https://mailchi.mp/3e4409c29a17/target-bulletin-september-2024?e=6b513bca79

https://mailchi.mp/ea553f4c51e9/global-issues-digest-september-2024?e=6b513bca79

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 Mary Stewart Burgher  Voting From Overseas  29 July 2024

Our Election Day is in September – get ready!

On July 28, many politicians and pundits trumpeted that the US 2024 election “is just 100 days away!”  And that was true for domestic voters. For those of us who live overseas, however, Election Week starts on September 21, when the states begin sending out ballots, and “ends” on September 28, by which time FAWCO’s partner the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) recommends that we return our completed ballots. While voters can certainly return ballots later than that, every day that passes reduces the chance that your vote will arrive in time to be counted by your local election official.

Take action now to ensure that you – and other overseas Americans you know – will cast valid votes in the most important election of our lifetimes. The stakes – the future of US democracy – have never been higher. Send suggestions and questions to the US Voting Committee at voting@fawco.org. 

What you can do

1. Register to vote/request a ballot now, if you have not already done so. (FVAP recommends that we register by August 1, for example.) Right away, go to your computer and fill out the form available on two safe, secure and nonpartisan websites – FVAP and the US Vote Foundation. Click here for details and specific advice on registration/ballot requests.
2. Once you are registered, make a plan to ensure that you cast a valid vote. This includes knowing how to use a write-in ballot if your regular ballot fails to arrive, or arrive in time. Click here for details and advice.
3. Spread the word about the need and methods to vote to other Americans in your community in every way you can, in every group you belong to: your club, your workplace, your house of worship, your sports or other activity groups. Include election info in your email signature, in your social media and on your club website. Please also attend and promote the US Voting Town Hall that FAWCO will hold on Zoom on September 4 at 19:00 CET. Click here for details and here to register in advance.  
4. Advocate for US democracy. Many Americans, no matter where they live, are worried about the ongoing threats to US democracy, which the US Voting Committee has discussed in every article it has published in the last few years.

As action is the antidote to anxiety, the Committee urges you to take the action that suits you best. This can include supporting pro-democracy candidates for office with your time, money and voice, and raising awareness of the current threats. In a recent article, the Committee Chair discusses ways to talk about the threats to US democracy.

High stakes, and rising

Unfortunately, the stakes keep rising. In addition to the violent rhetoric detailed in recent articles, shots were fired at a candidate for office (which, thankfully, he survived, although a member of the public was killed and two others badly wounded), and more than one office holder and activist have predicted civil bloodshed or war if the election does not yield the results they prefer. Recently, a candidate promised a group of voters that, if they voted for him in 2024, “in four years, you don t have to vote again.” Asked to clarify that remark, he repeated it.  

US democracy needs every American to defend it. To quote Heather Cox Richardson,

Every time we expand democracy, it seems we get complacent, thinking it’s a done deal. We forget that democracy is a process and that it’s never finished.

The Good Fight is never finished; be sure you play your part by voting, helping others to vote and supporting US democracy in 2024, and as long as it takes. The outcome is up to “we the people.” But it always has been.  

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US Tax & Banking Articles

Social Security for non-US Citizens Spouses

by Alisa Cook-Roehs, AIWC Düsseldorf

 

Although Social Security doesn’t fall directly under Tax and Banking, as part of the US Issues Team, we do collect articles of interest and pass them on to the FAWCO membership. The following are two such synopses written by members relaying their experiences in filing for individual social security benefits and benefits for a non-US citizen spouse. The Social Security Administration has an entire publication dedicated to Your Payments While You Are Outside of the United States to guide you through eligibility for benefits.

From Düsseldorf, a US citizen married to a non-US citizen applying for individual and spousal benefits:
I made the decision to apply for social security at the age of 63, due to the opportunity for my 72-year-old German husband to draw the spousal benefit. I chose not to have the German social security office file for me, as I did not want to start drawing any potential German social security early, and therefore I declined their offer to do all the paperwork with the US on my behalf.
 
