This is a F.Y.I. advisory for those who qualify for U.S. Social Security Administration Retirement Benefits and wish to make application by telephone. I emailed the SSA (Manila, Philippines) and asked for an online application source to download the necessary forms to apply for retirement benefits and received a return email saying that "SSA Manila was now taking applications for SS retirement benefits via telephone"..they require you submit in an email message to them, your FULL name, Date of Birth, Address and Telephone Number (and if you want direct deposit to your U.S. Bank Account...you can supply (later) your routing and bank account number when making application). They will then phone you to take your application over the phone.

Since I am a few months away from making application I will not be doing this just yet...however, I would be interested in ThaiVisa members experience with the new system should you try it. The "direct" email link for SSA Manila can be found and executed on the U.S. Embassy Bangkok website under the citizens services category....accessing SSA Manila via the embassy website will assure that you have a secure, legitimate link.

Good deal if it works properly. I wish they had that when I applied 3 years ago. It took several phone calls to get my worker to acknowledge they received my application and forms.

Good luck

I applied for my wife and helped two Thais who qualified to apply, all through the Manila office. Between phone calls and emails, they will tell you what to submit and where to find the required SSA forms on line (I have found everything on line even though I had heck of a time finding one form, good thing I knew its exact number).

The advantage to this is that it saves a lot of time and money when you send in an application and leave out some required document. Pre-coordinate your application and make a one time submittal.

I sent all paperwork via DHL/FedEx to get it delivered quickly and to have a complete transit trail and receipt signature.

By the way, I learned the hard way that all correspondence sent to the U.S. from Thailand is sent back to Manila for "pre-processing" (my term), so I now start with them.

OBTW: Twice they called (once to my wife and once to one of the Thais) and asked for the same information that was on a form they probably had in front of them. I interpreted that as a quick and easy check that this is a valid application and that the person attempting to collect benefits was actually the person with that SSN.

I am quite pleased with their support.

Edited September 30, 200916 yr by noise

Manila knows much more than Baltimore.