去官网注册就能查。以前就有贴子讨论这个，我专门去官网认真的看了一下，发现大家对传说中的必须绿卡或者公民才能领SSN特别模糊，不清楚的建议大家一定去官网查，其他的小道消息一概不要信。

If you are a citizen of one of thecountries listed in the chart below, wewill continue to pay your benefits outsidethe United States if:a) You are receiving benefits based onyour own earnings, and you earned atleast 40 credits under the U.S. SocialSecurity system or lived at least 10years in the United States; orb) You are receiving benefits asdependent or survivor of a workerwho earned at least 40 creditsunder the U.S. Social Securitysystem or lived in the United Statesfor at least 10 years. You mustalso meet the conditions underthe heading “Additional residencyrequirements for dependents andsurvivors” in this publication.• Afghanistan• Bangladesh• Bhutan• Botswana• Burma• Burundi• Cameroon• Cape Verde• CentralAfricanRepublic• Chad• China• Congo, Rep.of• Ethiopia• Fiji• Gambia• Ghana• Haiti• Honduras• India• Indonesia• Kenya• Laos• Lebanon• Lesotho• Liberia• Madagascar• Malawi• Malaysia• Mali• Mauritania• Mauritius8• Morocco• Nepal• Nigeria• Pakistan• Senegal• Sierra Leone• Singapore• SolomonIslands• Somalia• South Africa• Sri Lanka• Sudan• Swaziland• Taiwan• Tanzania• Thailand• Togo• Tonga• Tunisia• Uganda• Yemen(This list of countries is subject tochange. For the latest information,visit [url=www.socialsecurity.gov/international/countrylist4.htm]www.socialsecurity.gov/international/countrylist4.htm[/url] orcontact your nearest U.S. Social Securityoffice, U.S. Embassy, or U.S. consulate.)
这不写的清清楚楚中国公民只要干满40个点就可以领吗？你们都在看啥？

有啥悲催的？请问你真的认真看条款了还是人云亦云？写的清清楚楚只要是自己的earning满40个点中国公民就可以领，真是不明白你悲在哪里。当然如果你把自己国籍从中国变朝鲜或者古巴那就真的悲催了。

If you are a U.S. citizen, you maycontinue to receive payments outside theUnited States as long as you are eligiblefor payment and you are in a countrywhere we can send payments. If you 3aren’t a U.S. citizen, you must meet oneof the conditions for payment describedin this publication.When we say you are “outside theUnited States,” we mean you aren’tin one of the 50 states, the District ofColumbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. VirginIslands, Guam, the Northern MarianaIslands, or American Samoa for at least30 days in a row. We consider you tobe “outside the United States” until youreturn and stay in the United States forat least 30 days in a row. If you aren’t aU.S. citizen, you also may have to proveyou were lawfully present in the UnitedStates for that 30-day period. For moreinformation, contact the nearest U.S.Social Security office, U.S. Embassy, orU.S. consulate.If you aren’t a U.S. citizen or you do notmeet one of the conditions for continuedpayments, we will stop your paymentsafter you have been outside the UnitedStates for six full calendar months.Once this happens, we cannot startyour payments again until you comeback and stay in the United States for afull calendar month. MM你真的不读后面的内容吗？这里讲的是如果你不meet one of the conditions，那么就stop payments，可是后面不是贴了这个那个的conditions吗？中国不是在conditions的4里面吗？你做题目都是只读前面不管后面吗？

你mark的红字部分是给你解释什么叫outside the united states，不是conditions，conditions在后面。

What’s insideIntroduction 1Countries to which wecan’t send payments 1What happens to yourright to Social Securitypayments when you areoutside the United States 2Conditions for payments tocontinue to non-U.S. citizenswhile outside the United States 4
这有什么难理解的？你看目录那一页，大标题是很清楚了啊。没人说中国公民在美国境外不是outside the united states啊，判断出来了outside the united states只要meet其中一个condition就可以了啊，中国公民就是condition 4，这个很难理解吗？我怎么觉得很好理解啊，比GRE GMAT容易多了。

你认为你的对就你的对吧。只是希望版上其他朋友别被误导以为回国了就领不到。至少目前的政策是可以，将来会不会有变化nobody knows