September 9, 2025Sep 9 4 hours ago, exant said: How can you alone prove you are dead or alive licking a glue on a envelope paid with postage traveling to your post office and hope it was delivered after bouncing around the planet to one isolated PO BOX that stuff a all mail into a sack and dump it on a metal desk ready to shuffle by a motivated ? It's the government. You don't ask why, just do or die. Anyway, the stamp envelope method is done. Next year you have to spend 30-60 minutes attesting to an agent instead of licking a stamp. You might want to practice this year like I did. At least that's what we're hearing. You have to believe with all your patriotic heart that Trump is making government more efficient or you could find yourself flagged as a terrorist. So don't complain. Look at it this way, statistically you'll be dead by the time your benefits are suspended, so it's nothing to worry about. Oh, now some not fake news. Bob called Manila this morning, got a voice recording twice, third time he got a lady who said they can't confirm if forms are received because they won't be posted until December. She also said the 2nd form will be mailed out in October. But if not posted, how will they know who to send the 2nd form to? I guess SSA has come down with mad cow disease. Also, you can't do the attestation method at Manila. Call the number posted earlier (not the 800 number). So, you just gotta believe in Jesus.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 26 minutes ago, cusanus said: It's the government. You don't ask why, just do or die. Anyway, the stamp envelope method is done. Next year you have to spend 30-60 minutes attesting to an agent instead of licking a stamp. You might want to practice this year like I did. At least that's what we're hearing. You have to believe with all your patriotic heart that Trump is making government more efficient or you could find yourself flagged as a terrorist. So don't complain. Look at it this way, statistically you'll be dead by the time your benefits are suspended, so it's nothing to worry about. Oh, now some not fake news. Bob called Manila this morning, got a voice recording twice, third time he got a lady who said they can't confirm if forms are received because they won't be posted until December. She also said the 2nd form will be mailed out in October. But if not posted, how will they know who to send the 2nd form to? I guess SSA has come down with mad cow disease. Also, you can't do the attestation method at Manila. Call the number posted earlier (not the 800 number). So, you just gotta believe in Jesus. You may be right, but it remains my current understanding that SSA has not (as yet) cancelled next year's mailings but only that they have become more open to phone attestations as an alternative especially in cases where the person hasn't receive a form. You're welcome to post evidence to the contrary. It seems INSANE to me that they would cancel the mailings entirely. Consider how many more labor hours that would take to process! Also of course many expats will have problems doing the phone contact if they have to pay for hours long calls to the U.S. On the other hand, cynical me is wondering if they will indeed do this and that would be a clever ploy to kick masses of people off benefits because they simply could never get through to an agent (as they would then be even more massively busy) so gave even trying. I guess we'll see, huh?
September 9, 2025Sep 9 23 minutes ago, Jingthing said: You may be right, but it remains my current understanding that SSA has not (as yet) cancelled next year's mailings but only that they have become more open to phone attestations as an alternative. I guess we'll see, huh? I totally agree. I was just going by the YouTube video that said they were getting rid of the forms. I sure hope not, unless they can come up with something better than that.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 1 minute ago, cusanus said: I totally agree. I was just going by the YouTube video that said they were getting rid of the forms. I sure hope not, unless they can come up with something better than that. If they do, it will be a nightmare.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 OK, there are possible elegant and efficient ways to reform this process. Put the flippin' form online! Then figure out a way to require people to prove their current alive status. They probably would never trust just a regular electronic signature but surely in these days of our advanced tech, there must be a possible way that is relatively fraud proof. Too bad Musk, DOGE, and the "smash it all" big ball boys can't do something actually useful in this regard.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 5 minutes ago, Jingthing said: Too bad Musk, DOGE, and the "smash it all" big ball boys can't do something actually useful in this regard. Obvious to many of us that the objective was to tear down the system and siphon off the money, not make it more efficient. What will the US be like three years from now?
