My wife has duel citizen ship with the US And CANADA
She is 66 and retired and drawing SS
Can she draw from CANADA for the 20+ years she worked there
As well
Thank You
Sam

Hi Sam,

Yes, your wife could potentially collect both U.S. Social Security benefits and a Canadian pension, but once she starts receiving her Canadian pension her U.S. Social Security retirement benefit rate would likely need to be reduced due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). WEP can cause a person's Social Security retirement benefit rate to be computed using a less generous calculation formula if they also receive a pension based on their work and earnings that were exempt from U.S. Social Security taxes. For more information on the WEP provision and it's exceptions, refer to the following Social Security publication (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).

There is a WEP guarantee provision that would limit the amount of any reduction to your wife's U.S. Social Security benefit rate to no more than 50% of the amount of her Canadian pension, so she would still almost certainly be better off collecting any Canadian benefits she may be due.

You and your wife may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits. The software is programmed to handle WEP computations, so your wife could use the software to gauge the effect that drawing a pension from Canada might have on her U.S. benefit amount.

Best, Jerry