What happens to my Social Security benefits if I work less than 10 years in the U.S?

Question

I'm a U.S citizen and have been working in the United States for about 5 years now. I'm planning on moving to Switzerland soon for a regular job (not self-employed).

If I understand this properly, in the U.S you need a minimum of 40 credits (10 work years) in order to qualify for retirement benefits through Social Security. If I move to Switzerland now and stay there until retirement, will I lose all the money I paid into U.S Social Security for this 5 years because I didn't meet the minimum of 40 credits?

Answer 1

No. Switzerland is one of the few countries the United States has "totalizaton" agreements with (not to confuse with tax treaties) to work around this kind of thing. You can find the list of the agreements here.

You can use the years you work in Switzerland to make up for the remaining credits you need to qualify for benefits in the U.S.

When it's time to retire, you'll receive a partial U.S. benefit that is proportional to the number of credits you earned in the U.S.

You can learn more about all this here.

For other countries, for which the US doesn't have totalization agreements, in this scenario you would get no benefits back for the money. So yes, it would be lost.