US Social Security after moving to India: the 40-credit and 10-year rule

Contributions are generally not refunded, and you may not be able to claim benefits from India if you leave without meeting the condition for being paid abroad. Because the condition depends on dates, a departure date can be checked against it in advance.

This guide explains the condition the Wind-Down Planner applies, how it counts your credits, and what to do if you are short.

The rule the planner uses

Indian citizens can keep US Social Security abroad if the worker earned 40 credits or lived in the US 10 years. That is the whole condition in the planner's rule, taken from the Social Security Administration (SSA) publication on payments outside the United States.

It has two routes:

• 40 credits. You earned them through US work.
• 10 years. You lived in the US for 10 years.

You need one of the two, not both. If you fall short of both, the planner's warning is that you may not be able to claim Social Security benefits from India, and that contributions are generally not refunded.

How the planner counts credits

The planner needs a credit count at the date you leave, and it works it out in two ways.

If you enter your credits. Use the figure on your SSA statement. The planner then adds credits for the calendar years between today and your last working day.

If you do not. The planner estimates credits from your US arrival year through last calendar year, at four credits per calendar year. It labels this an estimate that assumes earnings above the yearly threshold. If you earned less in some years, your real count is lower.

For years still to come, it adds four credits for each calendar year from this year to the year of your last working day, again assuming you earn above the yearly threshold. A calendar year counts in full, so a last working day in January adds a full year of credits in the planner's model.

For the 10-year route, the planner counts full years between your US arrival date and your departure date.

What the planner shows when you are short

When the projection falls below 40 credits and below 10 years, the planner shows a cliff item with the count you would have when you leave. If you are planning the move, it also looks for a fix:

• It suggests the earliest last working day that adds the calendar years you need, if that date is on or before your departure date.
• If you cannot reach 40 credits before leaving, it says so.

You can also enter your monthly benefit estimate from your SSA statement. The planner then shows twelve times that figure as the amount of benefits per year you could lose.

A worked example

Take a couple who arrived in the US in November 2018 and have lived there about 8 years. They plan to leave in 24 months, on 9 October 2028, with a last working day of the same date. They also have a home, RSUs and a 401(k). Their SSA statement shows 28 credits.

Credits. The planner adds four credits for each of 2026, 2027 and 2028, which is 12. Then 28 plus 12 is 40 credits at departure, so the planner does not raise a Social Security warning for them.

Years. From 15 November 2018 to 9 October 2028 is 9 full years. They would reach 10 years only on 15 November 2028, five weeks after leaving, so the 10-year route does not help them. They depend on the credit route, and on earning above the yearly threshold in all three years.

If the dates were tighter. Suppose their last working day were in 2027 instead, with the same 9 October 2028 departure and 28 credits today. The same assumptions give 28 plus 8, or 36 credits, and still under 10 years. The planner would flag the gap and suggest a last working day on or after 1 January 2028, which adds a calendar year and reaches 40, if they earn above the yearly threshold in it.

The planner also tells them to check their RSU and ESPP dates because moving a last working day affects both.

If you are leaving after a layoff

You may not be able to move your last working day, so the credit count may be fixed. The planner then reports the credits you would have and says if you will not reach 40 before leaving. You can still check the 10-year route against your arrival date. The job-loss version of the planner runs this from your actual last working day.

Check your account before you leave

The planner also includes a logistics step: create or check your my Social Security account and download your statement while you still hold a US address and phone number. The reason it gives is that verifying your identity from abroad is harder without them. The planner suggests doing this between 90 and 14 days before you leave.

That statement is also where you get the credit count and monthly benefit estimate the planner asks for, which makes the estimate more accurate than the four-credits-a-year assumption.

What the rule does not tell you

The planner's rule answers one question: can you claim benefits from India. It does not calculate how much you would receive. That figure comes from your SSA statement, which is why the planner asks for your monthly benefit estimate as an optional input and does not invent one.

If your spouse is on an H-4 EAD, their work authorization depends on your H-1B status. The planner asks you to plan your spouse's last working day, and their own Social Security items, separately, because their credit count and their dates are not the same as yours.

Next step

Enter your arrival date, departure date and SSA credits in the Wind-Down Planner to see your count at departure. If you are leaving because of a job loss, use the job-loss version.

This is a planning timeline, not tax, legal or immigration advice. Rules change; each item links to its official source and shows when it was last checked.

Sources

Last checked: 9 October 2026.

• SSA, Your payments while you are outside the United States: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10137.pdf
• SSA, my Social Security (the planner's logistics step, not part of the verified rule): https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/