September 9, 2025Sep 9 Ok all is satisfied and there fore all refuse to eliminate USA citizen form 7162 dead or alive investigation, RE assigned back to USA State Department Global country of Embassy redidence, American Citizen Services, that did and was responsible before a colored Baltimore manager decided to recruit the isolated Federal Benefits Units 2017. There is a local country USA Embassy near you! The scattered isolated FBU, was never SSA trained or motivated to read and practice SSA.GOV 2300 page customer service manual. It takes two years to read understand SSA mqanual but it changes updated every day. The FBU purpose is not same as USA State Department Global American Citizens Service the FBU was established to distribute funds to USA Government Global pay roll and has serious trouble continue to avoid, delay, ignore SSA problrms solutions SO LET IT BE STAY SILENT DO NOTHING AND NOTHING SHALL HAPPEN OK we all remain in the same SH boat licking envelopes so stop foaming over 7162 SSA Baltimore negro fashioned pay as you go international delivery. WTF as long as you all are in happy extacy and have no desire or motivation for solutions, foaming over 7162 emotions to continue your FICA tax paid foreign country SSA Direct Deposit Immigration police passport monitored banks ? WTF is the Baltimore BU SH about makink International country agreements for monitoring SSA people outside the USA borders. Suggest majority of USA citizens elected TRU we go back to school and if you do nothing nothing happens so stop foaming over 7162 every year
September 9, 2025Sep 9 Ok, so Bob came over tonight to do his attestation for form 7162. Used the 410 965 0160 number (international operations). Called at 8:00 AM their time, waited 20 minutes and then we were dumped, so tried again. Waited another 20 minutes and got a lady. She said if he mailed in the form which he did 8 August then he couldn't do the attestation. I jumped right in: "That's bull<deleted> lady, lots of us have done both and we no longer have any trust in the forms which came late and don't get posted until December so we don't know if we're gonna get our throats cut in February or not." She argued me a little and then said she would NOT listen to anyone in the background. But she caved and took down the information and said he could be 100% certain it would get posted after she emailed it from Wilkes-Barre to Wilkes-Barre. All that only took another 10 minutes and she was nice, apologized and said they're buckling under twice the normal workload. So, I guess that may be the safest method if you got the time and patience for it.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 11 hours ago, Jingthing said: If they do, it will be a nightmare. 10 hours ago, cusanus said: Obvious to many of us that the objective was to tear down the system and siphon off the money, not make it more efficient. What will the US be like three years from now? Yes, the view of many experts in the industry is that Trump (and Doge) are trying to break Social Security rendering it lame, and then turn that story into how they can fix it by privatizing it, freeing up the $3 trillion in asset reserves to let Wall Street manage the money at a higher potential return (and fees generated and pocketed) but higher risk obviously. This has been floated in the past by Ted Cruz and other republicans. Trump's method is more sneaky but likely has the same goal. The current SSA director (Doge guy) is also playing games with how he claims phone response times have improved. They say the average call is just 20 minutes or something, but they are adding in the countless people who hang up in frustration after a few minutes, so this appears to be the long game. The upshot for expats is that it's getting much more difficult and bothersome. The best way to solve this issue for expats in my opinion, is to have your SSA money deposited into a US account and change address to US to avoid the annual proof of life letter. I know this is a pain for many who have cut ties, but if you still have a US bank account that is workable, and you use Wise to make automatic monthly transfers it does work. Though, Wise also has some issues. The alternative is to wait to see what happens.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 59 minutes ago, keemapoot said: The upshot for expats is that it's getting much more difficult and bothersome. The best way to solve this issue for expats in my opinion, is to have your SSA money deposited into a US account and change address to US to avoid the annual proof of life letter. I know this is a pain for many who have cut ties, but if you still have a US bank account that is workable, and you use Wise to make automatic monthly transfers it does work. Though, Wise also has some issues. The alternative is to wait to see what happens. SS recipients using a US address while living abroad makes them ineligible for benefits. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202401080 I know some have done it, and probably they won't get caught, but I wouldn't want to be in that position.
September 9, 2025Sep 9 So you are advising we use a American address to get around this nightmare? May I remind every one here. This is OUR $$$$ that the government borrowed from US! Can I have my money $$$ please Mr. Trump or do I need to kiss your A$$ first?
