Social Security accepts most paper forms by fax, but they go to your local Social Security office, not to one national number. Here is how to find the right fax number, which documents you cannot fax at all, and how to send the rest from a phone or computer, in the US or abroad.
📠 Fax Your Documents for $2.99Social Security says you can fax or mail any paper form to your local office, unless the form itself tells you otherwise. There is no national Social Security fax number for the public: find your local office with the Office Locator on ssa.gov, which shows a fax number for each office. Original proof documents, such as a birth certificate or passport used as proof of age, citizenship or identity, cannot be faxed, because Social Security needs the original or a certified copy. OverseasFax sends to any US fax number for $2.99 for up to 3 pages, from the US or from more than 100 other countries.
The rule on Social Security's forms page is simple: you can fax or mail any paper form to your local office, unless the form gives other instructions. Social Security's page on submitting forms says the same thing in another way, telling you to find your local office and then submit your forms by fax, by mail, or using the office's drop box. Many forms, bank statements, pay stubs, financial records and rental agreements can also be uploaded online instead. The fax number you need is the one for your own local office, which the Office Locator on ssa.gov shows under the office's contact numbers, together with its phone and TTY numbers.
A fax is a copy, and Social Security does not accept plain copies as proof of age, citizenship or identity. The Social Security card application (Form SS-5) says Social Security can only accept original documents or documents certified by the custodian of the original record, and that notarized copies and photocopies are not acceptable. The retirement application pages say the same for proof of age and citizenship, and the disability booklet says documents must be original or copies certified by the issuing agency. So a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization certificate used as proof must be mailed to your local office or brought in person. Social Security returns the documents to you after it copies them. Photocopies are fine for some items, such as W-2 forms, self-employment tax returns, and military service papers from before 1968.
Some forms give their own instructions, and they come first. Social Security's reconsideration page tells you to fill out the Request for Reconsideration (Form SSA-561) and then fax or mail it to the Social Security office closest to your home, within 60 days, although the 2016 form itself only says to take or mail it. The medical release (Form SSA-827) and the Disability Report (Form SSA-3368) say to send or bring them to your local office, so ask that office before you fax them, or upload them online if you can complete the extra identity check that some uploads need. The Statement of Claimant (Form SSA-795) gives no submission method, so the general rule applies and you can fax it to your local office. The Medicare IRMAA form (SSA-44) can go by fax, but the proof of your life-changing event must be an original or certified copy, and for tax evidence Social Security asks for your signed copy of your tax return or a transcript from the IRS. Medicare Part B forms CMS-40B and CMS-L564 can be faxed or mailed to your local office as well.
You do not have to gather your own medical records for a disability claim. The Disability Report says so in capital letters, and if you have given consent, Social Security requests your records directly from your doctors and hospitals. When a doctor's office answers that request, it faxes the records to the fax number printed on the request letter, with the letter itself as the first page, because the letter carries a barcode. Social Security's records FAQ also says not to fax more than 200 pages in one transmission to that system. There is no national fax number for Disability Determination Services, so the number on the letter is the only one to use.
Americans abroad face the same rules about original documents, and international mail to the US can be slow. For help with Social Security while you live abroad, check the website of the US embassy for your country, since it explains the contact options for Social Security matters there, often through a Federal Benefits Unit. Earlier versions of this page printed an embassy fax number, but we could not confirm it on an official source when we checked in November 2026, so we removed it. When your Social Security letter names an office and a fax number, that number is the one to use, and it works from abroad: choose the United States and type the 10 digits.
Use only the number from an official source: Fax only to the number shown for your office in the Office Locator on ssa.gov, printed on your Social Security letter, or given to you by the office itself. Keep our confirmation email, which shows the destination number, the page count and the time in US Eastern Time, as your record of exactly when it was sent.
Scan or photograph your pages into a clear PDF, upload it at overseasfax.com, choose the United States, and type the 10-digit office fax number with no leading 1. A fax to any US number costs $2.99 for up to 3 pages and $0.99 for each extra page, so a 6-page fax costs $5.96. There is no account to create, nothing is printed on your document, delivery usually takes a few minutes, and a failed fax is refunded automatically. If you would like a neat first page, the free cover page builder on our homepage makes one and adds it as page 1. If an office needs to fax something back to you, GetAFax.com gives you a private US fax number for 24 hours for $5. For VA paperwork, see our VA fax guide, and for Medicare enrollment forms, see our Medicare Part B guide.
Upload your PDF, enter your local office fax number, and pay $2.99 for up to 3 pages. You get an email confirmation with the time it was sent, and an automatic refund if delivery fails.
Send a Fax Now