Residence and presence in the U.S. and other countries are material in several areas.
Their effect and the definitions of residence and presence in the U.S. vary depending
on:
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the section of the Act involved, and
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whether the term is defined by the Social Security Administration (SSA) or the Internal
Revenue Code.
Public Law (P.L.) 104-193, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act of 1996 was signed into law on August 22, 1996 and became effective for title
II (T2) purposes on September 1, 1996. The law requires that, for T2 applications
with effective filing dates of September 1, 1996 or later, each T2 claimant in the U.S., must provide evidence that they are a U.S. Citizen or U.S.
national, or an alien lawfully present in the U.S. as determined by the Attorney General.
This law includes claimants applying for benefits from the U.S. under a totalization
agreement unless we already established U.S. citizenship or lawful alien status through
our records.