How to Call Social Security From Overseas

To reach Social Security from outside the United States, call 1-855-522-6936, Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm US Eastern time. That is the number the Social Security Administration publishes for its international customers — with one catch the agency itself admits: it is a toll-free number, and US toll-free numbers often cannot be dialed from foreign phones at all. SSA's own website warns that foreign carriers may charge for the call or fail to connect it. The clean way around this is to place the call from a US-based line: through a browser dialer, both SSA numbers connect like a domestic US call — and toll-free means genuinely free.

More than 700,000 people received Social Security benefits at foreign addresses as of December 2024, by SSA's own count, and hundreds of thousands more expats are still building or claiming benefits from abroad. This guide covers the full contact stack — the 855 line, the Baltimore international office, the Federal Benefits Units at US embassies — plus the foreign-beneficiary questionnaire that worries people every summer, and what actually works online from a foreign address. Everything below was checked against ssa.gov in August 2026.

What Number Do I Call Social Security On From Outside the US?

SSA's international customers are handled by International Operations in Baltimore — the unit long known as the Office of Earnings & International Operations (OEIO). Its published contact points:

Verified against ssa.gov in August 2026. Both phone lines close on US federal holidays — which will not match the holidays where you live.

One number deliberately missing from that table: +1 410-965-0160, the direct Baltimore line that SSA published for years and that most expat guides still quote. SSA's international-operations page no longer lists it — the agency now routes overseas callers to 1-855-522-6936 instead. If you have the old 410 number saved, treat the 855 line as its replacement.

Which line should you actually dial? If you live abroad, start with 1-855-522-6936 — it goes straight to the unit that holds international files, understands totalization agreements, and processes the foreign-beneficiary questionnaires. The national 800-772-1213 line works too (and its automated services run around the clock), but front-line agents there deal mostly with domestic cases and may simply refer an international question to Baltimore anyway.

Why the 800 Number Won't Work From Abroad

US toll-free billing only exists inside the US phone network: the organization pays for the call, but only for calls arriving from US carriers. Dial 800-772-1213 — or the 855 international line, which is toll-free too — from a foreign mobile or landline, and your carrier has no way to bill it as toll-free, so it usually refuses the call or connects it at international rates. That is why SSA's helpline for people abroad is, ironically, hardest to reach from abroad. A call placed from a US-based internet line originates on US networks, so the toll-free system treats it as domestic: it connects, and nobody bills you. The full mechanics — and verified fallback numbers for the IRS and major US banks — are in our guide to calling 1-800 numbers from outside the US.

The Baltimore International Office and Embassy Federal Benefits Units

There are no Social Security offices outside the United States. Instead, two things stand in for your local office:

International Operations in Baltimore manages every benefit paid abroad. Beyond the 855 line, it takes mail at two addresses — and using the right one speeds things up. Not yet receiving benefits and asking about eligibility: Social Security Administration, International Operations, P.O. Box 17775, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-7775, USA. Already receiving benefits and reporting a change — a death, marriage, divorce, new address: P.O. Box 17769, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-7769, USA. Include your Social Security number either way. Note that SSA currently carries a warning about international mail delays — several countries have suspended mail to the US entirely — which is a good reason to handle anything time-sensitive by phone or fax rather than envelope.

Federal Benefits Units (FBUs) are SSA-trained teams inside US embassies and consulates. They can take claims, verify documents, and witness the in-person checks some situations require. But two realities are worth knowing before you plan a visit. First, there are far fewer of them than there are countries: each FBU serves a whole region, so Americans in Thailand are served by the FBU in Manila, much of the Middle East by Rome, Scandinavia by Oslo, and most of the Caribbean by Santo Domingo. Second, many FBUs list only an email address and fax — Mexico's three FBUs, for instance, publish no phone number at all, and London answers phones only in a morning window. The FBU directory on ssa.gov (“Service Around the World”) shows which office covers your country and how it prefers to be contacted; email is typically the reliable first approach, with FBU.Manila@ssa.gov-style addresses for each post.

Two special cases: residents of Canada are served by regular SSA field offices along the US border rather than an FBU, and if your country has no listed office at all, the American Citizens Services section of the nearest US embassy can point you to the responsible FBU. For most questions, though, the practical order is: 855 line first, FBU email second, postal mail a distant third.

The Foreign-Beneficiary Questionnaire (SSA-7162): What to Do

If you receive benefits abroad, SSA periodically posts you a short form — Form SSA-7162 (or SSA-7161 if a representative payee manages the benefits) — asking you to confirm you are alive, where you live, and that nothing has changed. It is the American cousin of the UK's pension life certificate: a routine existence check, not an accusation, and receiving one means nothing is wrong. Ignoring one is the only real danger. The cycle runs on a fixed calendar:

• May–June: SSA mails the questionnaire. You have 60 days to sign it and post it back in the envelope provided (it goes to a dedicated processing center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania).
• September: anyone who has not been recorded as responding gets a second notice, with 45 days to reply.
• Mid-January: non-responders receive a suspension notice, and payments stop from the February payment until the form is in.

