US Social Security Administration Lists 31 Countries Covered by Bilateral Agreements

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  • The US Social Security Administration published a full list of 31 countries whose citizens benefit from Totalisation Agreements with the US
  • The agreements protect workers from paying into two social security systems at once and allow them to combine work credits from both countries
  • No African country features on the list, leaving workers from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa outside these bilateral protections

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The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) has released a comprehensive list of 31 countries whose citizens are covered under bilateral social security arrangements with America, drawing renewed attention to who qualifies for these cross-border worker protections.

The US lists the countries that are covered by social security agreements. Photo source: @donaldjtrump
Source: UGC

The agreements, officially called Totalisation Agreements, serve two core purposes: they prevent workers from being taxed into two separate social security systems at the same time, and they allow individuals to combine their work credits earned in both countries to qualify for benefits they might not otherwise access on their own.

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Full List of Countries With US Social Security Agreements

The SSA's official international agreements overview reveals that these partnerships span several decades of diplomatic and economic cooperation. The 31 countries currently covered are

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Here is the alphabetically ordered list of the countries:

  1. Australia
  2. Austria
  3. Belgium
  4. Brazil
  5. Canada
  6. Chile
  7. the Czech Republic
  8. Denmark
  9. Finland
  10. France
  11. Germany
  12. Greece
  13. Hungary
  14. Iceland
  15. Ireland
  16. Italy
  17. Japan
  18. Luxembourg
  19. the Netherlands
  20. Norway
  21. Poland
  22. Portugal
  23. Romania
  24. the Slovak Republic
  25. Slovenia
  26. South Korea
  27. Spain
  28. Sweden
  29. Switzerland
  30. the United Kingdom
  31. Uruguay

Romania is the newest country to join the arrangement, with its agreement coming into force on 1 September 2026, bringing the total number of participating nations to 31.

African countries absent from the list

One detail that stands out in the SSA's published list is the complete absence of African nations.

Countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa do not appear anywhere on the roster, which means workers from these nations who move to the United States, or American workers based in those countries, do not benefit from these bilateral social security protections.

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For Ghanaians and other Africans working in the US, this means they may be required to contribute to social security systems in both countries without the mechanisms that Totalisation Agreements provide to avoid such overlap or combine work histories when claiming benefits.

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Source: YEN.com.gh