be filed online, by phone, or in person at a local Social Security office. The SSA accepts them up to four months before you want payments to begin.¹³

You’ll generally need your Social Security card, an original or certified copy of your birth certificate, and proof of lawful permanent resident status. Bring recent W-2 forms or self-employment tax returns to verify earnings. Survivor or dependent applications also call for a marriage certificate or a child’s birth certificate.¹⁴ A missing document isn’t a reason to wait; the SSA will help you track it down.

Taxes on What You Receive

Part of your Social Security payment may be taxable depending on your other income. The IRS uses “combined income,” meaning your adjusted gross income plus nontaxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits.

Below $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (joint): no tax on benefits.
$25,000 to $34,000 (single) or $32,000 to $44,000 (joint): up to 50% of benefits are taxable.
Above $34,000 (single) or $44,000 (joint): up to 85% of benefits are taxable.

These thresholds are set by statute and are not adjusted for inflation, so more retirees cross into taxable territory each year.¹⁵

1
Social Security Administration. Fast Facts and Figures About Social Security, 2025
2
Social Security Administration. Quarter of Coverage
3
Social Security Administration. Social Security Credits
4
Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner – Retirement – Born in 1960 or Later
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Social Security Administration. See Your Full Retirement Age for Survivor Benefits
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Internal Revenue Service. Foreign Student Liability for Social Security and Medicare Taxes
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Social Security Administration. U.S. International Social Security Agreements
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Social Security Administration. Pensions and Work Abroad Won’t Reduce Benefits
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Social Security Administration. Social Security Payments Outside the United States
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Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.464 – How Does Deportation or Removal From the United States Affect the Receipt of Benefits
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Social Security Administration. SSI Eligibility – Supplemental Security Income
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 8, Part G, Chapter 7 – Consideration of Current and/or Past Receipt of Public Cash Assistance for Income Maintenance
13
Social Security Administration. Timing Your First Payment
14
Social Security Administration. Form SSA-5 – Information You Need To Apply for Benefits
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 86 – Social Security and Tier 1 Railroad Retirement Benefits