I am a natural born US citizen. My husband had green card status in the mid 80s. He worked & paid into social security until 2010 when he became 100% disabled after spine surgery. Early 1990s, he got in a domestic fight & convicted of a felony assault, served time & was deported. He later returned to the US & ended up in immigration court where was allowed by the judge to remain in the US, due to the fact that his father was US citizen by birth,, although we cannot produce enough proof of his father's work records here to satisfy the 10 year proof of work requirement on the father(1942-1952) that the court requires for green card status to be restored to my husband. His deportation case was closed & he was allowed to stay. His only document is the closed case confirmation with the case number He has a social security card & driver license. After all this prep info, finally my question... we married in 2010. I know he cannot draw his own social security. Will he be able to receive spouse benefits from me if I pass? Any chance I would draw his benifits he passed? Thanks for your time reading this!

Hi,

Your husband wouldn't be able to draw spousal or survivor benefits if his immigration status won't allow him to be paid Social Security benefits based on his own work record. However, the regulations regarding payment of benefits to non-U.S. citizens are so full of exceptions and technicalities that I would advise your husband to apply for benefits when and if he meets the other eligibility requirements even his immigration status might prevent benefits from being paid. You may want to try reading the following section of Social Security's operations manual to see how the regulations might affect the payment of benefits to your husband given his immigration status: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0302635001.

Since you are a U.S. citizen, if your husband dies before you you could potentially be paid survivor benefits based on his work record regardless of his immigration status provided that you meet the other requirements for entitlement (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.04/handbook-0401.html).

Best, Jerry