Does anyone know, if its possible at all to transfer the social security from the US to the Switzerland, if you are a NON-EU. I worked in the US for almost 5 years and theres a tonne load of cash in their social security ... I tried to look up their site, www.socialsecurity.gov but no luck yet.

My guess is the answer is no... But if theres a slightest chance I can lay hand on that money, please do let me know.

Social Security never does a lump sum. You can't get any of that money until you hit the age at which you can collect payments from Social Security. Then you can probably get a regular check. I remember seeing something mentioning that Switzerland and the USA have some agreement on Social Security counting for AHV at some point. The documentation is likely on the website for the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C. or the US Embassy in Bern.

Basically, you would need to have earned at least 40 credits (usually 10 years working in/making payments to the US) in order to be covered under US social security. There are provisions that allow adding foreign credits to US credits for people who have earned more than 6 but fewer than the 40 US credits and who because of working in multiple countries do not qualify under any one country's retirement system, but the formula gets complicated, and is subject to the various bilateral tax treaties.

As Gregv says, US social security is a tax, it's not payed into an account belonging to you - your payments go into the pot, to be split out among those drawing SS. The money paid in isn't yours per se.

For more information, see:

http://www.aca.ch/cadlinkj.htm

and also:

http://www.overseasdigest.com/odsamples/social22.html

Hopefully, there is something applicable to your individual situation there. Also bear in mind that the US has a Windfall Elimination Program - if you qualify for retirement benefits in both the US and a second country your US benefits may be reduced.

Your best bet would be to speak with the US Social Security Agency directly. I would suggest writing rather than calling the hotline, as your situation is somewhat out of the norm. The contact details are given in the first link.
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Of course, all this supposes that US SS will still be around by the time you retire.... I'm hedging my bets - planning for my own retirement, and if by chance there is anything left in the US Social Security kitty by the time I retire that will be a nice extra. But I'm not counting on it.

Thinking of reviving this thread a little, maybe hang on an extra question rather than start a whole new thread, since there were not many posts on this one and my question is roughly the same, just a different number of years involved and an extra "what if"

I've paid into SS, for 30 years, Would they still pay out the meager amount I've managed to "earn" by paying in over these years, if I were to give up my citizenship?

I'm pretty tired of paying when I see corporations like Apple underpaying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=nQmkKAcg62A

Since I'm going to stay here in Switzerland till I die, I'd like not to pay the firm in Zurich to fill out US tax forms anymore.
So the Question is, do ex-citizens get to collect on Social Security if they've earned it?
thanks

http://americansabroad.org/issues/so...s-citizenship/