Israeli Old-Age Pension While Living in the USA

Usually, yes. According to Bituach Leumi (Israel's National Insurance Institute), if you started receiving the old-age pension (kitzbat ezrach vatik) in Israel and then moved to the USA, you can keep receiving it, even after you stop being an Israeli resident, as long as you were an Israeli resident before the move. The rules for the USA are specific, though: they rest on a treaty that is not a social security agreement, some groups get the pension there only for a limited time, and you must send a life certificate every year.

Is there a social security agreement with the USA?

No. Israel has social security agreements with a number of countries, but the USA is not one of them. According to Bituach Leumi, continued payment of the old-age pension in the USA is based on the Israel–US Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation, which is not a social security agreement.

Who may keep receiving the pension in the USA

Bituach Leumi describes the general principles like this:

if you started receiving the old-age pension in Israel and then moved to the USA, you can usually keep receiving it, even after you stop being an Israeli resident;
the pension is paid only to people who were Israeli residents before moving to the USA. Residency is broadly about where your centre of life was — home, family, work — and Bituach Leumi decides it case by case;
a woman who received the pension as a housewife gets it in the USA for three months only, and it resumes when she returns to Israel. A woman who received it because she was exempt from the qualifying period may continue to receive it in the USA.

Eligibility for the pension itself depends on your insurance periods, residency and age. If you left Israel before retirement age, or your case is unusual, ask Bituach Leumi to check it — do not rely on general articles, including this one.

How to get the pension paid in the USA

Tell Bituach Leumi that you are moving abroad, and ask your branch which declaration it needs from you.
Send a written request to the Old Age department of your branch asking for payment in the USA. Include your personal details, your address in clear Latin letters and your bank details. The account can be abroad, including in the USA.
You can send the request through the Bituach Leumi website or by fax instead of by post. See the official page Receiving an old age pension in the United States.

The yearly life certificate

Once a year, pensioners in the USA must send a life certificate. It has to be signed by a consulate, a recognised notary, a local authority or a social security institution in the USA. It is sent by post, so put a yearly reminder in your calendar.

If you later move from the USA to a country that has no social security agreement with Israel, Bituach Leumi re-examines your entitlement (Bituach Leumi). If you plan a move elsewhere, ask Bituach Leumi first.

What you can do without the website

From public sources — Bituach Leumi line for callers abroad, Bituach Leumi call centres, Bituach Leumi foreign relations unit, Bituach Leumi public complaints division, in Hebrew:

Line for callers abroad: +972-8-9369669, Sunday to Thursday 8:00–15:00, in Hebrew, English and Russian. For personal matters you need your teudat zehut number and your four-digit secret code, which you can issue on the website; without it you'll be asked a few questions to confirm it's you.
Information and support centre for senior citizens and their families: *9696 or 02-6463400. *9696 is an Israeli number; 02-6463400 is a regular number, dialled from abroad as +972-2-6463400. Answers are available in Russian and English too.
National call centre: *6050 or 04-8812345 (+972-4-8812345 from abroad), Sunday to Thursday 8:00–17:00.
Complaints (אגף פניות הציבור): online form; post: האגף לפניות הציבור, רחוב יפו 217 ירושלים 9199908; fax 02-6525038; phone 02-6709070 (+972-2-6709070 from abroad), Sunday to Thursday 13:00–15:00, only about complaints already filed.

Bituach Leumi's foreign relations unit (תחום קשרי חוץ) handles the countries Israel has a social security agreement with; the USA isn't one of them, so for a pension in the USA you write to the Old Age Department of your branch, as described above. These pages give no email address.

Managing it online

Payment details, letters and certificates are in your Bituach Leumi personal area, and through the website you can also send documents and update the bank account the pension is paid into. In our check on 23 October 2026 the Bituach Leumi site and personal area opened from abroad. It has not always been so: on 8 December 2021, after a cyberattack, Bituach Leumi took its site offline for a while and then kept it closed only to visitors from abroad (Kipa). The usual catch is the login: a one-time code goes by SMS or voice call to the Israeli mobile number registered with Bituach Leumi (the form accepts only 05x numbers) or by email, and the other ways in are a permanent user code and password or the government's national identification system, which accepts a foreign mobile number. If you no longer keep your Israeli SIM, set up the email or the password while you still can. For information or certificates by phone, Bituach Leumi runs a line for callers abroad, +972-8-9369669, Sunday to Thursday 8:00–15:00 Israel time (Bituach Leumi). Access and certificates are covered in Bituach Leumi from abroad and Getting a Bituach Leumi certificate from abroad.

Private pension savings are a separate system from the state old-age pension. The pension clearing house (HaMislaka), which shows them in one place, did not open from abroad in the same check. It is calmer to set up an Israeli IP for sites like this in advance than on the day a form or a payment can't wait; then you just press "Connect". See Your Israeli pension fund from abroad.