In January of 2022, I filled out the online application and chose to start my benefits in May of 2023. When signing up online, the website said the normal wait time was 4–6 weeks. I later learned that this would not be the case. After attempting to contact the Social Security Administration, both in the US and Germany, I resolved to just sit back and wait. In September, I finally received a call back and I answered the few simple questions the agent posed. In closing the call, she advised that she could file the social security claim for my German husband, and she asked for his phone number. I had thought that I would do this after I had my filing complete, but the reality was that he received a phone call immediately and within a week we received all the required papers for my husband in the mail. He filled them out promptly and sent them back. We then received a call requesting that my husband go to Frankfurt with some supporting documentation. I chose to go with him, and the entire appointment took about 10 minutes. Within the next two weeks, I had not only received my social security benefit, including the retroactive payment, but my husband had also received his. Two weeks later he received his Medicare card.
 
I plan on filing for my German social security at my full German retirement age, but do understand that there may be a reduction in my US social security based on the windfall provision that is set up to keep individuals from receiving too much from both countries. It is important to note that the two countries will be in contact with each other to ensure that this is not the case. If one does not intend to draw social security until full retirement age, one can indeed have the German social security office coordinate all the filings with the US instead of going through the US social security administration as I did.

From Berlin, a non-US citizen married to a US citizen applying for spousal benefits:
It is a little-known fact that foreign spouses of US expats who receive social security payments after retirement are also entitled to their own social security benefits, which are estimated to be about 50% of those their US spouse receives.

In May 2021, I had to fill out an online form with the Social Security Administration. A requirement is that the US spouse is receiving his/her payments and the foreign spouse has reached the appropriate age (63+).
Somebody from Social Security got in touch with me and interviewed me on the phone to check the correctness of the information I had given on the form. All this used to be done automatically, but has changed during the last 10 years or so.
It is important that I, as the foreign spouse, have a Social Security number. This could be obtained at any time during our marriage. However, it cannot be done online. I had to appear at the Social Security office of my host country or in the US in person. In Germany, I made an appointment with the office in Frankfurt and provided proof of my marriage. I brought our marriage certificate. I completed another form while in the ofice, which takes about 10 minutes. All of the documents were forwarded to Washington, DC. I had to wait a few weeks before I was issued my Social Security number.
Once all the requirements are finally fulfilled, I began to receive my monthly payments to the bank of my choice, which is in my host country. The process can take up to nine months, but the money will be paid retroactively from the date of the submission of the forms.

 08 August 2024

https://mailchi.mp/2bc3a92589a9/fawco-inspiring-women-highlights-issue-march-2024?e=5f7c63f712

https://mailchi.mp/bb0ee732581a/news-in-brief-january-2024?e=6b513bca79

https://mailchi.mp/4a0195b4d93c/connections-letter-from-headquarters-december-2023?e=5f7c63f712

https://mailchi.mp/ca338c8f3870/us-liaison-bulletin-december-2023?e=5f7c63f712

Continuing struggle to preserve US democracy – what you can do in 2023

FAWCO’s US Voting Committee has pointed out that, although democracy triumphed in the 2022 US elections in general, the struggle to preserve it continues. For the foreseeable future, then, every election will be “the most important of our lifetimes”. Click here (https://www.fawco.org/us-issues/u-s-voting/u-s-voting-articles/4797-us-democracy-won-the-mid-term-elections-the-fight-to-preserve-it-continues) to find out more.

While 2023 is an off year in terms of federal elections, there will be both some special federal elections and regularly scheduled state and local elections (https://www.fawco.org/us-issues/u-s-voting/u-s-voting-articles/4854-what-overseas-voters-can-do-in-2023) in, for example, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Overseas voters who intend to return to the USA at some point can take part in the latter. (Do remember that checking the “intend to return” box when registering makes an overseas voter liable for state and local taxes – if any.) If you intend to return, register and request a ballot as soon as possible in order to meet state requirements for voting in 2023. If you check the box that says “return is uncertain,” register anyway, in case of a special election, and to ensure you stay registered with local officials.

Register to vote through the US Vote Foundation (https://www.usvotefoundation.org) or the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP – www.fvap.gov). To find out what elections are scheduled for 2023, see Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_United_States_elections)  or go to the US Vote Foundation (https://www.usvotefoundation.org), scroll down the homepage to “When’s My Next Election,” select your state and start clicking.