| Date: | January 27, 2023 | Location: | San José, Costa Rica |
The U.S. Embassy in San Jose is sharing important information from the Federal Benefits Unit for beneficiaries of Social Security.
If you receive Social Security benefits and live in Costa Rica, you may need tocontact the Embassy's Federal Benefits Unit to continue receiving benefits.
In addition to relying on beneficiaries (a retired person or family member) to report events that may affect their benefits, the Social Security Administration (SSA) contacts beneficiaries residing in Costa Rica biennially (every two years) to verify their status if they have a foreign address on record.
It is important that you or your representative payee complete, sign, date, and return the questionnaire in the envelope provided with the questionnaire as soon as possible. If you do not, your payments will stop. If you fail to report or deliberately make a false statement, you could be penalized by a fine or imprisonment. You also may lose some of your payments if you do not report changes promptly.
In 2022, SSA mailed the questionnaire to beneficiaries receiving their own benefits whose social security number under which they receive benefits ends in 00-49, beneficiaries over the age of 90, those that were scheduled to receive a form but did not respond in 2019 and to beneficiaries who have representative payees (person receiving benefits on behalf of a minor or other person). Beneficiaries received the form in the mail with a return envelope to the SSA processing facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. If the first form was not received, a second form was mailed in late October 2022 and should have been returned by mail before December 2022. Individuals who did not return these forms could have their benefits suspended effective with the payment date of March 3, 2023. If your payments are suspended, they can only be reinstated once your form is received and processed.
We cannot accept forms submitted electronically.
You can download the forms here:
SSA-7161 (use this form only if you are a Representative Payee) or SSA-7162, and mail the original directly to one of the following addresses:
Social Security Administration
P.O. Box 7161
Wilkes Barre, PA 18767-7161
Social Security Administration
P.O. Box 7162
Wilkes Barre, PA 18767-7162
Or
US Embassy San Jose (Attn: FBU)
Apartado Postal 920
Pavas 1200 10109
San José, Costa Rica
If you would like to make an appointment to drop off the form in-person or would like to verify your form was received and processed, please email: FBU.CostaRica@ssa.gov and write: “Attn: FEQ” in the subject line.
Please read this message on the Embassy website or contact the Federal Benefits Unit directly at FBU.CostaRica@ssa.gov for more information.
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