US Social Security Address

[AAArdvark]

I am attempting to change my address with SSA to my Thai address since my old US address is no longer valid.  I cannot change it online, so can I assume that I have to do it through Manila?

I sent an email to Manila and got an auto-response.  In the auto-response is the quote below.  I was wondering if anyone ever had any issues with it:

 

"

Form SSA-7162-OCR-SM (Report to the United States Social Security Administration)

 

The form is sent from Wilkes-Barre, PA and must be completed regularly by all beneficiaries or their representative payees.

 

·         Beneficiaries with addresses in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, or APO/FPO/DPO receive the form every two years.

·         Beneficiaries in countries not mentioned above, receive the form every year.

 

The form is mailed beginning May 15^th and a follow-up letter is mailed beginning September 15^th. If the completed form is not received in Wilkes-Barre, PA by the end of the year, benefits are suspended beginning with the February payment of the following year.

 

To avoid the suspension of your benefits, complete the form as soon as you receive it, and mail it back to Wilkes-Barre, PA using the enclosed business reply envelope. Do not submit the completed form to the Federal Benefits Unit in Manila or to a U.S. Embassy/Consulate.

 

IMPORTANT: If you do not receive the form by November 1, contact us right away, preferably by e-mail"

[bendejo]

Not an answer to the question, but a bit of unsolicited advise: try to get a new US address, a mail box service or something.

May save yourself some grief somewhere down the line.

 

 

[tideout]

I'm curious about the US address but I didn't expect it to come up here.

 

I've got a few years before I hit even early retirement but I'm wondering if the "US address" is more of a formality than you literally have to show state residency at that address. I've been working overseas for years and barely maintain an address with absentee voting - I've been upfront with the Board of elections but I haven't been at that address for years. Can I just give my sisters address when I apply or do I have to go through a residency deal? I see you can apply online w/o problems.

[Nyezhov]

29 minutes ago, tideout said:

I'm curious about the US address but I didn't expect it to come up here.

 

I've got a few years before I hit even early retirement but I'm wondering if the "US address" is more of a formality than you literally have to show state residency at that address. I've been working overseas for years and barely maintain an address with absentee voting - I've been upfront with the Board of elections but I haven't been at that address for years. Can I just give my sisters address when I apply or do I have to go through a residency deal? I see you can apply online w/o problems.

Your sisters address is where u live in the USA. Congrats on ur move

 

[longball53098]

I just did this last week as I am affected by the closing of the JUSMAGTHAI APO mail system for retired military.

I emailed SSA Manila one day and they responded the next day that I could change my address just by send them an email with the necessary info. They would make the changes. I did just that a few days later and they then replied changes have been processed. Done deal

 

Copy of text from their email:

Good Morning,

 

There is no form needed. If you can provide us the information below, we can take action to update your record.

 

-       Last Name:

-       First Name:

-       Middle Name:

-       Date of Birth:

-       Place of Birth:

-       Last four digits of Social Security Number (SSN):

-       Address:

-       Contact Number:

 

Note:  No record of this email message has been made.  In your response, please include your previous email message. Please be reminded that we cannot access records without SSN or full name and date of birth.

 

[ubonjoe]

6 hours ago, bendejo said:

Not an answer to the question, but a bit of unsolicited advise: try to get a new US address, a mail box service or something.

May save yourself some grief somewhere down the line.

That is not always a good solution.

If wanting to have your social security payments direct deposited to a bank here you must have a address for here to do it.

[ubonjoe]

20 minutes ago, longball53098 said:

I emailed SSA Manila one day and they responded the next day that I could change my address just by send them an email with the necessary info. They would make the changes.

I did the same a few years ago to change my address here in Thailand. At one time that info was on the US embassy website but I think it is gone now.

The only irritating part was that they did not reply back stating it was done. Sent a couple of emails about it and finally got a curt answer that it had been done.

[longball53098]

Just now, ubonjoe said:

I did the same a few years ago to change my address here in Thailand. At one time that info was on the US embassy website but I think it is gone now.

The only irritating part was that they did not reply back stating it was done. Sent a couple of emails about it and finally got a curt answer that it had been done.

I got a answer back in less than 24 hours from a woman rep named Angela saying my data was processed

[Pib]

1 hour ago, longball53098 said:

I just did this last week as I am affected by the closing of the JUSMAGTHAI APO mail system for retired military.

I emailed SSA Manila one day and they responded the next day that I could change my address just by send them an email with the necessary info. They would make the changes. I did just that a few days later and they then replied changes have been processed. Done deal

 

Copy of text from their email:

Good Morning,

 

There is no form needed. If you can provide us the information below, we can take action to update your record.

 

-       Last Name:

-       First Name:

-       Middle Name:

-       Date of Birth:

-       Place of Birth:

-       Last four digits of Social Security Number (SSN):

-       Address:

-       Contact Number:

 

Note:  No record of this email message has been made.  In your response, please include your previous email message. Please be reminded that we cannot access records without SSN or full name and date of birth.

 

I did the same thing in mid March for a family member and I when getting the APO closure notice.  SSA had both our Thailand residential and APO mailing addresses on-file, but whatever mailing address you use ends of taking priority.   I simply told Manila the APO was closing, so please delete the APO mailing address and here is our Thailand residential address again just to ensure you have it correct in the system.  We had given our residential address when first applying for SS and also our APO address as a mailing address....but just wanted to be double sure they had the residential address correct format and spelling. 

