American citizens who are eligible to collect retirement benefits and planning to live abroad as temporary or permanent expats can collect retirement benefits in accordance with Social Security Administration (SSA) laws.

* If you are an American citizen, you can collect benefits while overseas as long as you qualify (go to the SSA’s *Qualify and Apply* section).

* Whether you are permanently or temporarily abroad, it is recommended that you arrange direct deposit of benefits to a reliable overseas or U.S. financial institution and utilize any services offered online (change of address, forms, etc.).

* Questionnaires sent periodically to determine continued eligibility must be answered truthfully and returned immediately or payments will stop. Giving false information or failure to report any changes in your status will incur penalties and/or result in imprisonment under U.S. law.

* Foreign offices handling SS claims, questions and other inquiries are usually American Consulates (click *here* to find one).

Non-citizens who worked in the USA

If you are a non-citizen who worked in the USA, you may also qualify to collect benefits if you meet the same eligibility requirements for U.S. citizens. However, there may be additional requirements as determined on a case-by-case basis.

Countries in which payment of retirement benefits is allowed as long as eligibility is met:

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea (South), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Essentially, the SSA allows payments in countries where there is a significant number of American expats. If your country is not listed above, or below on the prohibited list, you must contact the SSA directly to determine other options available to you.

If you are in need of information on this subject, please contact our office Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties . toll free 1 888581 1786 or locally 2293 2446

Costa Rica is the number one offshore location for Americans retiring.  We at Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties have eyed this market for some time and need tobe ready for it despite the gloom and doom predicted because of the US markets and their fallout.  Note the following:

Boomers are 78 million strong and represent 24% of the U.S. population, they certainly don’t always think and act alike.  Some are very anxious to go offshore for a host of different reasons.
A Baby Boomers USA Report Uncovers $46 Billion Growth. At approximately 78 million people, Baby Boomers are one of the largest buying groups in America.

CANADIAN BOOMERS

The number of Canadians aged 55 to 64 — those most likely to be thinking about retirement — jumped by 28 per cent in the past five years to 3.7 million.

What do Baby Boomers seek mainly? Low maintenance, security location -

Baby Boomers the oldest of which are 58 years of age, yearn for the simplistic life when choosing a home for retirement.- low maintenance, security, and location are major factors driving activity. Sales in condominiums are on the upswing coast to coast in the USA.  Baby Boomers are going to blow the roof off retirement living.  Retirement Real Estate in warmer climates is high on the list also

Influences
 
The new retirement will encompass today’s active lifestyle communities, with all future movement driven by preference, not by life cycle events. Luxury condominiums-golf and adult lifestyle communities, secondary residences,and smaller homes in better areas are attracting this age group.

This demographic tidal wave is starting to have an impact on the cottage real estate market, but the real effect is yet to be felt.

In my opinion, Costa Rica Real Estate will share the influx of Baby Boomers through out the country with a larger percentage seeking the retirement areas with the best year round climates and good health care such as the central valley of Costa Rica.

Other centers such as Tamarindo and Liberia are now looking to have our major Hospitals server their areas. This can be most helpful for the Coastal real estate market.

We at Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties have been focusing most of our marketing efforts on the Baby Boomers. We see Costa Rica as a solution for many. Many Boomers will be buying properties today that complete timely with their retirement dates.

Hundreds of families in a Santa Ana condo project have had to deal with dry pipes, said a representative from the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados.    The project is Avalon Condominiums,

said Eduardo Solano, the representative of Acueductos y Alcantarillados who is working on the case. The project developers were only allowed water for construction and people were not even supposed to be living in the condominium project until it was completed, said Solano.Instead, families moved into the condominiums as each building was completed. The Avalon project is constructed of numerous buildings, some of which are now complete and have people living in them. There are about 350 condominiums in the two buildings which are part of Avalon Country Club, said a project administrator Thursday.  

Although Solano said he could not confirm the owners reasons for moving people into the condominiums early, he speculated it could have been to finance the project.

Frank Rodríguez, a sales representative at Avalon, said that the water was shut off for four days and that it was simply to amplify the current water pipe by 50 percent. There are no problems with the water company and currently the water situation is back to normal, said Rodríguez. As to why people were living in the project before it was complete, Rodríguez said that the project is basically complete except for a few minor details.

Solano said he did not know exactly who the owner of the
project is although he later said he was working with the owners to fix the water problem. The Avalon Plaza Web site lists Grupo Sur Inversiones as the project developer and Van Der Laat y Jiménez S.A. as the construction company.  

Residents who contacted A.M. Costa Rica about water problems in the condominium wished to go unnamed. One person said someone had actually fallen ill from drinking the water.  Rodríguez said the water was not supposed to be drunk while workers were enlarging the pipes but now everything is back to normal.

Solano explained that the company was permitted to use a 19 mm or three-quarter-inch pipe to pump in water for construction but that someone had manipulated the tubes to interconnect with a large pipe that belongs to Acueductos y Alcantarillados.

Last week the water company came in with police officers and shut off the water altogether, said Solano. The owners of Avalon Condominiums had to pay for the extra water and pay for the installation of the three-quarter-inch pipe. Now once again people have water, said Solano but although the pipe is small for such a large amount of people, said Solano. “I imagine that it won’t be a sufficient amount,” said the water representative.

Nagel Yakomoto, the functioning project administrator, said Thursday that the condominiums do have drinkable water and that the problem is with the water company not the project developers.

Years ago when the project initiated, developers asked the water company for a large pipeline, said Ms. Yakomoto. That pipe was never provided, she said, and people wanted to move in right away.