September 9, 2025Sep 9 45 minutes ago, cusanus said: SS recipients using a US address while living abroad makes them ineligible for benefits. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202401080 I know some have done it, and probably they won't get caught, but I wouldn't want to be in that position. I suppose it's more of an issue of penalty and enforcement. That provision was meant to prevent fraud for SSI recipients, who are not supposed to live abroad and collect. For retirees on retirement social security income, the issue is not as serious, though it seems any potential enforcement or penalty is not known except to Social Security insiders. I suspect it's not a serious penalty as a retiree has a right to collect his social security, and physical location is relatively meaningless, other than this proof of life issue. I have never read or heard of anyone getting caught out on this.
September 10, 2025Sep 10 1 hour ago, keemapoot said: I suppose it's more of an issue of penalty and enforcement. That provision was meant to prevent fraud for SSI recipients, who are not supposed to live abroad and collect. For retirees on retirement social security income, the issue is not as serious, though it seems any potential enforcement or penalty is not known except to Social Security insiders. I suspect it's not a serious penalty as a retiree has a right to collect his social security, and physical location is relatively meaningless, other than this proof of life issue. I have never read or heard of anyone getting caught out on this. Not likely, agreed. It may be the solution for some, but I feel safest being 100% honest. Little things can get out of hand. I had very serious trouble chasing me all my life, even in Thailand until about 12 years ago and try to keep it that way. The form is only recently a hassle but not that difficult to cope with since I've got too much time on my hands anyway.
September 10, 2025Sep 10 1 hour ago, exant said: WTF yes as old timers we shall all be dead soon and one voice can not solve these mutual SSA.GOV problems that need an army to election change and adopt enforce new technology With any luck...
September 10, 2025Sep 10 Here's the latest advisory from the US Embassy in Manila regarding submission of the Form 7162 both for those who have received the form in the mail and also for those who haven't received the form like me: https://ph.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2021/05/use-manila-seal.png U.S. Embassy in the Philippines Menu Search Emergency Information for American Citizens CONSULAR UPDATE: Mailing of SSA Annual Report Form (Form SSA-7161 / SSA-7162) By U.S. Embassy Manila 3 MINUTE READ September 10, 2025 Mailing of SSA Annual Report Form (Form SSA-7161 / SSA-7162) to FBU Manila Due to the suspension of certain mail services to the United States, beneficiaries who received the Annual Report Form (SSA-7161 or SSA-7162) should now send the completed form to the Social Security Administration’s Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) in Manila via the mailing address: Social Security Administration (Attention: FEQ) U.S. Embassy in the Philippines 1201 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita Manila, Philippines 0930 If you have not received the form through mail, you may download a copy of the Annual Report Form: Form SSA-7162 if you are a Social Security beneficiary. Form SSA-7161 if you are the Representative Payee for a beneficiary. Please submit the completed/signed original form and not a scanned, emailed, or faxed copies of the form. We also recommend sending the form via a courier service with tracking capability to monitor delivery progress. For questions and additional assistance, contact SSA/FBU directly via e-mail at FBU.Manila(at)ssa.gov.
September 10, 2025Sep 10 An inflammatory post has been removed: Be polite and respectful to other users. Do not post defamatory, offensive, or discriminatory content. Avoid flaming, trolling, or stalking other members.
September 10, 2025Sep 10 I couldn't get @Migz weblink to work....but this one did for me. https://ph.usembassy.gov/mailing-of-ssa-annual-report-form-form-ssa-7161-ssa-7162/
September 10, 2025Sep 10 Just finished my "form 7162 attestation" by phone (1-410-965-0160). First call at 8:30 lasted 20 minutes on hold then hang up. 2nd call lasted 20 minutes on hold then hang up. Third call lasted 20 minutes on hold then hang up. After 15 minutes on fourth call the SSA agent answered. She was familiar with the 7162 attestation process. Took about five minutes to complete. Based on my impression that the SSA agent appeared to have completed several 7162 attestations. I believe the process was successful.
