42 U.S.C. § 433 — International agreements

(a) Purpose of agreement. The President may enter into agreements - called totalization arrangements - between the U.S. Social Security system and a foreign country's social security system. The goal is to let a worker combine periods of coverage under both systems to become entitled to, and to figure the amount of, old-age, survivors, disability, or related benefits. (b) Definitions. (1) A "social security system," for a foreign country, means a social insurance or pension system that applies generally across that country and pays periodic benefits (or their cash equivalent) for old age, death, or disability. (2) A "period of coverage" means a period when contributions were paid, or a period based on wages from employment or self-employment income, or any similar period counted as equivalent under the U.S. system or under a partner country's system. (c) Crediting periods of coverage; conditions of payment of benefits. (1) Every totalization agreement must include three things. (A) For a worker with at least 6 quarters of coverage under section 413 of this title, plus coverage periods under the partner country's system, those foreign periods may be combined with U.S. periods to help establish entitlement to, and figure the amount of, U.S. old-age, survivors, and disability benefits. (B) After the agreement takes effect, work - employment, self-employment, or any similar recognized service - counts toward coverage under only one of the two systems, never both; the agreement itself spells out the methods and conditions for deciding which system applies. (C) When a worker's periods are combined this way, the U.S. benefit amount is based on the share of the worker's total coverage that was actually earned under the U.S. system. (2) An agreement may also let someone who is entitled to U.S. cash benefits keep receiving them while living in the partner country, even though section 402(t) of this title would otherwise cut off benefits paid to people outside the United States. (3) Section 426 of this title (about Medicare eligibility tied to disability benefits) will not apply to a person if it would not have applied to them except for this section or an agreement or regulation made under it. (4) An agreement may include other provisions too, as long as they don't conflict with the rest of this subchapter and the President believes they help carry out the purposes of this section. (d) Regulations. The Commissioner of Social Security must write the rules, regulations, and procedures needed to carry out and administer any agreement made under this section. (e) Reports to Congress; effective date of agreements. (1) The President must send each totalization agreement to Congress, along with a report estimating how many people it will affect and how it will affect the income and spending of the Social Security programs. (2) The agreement can only take effect on the date it names, and only after a waiting period has passed. That period runs from when the agreement was sent to Congress until at least one house of Congress has been in session on 60 separate days. If, during that waiting period, either the House or the Senate votes to disapprove the agreement, it does not take effect.