Social Security totalization agreements — by country

Totalization agreements solve two problems for people who split their working life between two countries: they stop you from paying social security taxes to both systems on the same wages, and they let work credits from both countries combine toward retirement eligibility. The hard fact for this site’s audience: not one of the 12 countries covered here has such an agreement with the United States.

The numbers that matter

  • 30 countries have US totalization agreements in force — mostly in Europe, plus Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and exactly three in Latin America: Chile (2001), Brazil (2018), and Uruguay (2018).
  • Mexico signed an agreement in June 2004 that never entered into force. Congress never let it take effect, and it has sat inoperative for over two decades — the largest diaspora in the US works entirely outside totalization protection.
  • Without an agreement: you pay the full 7.65% FICA withholding (15.3% if self-employed) with no exemption, and your US credits and home-country contribution years can never be combined. You need 40 US credits (~10 years) to qualify for US retirement benefits on the US record alone.
  • One major recent improvement: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) — which reduced US benefits for people who also drew a foreign pension — was repealed in January 2025 by the Social Security Fairness Act. A pension from your home country no longer shrinks a US benefit you qualified for.

Browse by country

What each country page covers

For each country: whether any agreement exists or is pending, how the home-country pension system treats years worked in the US, what happens to your home-country contributions while you’re away, and the practical options people actually use — voluntary contributions back home, qualifying for US benefits on the US record alone, and how payments work if you retire in your home country.

Last verified: 2026-06-11. Sources: SSA — Status of Totalization Agreements, SSA — International Agreements overview, SSA — Social Security Fairness Act.

General information — not legal advice. Benefit eligibility is fact-specific; confirm your situation with the Social Security Administration or a benefits attorney.