Claims for U.S. Totalization benefits will take significantly longer to process than regular claims. This is due to the need to obtain the number holder’s (NH’s) foreign coverage record from the agreement country. In addition, due to systems limitations, all Totalization awards are processed manually.

When the Office of International Operations (OIO) forwards a claim for foreign benefits to the other country, it notifies the applicant of the date of forwarding and the address to which OIO sent the claim. In addition, OIO will annotate the date of forwarding to the foreign country on the Modernized Development Worksheet (MDW) screen.

When OIO requests a foreign coverage record in connection with a claim for U.S. Totalization benefits, it does not send any specific notice to the applicant advising him or her that the record has been requested. However, if the applicant has filed for both U.S. Totalization benefits and foreign benefits, OIO requests the foreign coverage record at the same time it forwards the foreign claim to the other country.

Do not follow up on claims for U.S. Totalization benefits or foreign benefits unless at least 9 months have elapsed since the claim was sent to OIO.

If a claim for foreign benefits has already been forwarded to the foreign agency, the applicant must follow up directly with the foreign agency.

Send a status request to OIO to follow-up on a claim for U.S. Totalization benefits.

When following up on the status of a claim for benefits from an agreement country, first check the MDW screen to see if OIO has already forwarded the foreign claim to the other country. If the MDW screen is annotated to show the claim has already been forwarded to the other country, advise the applicant to write directly to the agency identified on the notice he or she received from OIO. If the MDW screen does not indicate the claim has been forwarded to the other country, send a status request to OIO at the address in GN 01702.310C.

Call OIO in sensitive cases at (410) 965-5491, or (410) 965-1910.