September 10, 2025Sep 10 Email response from FBU Manila regarding phone attestations for 7162: Due to workload constraints, FBU Manila is unable to attest the annual report form by phone at this time. If you wish to have the form attested by phone, please call the Social Security Administration’s International Call Center at +1-410-965-0160 between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM U.S. Eastern Standard Time. You will need to pay for the call because Social Security currently does not have a toll-free service for calls from outside the U.S.
September 11, 2025Sep 11 They didn't answer my question, of course. I guess we know this anyway. fbu.manila[at]ssa.gov Thank you for contacting the Social Security Administration's Federal Benefits Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. If you are unable to send your annual report form (SSA-7161 / SSA-7162) to the United States due to the suspension of certain mail services, please send your form to the Social Security Administration’s Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) in Manila instead. Social Security Administration U.S. Embassy – Manila Attention: FEQ 1201 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita Manila, Philippines 0930 Forms sent via email or fax are not acceptable. We recommend that you send the form via courier service with tracking capability to monitor the delivery status on your end. FBU Manila cannot confirm receipt of each form, so please check with your courier service to confirm successful delivery. Due to workload constraints, FBU Manila is unable to attest the annual report form by phone at this time. If you wish to have the form attested by phone, please call the Social Security Administration’s International Call Center at +1-410-965-0160 between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM U.S. Eastern Standard Time. You will need to pay for the call because Social Security currently does not have a toll-free service for calls from outside the U.S. Response to email sent 28 August below from me to FBU Manila: I know you're busy. A lot of confusion this year. I sent my 7162 to Wilkes-Barre 8 July, so hoping it's okay to ask, can you confirm it was processed yet or now. If so, I'll let others know. A copy is attached. Some are wondering if it's better to send it to Manila instead of Wilkes-Barre. Thank you,
September 11, 2025Sep 11 There are many dead or alive solutions and you the reader questioning a stupid out of date old fashined 7162 paper mail signature should wake up and realize the postal delivery outside the USA is random and insecure hands traveling most of the time lost in translations untraceable and if and when delivered can be signed, signature authorized by any body or friends. Do you really believe the Wilkens 65,000USD paid monkey inspects 7162 signatures with a microscope Solutions not emotions every thing life changes if you are motivated to improve and make things happen from experience.. and yes the DOGE team is monitorin your complaints and chievements.. have a wonderfull retirement...
September 11, 2025Sep 11 9 hours ago, exant said: Solutions not emotions every thing life changes if you are motivated to improve and make things happen from experience.. and yes the DOGE team is monitorin your complaints and chievements.. have a wonderfull retirement... You're killin me man!
September 13, 2025Sep 13 On 9/10/2025 at 12:55 AM, cusanus said: Ok, so Bob came over tonight to do his attestation for form 7162. Used the 410 965 0160 number (international operations). Called at 8:00 AM their time, waited 20 minutes and then we were dumped, so tried again. Waited another 20 minutes and got a lady. She said if he mailed in the form which he did 8 August then he couldn't do the attestation. I jumped right in: "That's bull<deleted> lady, lots of us have done both and we no longer have any trust in the forms which came late and don't get posted until December so we don't know if we're gonna get our throats cut in February or not." She argued me a little and then said she would NOT listen to anyone in the background. But she caved and took down the information and said he could be 100% certain it would get posted after she emailed it from Wilkes-Barre to Wilkes-Barre. All that only took another 10 minutes and she was nice, apologized and said they're buckling under twice the normal workload. So, I guess that may be the safest method if you got the time and patience for it. I’m thinking of doing this. Could you be awesome and outline how they ID you, and what questions they ask?
September 13, 2025Sep 13 16 minutes ago, MJoe said: I’m thinking of doing this. Could you be awesome and outline how they ID you, and what questions they ask? I called at 8:00 PM (Thai time) on Sept 2nd. I got an agent in about 10 minutes. She was very polite and knew about the attestation (this process has only come out a couple of days prior). For ID, so asked where I was born and my mother's maiden name. It took her a few minutes to type everything in to send to the Wilkes-Barre operation. She told be when she finishes and that I was all set... nothing else to do. The entire activity from starting the call to finishing took 23 minutes. Please be polite to these people. They are surely under a lot of stress and ill-prepared with additional information as this crap was unjustly dropped in their laps by Musk and his team that had the goal of moving fast and breaking stuff.
