Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)According to the 2009 American Community Survey, over 1.1 million immigrants from the fifteen states of the former Soviet Union currently live in the United States. (2)Many such immigrants worked for decades for state-run industries in their countries of origin. (3)As a result of such years of hard work, such immigrants earned government pensions in their countries of origin. (4)According to the 2009 American Community Survey, 37 percent of such immigrants are out of the labor force, 18 percent are aged 65 and over, and 17 percent live below the poverty line. (5)Many such immigrants are elderly, retired, and poor, living on fixed incomes. (6)Many such immigrants are Jews who fled due to religious persecution. (7)Many of such immigrants who are Jews were forced to give up their citizenship before being allowed to leave their country of origin. (8)The United States has negotiated agreements with 24 countries, often called totalization agreements, to coordinate comprehensively public pension coverage and benefits across countries. (9)The 24 countries with which the United States has totalization agreements are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. (10)The United States does not pay Social Security benefits to noncitizens residing outside the United States for more than six consecutive months (alien nonpayment provision) unless certain exceptions are met. (11)One exception to the alien nonpayment provision, under section 202(t) of the Social Security Act, is if the alien is a citizen of a country that has a social insurance or pension system which meets certain criteria, including having a system under which benefits are paid to eligible United States citizens who reside outside that country. (12)The United States has arrangements with 71 countries under section 202(t) of the Social Security Act, in which the United States pays a foreign country’s citizens who earned Social Security while working in the United States but have since moved abroad because that foreign country pays United States citizens who earned pensions in that foreign country but have since moved abroad. (13)According to the Social Security Administration, these 71 countries are Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Gabon, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Jamaica, Jordan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Trinidad-Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela. (14)Not all persons from the states of the former Soviet Union who now live in the United States are paid pensions that they worked for and earned while working in such states. (15)The Secretary of State and the Commissioner of Social Security have worked with the governments of the states of the former Soviet Union to encourage such states to adopt policies that would allow receipt of pensions for all individuals who worked in any such state and earned a pension and currently reside in the United States. (16)In June 2009, the House of Representatives by voice vote adopted House Amendment 185 to H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011, which stated it is the sense of Congress that the United States should continue working with the states of the former Soviet Union to come to an agreement whereby each state of the former Soviet Union would pay the tens of thousands of beneficiaries who have immigrated to the United States the pensions for which they are eligible and entitled.. (17)In October 2009, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that its law barring pension payments to those who lived in Ukraine or lived in countries with which Ukraine had a pension treaty was unconstitutional. (18)To allow Ukrainians in the United States to receive the pensions they earned pursuant to the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, its decision has to be implemented through legislation.