 

In two days I got a response the address had been updated.  We checked our our SS online accounts and there it was an address change scheduled to go into affect the next day.....next day the APO address disappeared and was replaced by our Thailand residential address---and the address was perfect...included the subdistrict and district, etc.   

 

By the way when you do change your address to Thailand with the SSA you will also see a "929" number appear at the end of your address....it is not an error/typo.....it's an number SSA adds for internal use. In earlier days it was used to help direct certain SSA mail such as checks to the US embassy/consulate in that country to assist in the delivery of checks/mail to beneficiaries living in certain countries.  Today I expect it primarily used to help identify beneficiaries by country when doing system database inquires/research/etc.  

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0901510100

 

And lo and behold that ended up fixing the family member's "non-IAT" payment format issue....an issue that I had been trying to get fixed for almost 6 months via email/phone calls/letters to the SSA...both Manila and Baltimore.   The family member's early Apr SS payment to Bangkok Bank changed from non-IAT format to IAT format. 

 

Apparently our APO "mailing" address was causing the payment format problem.  Although an APO address is an "overseas" military/USPS address apparently it's still treated as a US address for SS direct deposit payment and other purposes which caused the payment to not be in IAT format.  And even though I have my SS payment going to my US bank vs Bangkok Bank it even ended up changing my payment format to IAT format with that US bank.  

 

Regarding delivery of the annual Are You Dead or Alive Letter from SSA, I have a neighbor who signed-up for SS a few years ago (actually I hand walked the neighbor thru the sign-up) with her Thailand address and the she receives the letter and other SSA correspondence no problem.   Any correspondence that requires a reply like the Are You Deal or Alive Letter, she sends back via Thai Post registered mail.   Registered mail is a ton cheaper than EMS and arrives the US address just a few days later than expensive EMS.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Pib

[AAArdvark]

8 hours ago, bendejo said:

Not an answer to the question, but a bit of unsolicited advise: try to get a new US address, a mail box service or something.

May save yourself some grief somewhere down the line.

 

 

If changing my address is as simple as one poster says, there would not be any grief.  ONE of the reasons I will be doing this is that several posters have said that it makes the new IDD (direct to thai bank process) much easier.

BTW, I appreciate the courtesy of your first sentence. 

[Pib]

6 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

If changing my address is as simple as one poster says, there would not be any grief.  ONE of the reasons I will be doing this is that several posters have said that it makes the new IDD (direct to thai bank process) much easier.

BTW, I appreciate the courtesy of your first sentence. 

You "must" have a foreign/Thailand address on file with SSA to enroll in SSA IDD.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Pib

[AAArdvark]

8 hours ago, tideout said:

I'm curious about the US address but I didn't expect it to come up here.

 

I've got a few years before I hit even early retirement but I'm wondering if the "US address" is more of a formality than you literally have to show state residency at that address. I've been working overseas for years and barely maintain an address with absentee voting - I've been upfront with the Board of elections but I haven't been at that address for years. Can I just give my sisters address when I apply or do I have to go through a residency deal? I see you can apply online w/o problems.

It is kind of a formality but not quite.  First, when you apply online for Social Security, they will only allow a US address to be entered.  The other thing is they want a "drop dead" address for people out of the US, meaning they want someone to respond (or not) to a yearly letter to see if you are still "eligible" (by being alive).

If you have a real address in the US that you can use where someone can notify you if SSA needs something, that will work

[Pib]

34 minutes ago, FredGallaher said:

Manila toId me to fill out a change of address form and mail in the form. I sent an EMS with the form the the responding Manila SS representative the for to change my address to Thailand on March 24th this year. I have not heard back despite follow up emails. My SS page has not been updated to the Thai address so I assume it is still sitting in her inbox. I have the completed form to do IDD to Kasikorn Bank but want to be sure the address change goes through first. Is it better to call US to take care of this? 

 

Manila or Baltimore can make the address update.  Personally, I would continue to bang on Manila's door.  But definitely don't attempt processing the IDD form until your address is changed to Thailand otherwise the IDD request can not be processed by SSA.  See below SSA regulation/instruction and partial quote regarding IDD for Thailand.

 

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202402419

MBR mean Master Benefit Record which is your electronic file with the SSA

[cmarshall]

On 4/29/2019 at 3:15 PM, tideout said:

I'm curious about the US address but I didn't expect it to come up here.

 

I've got a few years before I hit even early retirement but I'm wondering if the "US address" is more of a formality than you literally have to show state residency at that address. I've been working overseas for years and barely maintain an address with absentee voting - I've been upfront with the Board of elections but I haven't been at that address for years. Can I just give my sisters address when I apply or do I have to go through a residency deal? I see you can apply online w/o problems.

The SSA doesn't care about your state residency.  They want to know your physical address, but will also accept a mailing address to which they will send mail.  It's better to have a US mailing address, unless you want your SS benefits deposited in a Thai bank.

 

If you are living abroad you should carefully take the necessary steps to separate yourself from your former state of residence so that you no longer have to pay state income tax, if your state has an income tax.

[GroupA]

I finally got a reply that my address was changed. It took about 6 weeks and several emails. Now I can apply for IDD.