My parents are retired, both will be 69yrs old this August. They plan to move back to Japan with documents that support their entitlement to permanent Japanese residency. Since they’re collecting social security and my father’s pension from his job, does anyone know if their Medicare parts A and B will still be active? Part B is what they both have to pay every month from their SSI, but will their Medicare be completely inactive for when they move out to Japan?
by Opening-Sentence-772
5 comments
receiving social security in Japan is generally possible.
https://www.usa.gov/social-security-abroad
They need to be planning. Will they return to the US conceivably?
https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/medicare-health-coverage-options/medicare-and-living-abroad/medicare-coverage-when-living-abroad
There maybe some banking difficulties for receiving a pension abroad as well. May need a US address or perhaps a bank account. Depends on the pension.
Also not sure about tax implications, depends on the amount and source. Things that are not taxable in the US are sometimes taxable in Japan. Or low tax in the US like long term capital gains can be earned income tax rate in Japan.
I would be more worried about their Japanese language skills. Can they communicate?
Do they both have valid and current (not expired) residence cards? Do they have a reentry permit in their passports? Have they been paying tax and pension?
If they have been out of Japan for long enough that their residence cards expires, they may not be granted residence again. One of the requirements of PR is that you maintain a current residence card.
The reentry permit is stapled into the passport. Without it, you may not be allowed to return to Japan as a resident.
Recently, the Japanese government passed a law that allows them to revoke PR due to unpaid taxes.
Edit:
I see that you posted they were born and raised in Japan. If they have Japanese citizenship, none of the above applies.
You can easily receive SS payments in japan (I do). SS is _very_ used to sending the payments around the world, pretty much anywhere except iran, dprk, and so on.
Once set up, the deposit comes direct into a local bank account here. The Federal Reserve uses Citi for the transfer (and the f/x rate is superb–my payment should have been here yesterday or this morning, and I fully expect to get well over 161).
There is no charge or fee for the SS transfer here. No wire fee is deducted to initiate, there is no intermediary fee (no intermediary even indicated), and no inbound fee charged by my bank here (a local/regional bank, not even sony/shinsei). It is completely transparent, fee-wise.
There is no US address needed, no other US contact info either, nor any US bank account. The embassy in tokyo has an SS liaison that sorted everything out.
Of course SS is reportable when doing tax filing here, but that’s a topic for another time.
Medicare: If they’re moving here permanently, with no intention to go back to the US, I’d say they should drop medicare. Once they’re here and set up and registered, using the japanese system would be far, far preferable. (My opinion only, I’m not an expert, only someone who knows how my contact with the system here has been. And I know a retiree couple who moved here after he retired in the US, wife was japanese, and their family back in the US couldn’t believe how little it cost.)
Good luck!
Um, they’re gonna give up their US citizenship to get the Japanese one or what? Since they lived in the US for 40 years I’m assuming they’re citizens which means they’re not Japanese citizens anymore, so how do they plan to come back?