CPP Eligibility

How does working in the USA effect CPP? If I worked for 10-20 years in Canada then 10-15 in the US am I still eligible for something in Canada. I know I get US social security for those years. FYI...I live in Canada, commute to Detroit, file taxes every year in both countries. 

Working in the US is going to reduce your CPP. Your CPP benefits are calculated based on how much you pay into the plan.

But as long as you make 1 payment to the CPP, you qualify for a CPP pension. Obviously though, in this example your pension would be extremely small.

And just to add to this, you would appear to qualify for full OAS (Old Age Security). OAS just requires living in Canada. To get full OAS you need to live in Canada for 40 years between the age of 18 and 65. I'm about 99.9999% positive the fact that you work in the US won't matter. They only care about the fact that you live in Canada.

And although it doesn't appear to apply to you, I might as well add that Canada and the US have an agreement about social security plans. This could come into effect if you just barely miss qualifying for one plan.

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/i...fa/usa-i.shtml

For example you need 10 years of work to qualify for Social Security in the US. If have only worked for 9 years in the US, you could transfer some of your Canadian years to ensure you meet the qualification for the US.

The same is true of OAS in Canada. You need to live in Canada for 10 years to qualify for the minimum. If you lived in Canada for 9 years, you could transfer 1 year of residency in the US to reach the minimum in Canada.

With that being said, if you qualify for the minimum in both countries you can't do any transfers. So if you lived in Canada for 20 years and the US for 20 years, you can't transfer the 20 US years to qualify for the maximum OAS (which requires living in Canada for 40 years). You can only transfer years to reach the minimum.

But like I said I don't expect this will effect you, since you appear you will have reached the minimum in both countries.