In 2016, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas estimated that 8.7 million U.S. citizens were living abroad, and the Social Security Administration reported that over half a million people who live outside the United States receive some kind of Social Security benefit, including Social Security Disability benefits.
Although disability insurance companies do not typically publish statistics regarding the number of policyholders or claimants that live abroad, it is safe to assume that at least a small percentage of U.S. citizens living outside the United States will also be eligible to receive long term disability insurance benefits. If your long term disability claim has been wrongfully denied or terminated and you are living abroad, international long term disability attorney Nick A. Ortiz will fight for the benefits you deserve.
Can I Collect Long Term Disability Benefits While Living Outside the United States?
As with most questions relating to long term disability insurance benefits, the answer is determined by the terms of your insurance policy. If your policy includes a foreign residency limitation, you may not be eligible to receive benefits if you reside outside of the United States for a certain time (typically 6 months or more), or your payments will be limited to a specific period so long as you continue to reside out of the country.
Foreign residency limitations are common in group and individual disability insurance policies, so be sure to obtain and carefully review your long term disability insurance policy. You can request a copy of your policy by contacting your employer’s human resources department or the insurance company directly.
Ortiz Law Firm Represents Long Term Disability Claimants Anywhere In The World
Other law firms may claim to represent long term disability claimants anywhere in the world, but how much experience do they have working with an international client? The experienced legal team at Ortiz Law Firm has represented long term disability claimants in several countries outside the United States, including those living in Morocco, Norway, and the Philippines.
Under ERISA, you do not have the right to a jury trial, and – in most cases – you do not have the right to engage in extensive discovery. That means that at the end of the day, most of the work is paper-driven and involves a lot of brief writing and correspondence by mail. Very few court appearances are required, so we can handle a federal court case anywhere in the state.
In terms of communicating with you, we use an electronic signature service for a lot of the correspondence, and then we e-mail and fax and communicate by phone so that everything can be done by e-mail, fax, mail, and phone.
We evaluate each case on a case-by-case basis, so do not let our location discourage you from contacting our office to see how we can help. If you cannot work due to an illness or injury, please call us immediately at (888) 321-8131 to discuss your legal rights. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your claim with you.