The U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires is sharing important information from the Federal Benefits Unit for beneficiaries of Social Security.
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 Argentina 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 receive the form in the mail with a return envelope to the SSA processing facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
SSA sent a follow-up notice in October 2022. Failure to return the completed questionnaire by December 2022 will result in a suspension of benefits effective with the payment date on 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 (PDF 76KB), use this form only if you are a Representative Payee) or SSA-7162 (PDF 60KB) and mail the original directly to one of the following addresses:
Social Security Administration
P.O. Box 7161
Wilkes Barre, PA 18767-7161
Or
US Embassy Buenos Aires (Attn: FBU)
Av. Colombia 4300
1425 – CABA
Argentina
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.Argentina@ssa.gov and write “Attn: FEQ” in the subject line.