Suspended is not cancelled — benefits restart once SSA has your questionnaire or an FBU verifies you — but reinstatement takes far longer than simply returning the form on time. How often you get one depends on your file: people aged 90 or over are asked every year, as are residents of most countries; residents of a list of about forty-five countries with reliable records (including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Canada, Australia and the UK) are on a two-year cycle instead, split by the last two digits of the Social Security number. Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand are not on that list — expect the form annually there.

Where the phone helps: if a questionnaire never arrived, arrived late, or you suspect your reply was lost in the mail, call 1-855-522-6936 before the deadline passes — the call puts the problem on record, and the agent can note the file, resend the form, or direct you to return it by courier (SSA publishes a street address for courier delivery to Wilkes-Barre) or through your FBU. Given the international mail disruptions SSA itself flags, a two-minute confirmation call in August is much cheaper than a suspended payment in February.

Where SSA Cannot Send Payments

A small but important exception to “your benefits follow you”: US Treasury rules prohibit sending payments to anyone in Cuba or North Korea. US citizens get the withheld money back once they move somewhere SSA can pay; non-citizens generally forfeit payments for months spent there. Separately, SSA restricts payments in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — payment is possible there only under a special arrangement that requires appearing in person at a US embassy or FBU every six months. If a move to any of these countries is on your horizon, that is a call to 1-855-522-6936 before you book anything, not after.

When to Call: SSA's Hours in Expat Time Zones

The international line answers Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm US Eastern time. Here is that window where American retirees abroad actually live:

These windows assume US daylight saving time (mid-March to early November). In winter, Eastern time moves an hour later relative to countries that keep the same clock all year — so Mexico, Costa Rica and all of Asia shift one hour later (Manila becomes 8pm–6am), while Europe changes clocks on nearly the same dates and stays put. From Europe, calling after dinner means reaching Baltimore in its quiet early afternoon; from Asia, the practical slot is your late evening, right as the line opens at 7am ET — the classic light-queue moment. For anywhere not listed, our best time to call calculator works out the overlap.

What the Call Costs

• From a foreign phone: the 855 line often will not connect at all — and when a carrier does put it through, it bills international or roaming rates, typically $1–3 per minute. Government hold times make that a $30–90 gamble per attempt.
• From a US-based browser line: toll-free numbers cost $0.00 per minute through BubblyPhone — both 1-855-522-6936 and 800-772-1213, hold time included. You need an account with a positive balance, and free calls are capped at two hours each, which outlasts any SSA queue.
• Ordinary US numbers — a border field office for Canada residents, say — cost $0.025 per minute, about 75 cents for a half-hour call. Calling an FBU's local number abroad (Manila, San Jose, Tokyo) is billed at that country's rate instead — see the rates page.

The same math applies to every US agency with a toll-free front door — we keep a parallel guide for calling the IRS from abroad, where the fallback is a paid international line rather than a free one.

Can You Use my Social Security Online From Abroad?

Partly — and more than a few years ago. You no longer need a US mailing address: SSA now lets many people abroad create a my Social Security account by verifying identity through ID.me and choosing “I don't live in the United States” during registration. Once in, the account genuinely covers a lot: checking your earnings record and benefit estimates, following the status of an application or appeal, printing a benefit verification letter or a replacement SSA-1099 tax statement (neither of which SSA can mail to a foreign address), reading official notices, and requesting a replacement Medicare card. You can also apply online for retirement and disability benefits from abroad.

The honest limits: from a foreign address you cannot change your address online unless you are a US citizen, cannot change your direct deposit details, and cannot request a replacement Social Security card. Those are precisely the tasks most likely to matter to someone living abroad — and they go through the 855 line or your FBU instead. As with the UK and other systems: the checking is online, the doing is on the phone.

A word on Medicare, since the same call often covers both: Medicare generally does not pay for care outside the United States, so most expats rely on local insurance and keep Medicare as a fallback for visits home. The enrollment decision still matters, though — declining Part B can mean permanent late-enrollment penalties if you return, and the right answer depends on your situation. It is a fair question for SSA on the international line, and worth asking before your 65th birthday rather than after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

• Calling 1-800 numbers from outside the US — why toll-free fails abroad, and verified international lines for the IRS and major US banks.
• Calling the IRS from abroad — the international taxpayer line and what it handles.
• Calling the UK International Pension Centre from abroad — the same playbook for a UK State Pension, life certificates included.
• Cheap international calls — how per-minute internet calling compares with roaming and calling cards.