If you’re retired and applying for a visa in a Latin American country (Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay etc.) or just planning to move there, in addition to your FBI Background check certificate and Police Clearance from the state you live in, you’ll be asked to submit the Social Security Administration Letter Apostille (official name of the document “Social Security Administration Benefit and Income Statement“) obtained from the Federal Department of State. You can’t start the process until you have that letter, properly legalized and translated into Spanish language. If the country you fig your paper work is a party to the Hague Convention, the SSA letter shall be apostilled. If the country is not a member to the said convention, the document shall be legalized in the embassy or consulate.
What is Social Security Administration Letter
The Social Security Benefits and Income Statement is a U.S. Federal Government document and cannot be notarized or processed through any State. It must be authenticated by the Secretary of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. or by the U.S. Department of State.
To help you with Social Security Benefit Letter Apostille, we need to examine if the document is eligible for an Apostille. First of all, the Social Security Administration Letter must be the most recent one. Secondly, it must be issued by the SSA and bear official stamp and signature of the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
This is a little confusing. However, go to the SSA Office and tell about the letter with the signature on it. If you’ll be denied (simply because the requests such as this is not something they are dealing with often), be persistent. They’ll stamp you’re your document with the stamp that the office 
manager puts on the bottom of your letter with her name.
How to obtain a Social Security Benefits and Income Statement
Contact the local Social Security Administration office and mention that you need the Social Security Administration Benefit Letter. Bring to their attention that you need it for use overseas. Indicate that you need the letter signed by Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. In fact, the letter will or be signed – it will bear a facsimile of the signature of the Acting Commissioner which is sufficient for processing. Please note, that if your letter is NOT signed by the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, it CANNOT be apostilled.
Social Security Administration Statement Apostille
Once you have obtained the letter from the Social Security Administration, it is ready for further processing. Mail the document or bring it to our office to handle the task.
Once we have your document apostilled, we translate it into a foreign language and legalize the translation in the NYS Department of State.
Contact us if you have questions. This is what we are here for – to take you through every single step, provide with recommendations and valuable advice.