Canada Pension / US Social Security

I am Canadian Born - worked in Canada for thirteen years after college, and in 1986 moved to the US. I am eligible for US Social Security on retirement, but I have heard that you must have contributed to Canada Pension for 20 years to be eligible for payments outside the country.

Does anyone know if this is true or how I can determine what Canada monies I am eligible for?

Thank you,

b1moss@aol.com

Not quite accurate.

You are eligible for CPP as long as you paid into CPP for even one year, so you will get that.

What you will need to establish for Cnada is eligiblity for some Old age secutiry (OAS) which you will get (as you approach 65) by contacting Services Canada and providing your SS history.

You must have 20 years in canada after 18 to collect OAS outside Canada. But you can use years of paying SS to make up the 20 years. It does not increase your OAS (you will only get a prorated amount basedon actual time in canada).

Example: you leave Canada when you are 32 years old. It doesn't matter if you worked or not, just breathing. That gives you 14 years of adult life in Canada. You are thus eligible for 14/40th of full OAS.

But to collect any OAS while living outside canada, you need to establish 20 years eligibility.You do this by proving to canada that you were paying into the US SS system for at least 6 years (24 quarters).

If in the above example, you left canada at 38 years of age, you would need to prove nothing. At 65 you wouldcontact OAS and ask them to send you 20/40th of full OAS every month.