September 14, 2025Sep 14 2 hours ago, MJoe said: I’m thinking of doing this. Could you be awesome and outline how they ID you, and what questions they ask? Just your name, SSN and mother's maiden. They ask if you understand you must tell the truth under penalty of perjury. Then she asks the questions on the form first page. If you mark X for NO on the first three questions, you're done, if not then you need to tell the same info further asked as on the form. Then it's electronically signed by your attestation and she emails the form. Don't say you've mailed the form earlier or you might get turned down. That's supposed to 100% foolproof. Knock on wood. Wouldn't take more than ten minutes total if not for wait times and such.
September 14, 2025Sep 14 I wonder how many instances of fraud they would have had if they simply allowed it to be done online answering those same questions. And what would the loss from fraud be compared to the total cost of mailing and phone attestation. I guess someone in the SS hierarchy gets to check off an anti-fraud box on their ideological check sheet this way. I could be wrong of course, it could be some bureaucratic foolishness.
September 15, 2025Sep 15 On 9/14/2025 at 10:19 AM, ricklev said: I wonder how many instances of fraud they would have had if they simply allowed it to be done online answering those same questions. And what would the loss from fraud be compared to the total cost of mailing and phone attestation. I guess someone in the SS hierarchy gets to check off an anti-fraud box on their ideological check sheet this way. I could be wrong of course, it could be some bureaucratic foolishness. This long article makes it a little easier to understand why the paper form has not been replaced with an online form. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-doge-social-security-takeover-leland-dudek Here is the skinny: One of Coulter’s suggestions involved the SSA’s Office of Transformation, which had been doing the seemingly DOGE-like work of developing an online application to replace many of the agency’s paper-based forms and in-person interviews... But instead of facilitating this effort at greater efficiency, Coulter told Dudek to close the office, according to Dudek, claiming it was wasteful. Agency staff joked that DOGE shut it down because its name included a word that began with “trans.”
September 15, 2025Sep 15 3 hours ago, ricklev said: This long article makes it a little easier to understand why the paper form has not been replaced with an online form. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-doge-social-security-takeover-leland-dudek But instead of facilitating this effort at greater efficiency, Coulter told Dudek to close the office, according to Dudek, claiming it was wasteful. Agency staff joked that DOGE shut it down because its name included a word that began with “trans.” Yeah, don't expect much in the way of efficiency. The painfully obvious plan is to overturn the system, not make it work. Trump intends to fan the flames with exaggerated rhetoric and a torrent of outright lies with the eventual goal of driving the USA into rampant civil war and economic disaster, perhaps even leading to nuclear war. His followers are poorly educated, racist, mean spirited religious freaks with closet gays, swindlers and child molesters seeping from the woodwork Trump has been cramming with cash and pardons. The democrats weren't all that great, either. Now they're struggling to regain control of the ball but not likely to get it back in time. They don't call it Gen Z for nothing. We're the lucky ones because we'll likely be gone by the time everything goes entirely to hell.
September 15, 2025Sep 15 Hopefully the FREAK is gone soon. Will take years if ever to repair the damage done not only to America but to humanity itself.
September 16, 2025Sep 16 20 hours ago, ricklev said: This long article makes it a little easier to understand why the paper form has not been replaced with an online form. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-doge-social-security-takeover-leland-dudek Here is the skinny: One of Coulter’s suggestions involved the SSA’s Office of Transformation, which had been doing the seemingly DOGE-like work of developing an online application to replace many of the agency’s paper-based forms and in-person interviews... But instead of facilitating this effort at greater efficiency, Coulter told Dudek to close the office, according to Dudek, claiming it was wasteful. Agency staff joked that DOGE shut it down because its name included a word that began with “trans.” Something else to think about:
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