birch2013

Thanks for all the good input everyone. I really do appreciate the information.
 
The sad thing is that the US government has weaponized US citizenship. They'll use it against you, though having it will benefit you too.
 
For us, the green card is the best fit. I'm an owner of multiple businesses, so my financial IQ is pretty high. It's mainly financial reasons that push me in this direction.

Actually @theresaL, this is a very complicated question. I read that PDF and it's pretty confusing to me. The actual parts of the Social Security handbook that cover this are numbers 1845 and 1846. They too were confusing but I finally understood them.
 
If you are married to a US spouse living in the US for 5 years, it is a true exception, even if you move out of the country for more than 6 months, and benefits can continue. However, that does not apply to citizens of countries specified in #1846. Rule after rule.
 
The easiest thing for anyone to do is use this tool, it's very helpful and walks you through the process:
 
https://www.ssa.gov/international/payments_outsideUS.html
 
 
 

Thanks for the reply, thanks to you and Jorgedig.
 

Thanks for the reply, thanks to you and Jorgedig.
 

Thank you all very much for the replies and all the information. Thank you for pointing me toward the exemptions and I just went through every single one of them.
Unfortunately, there's no exemptions that apply to us. We are part of the struggling middle class, if you know what I mean.
We could have afforded to get her health insurance, we just rationally examined the insurance offered and determined that it was a bad financial decision to purchase them.
And so far, we have been right about that. Even after we pay the fine, we will still have been right. That's how bad the insurance options were.
But thank you all very much for trying to help us.