International Work and Student Loans

Colleagues,

I'm interested in overseas work, but have a couple of questions to which you may have answers. First: I have an undergraduate degree and a master's degree, thus I have a fair amount of student loans to go along with them. Is anyone familiar with how to manage student loans while working overseas (e.g., payments, deferments, etc.)?

Secondly: In the U.S. as EMTs and paramedics we qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program through the federal government. Are any of you participating in this program now (either working domestic or foreign), and if so, are your payments counting toward this program?

I hope this all makes sense. I thank you in advance for your input.

Cheers,
M.

Emergency Metaphysics said:

Colleagues,

I'm interested in overseas work, but have a couple of questions to which you may have answers. First: I have an undergraduate degree and a master's degree, thus I have a fair amount of student loans to go along with them. Is anyone familiar with how to manage student loans while working overseas (e.g., payments, deferments, etc.)?

Secondly: In the U.S. as EMTs and paramedics we qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program through the federal government. Are any of you participating in this program now (either working domestic or foreign), and if so, are your payments counting toward this program?

I hope this all makes sense. I thank you in advance for your input.

Cheers,
M.

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I was under the impression that that loan forgiveness program you had to be working for a city or county agency not s private company. But I'm not sure. Do you know?

TransportJockey said:

I was under the impression that that loan forgiveness program you had to be working for a city or county agency not s private company. But I'm not sure. Do you know?

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Hey friend,

This is the "official" website for this program:https://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service

As I read it we in EMS should more than qualify for this type of forgiveness program. I can't, however, decipher how this would or would not work if we were working overseas in, say, Saudi Arabia where all our income is tax-free and we're not technically serving the U.S. public.

Give it a once over yourself, and then chime in with any thoughts.

Cheers,
M.

I should add: it looks like EMS qualifies so long as you're full-time at a service that is considered a not-for profit or non-profit entity. So, there are plenty of those. I'm thinking specifically those ambulance services associated with a hospital. I'll make sure to include only the non-and-not for profit companies in my job search. It just seems too good an opportunity to pass up.

Emergency Metaphysics said:

Secondly: In the U.S. as EMTs and paramedics we qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program through the federal government. Are any of you participating in this program now (either working domestic or foreign), and if so, are your payments counting toward this program?

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PSLF is a joke. Do the math on your student loans calculating out your minimum payments (you have to make 120 minimum payments on time before you qualify for PSLF). Then check to see if you will have any debt left over after you make the qualifying 120 minimum payments. What most people find is that after making their 120 minimum payments, they will have all of their loans payed off before they even qualify for PSLF. Only direct federal loans qualify anyways, and most people don't have many of those. Read the website, it will give you all the answers you are looking for.

I'm not sure what you mean... even if you work overseas, you'd still need to pay back your loans. there's really no difference to working in the states. just make online payments from your back account. unless of course you plan on never returning to the US, in which case you could just stop paying and unless you have a US bank account, they'd have a hard time taking they money from you...

m4ttjabz said:

I'm not sure what you mean... even if you work overseas, you'd still need to pay back your loans. there's really no difference to working in the states. just make online payments from your back account. unless of course you plan on never returning to the US, in which case you could just stop paying and unless you have a US bank account, they'd have a hard time taking they money from you...

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Hi M.,

I understand I'd still have to pay back my loans. I'm not looking to skip out on that responsibility. What I mean is that if I took a post overseas that is in one of the fields (like EMS) that qualifies for the student loan forgiveness program, can I still participate and get credit under that program even though I'm working overseas? My feeling is the answer is, "No." My guess is that they want public service to mean here in the U.S., not overseas. However, they give credit for those working full-time in the Peace Corps, which of course does most of its work overseas.

It's simply one of those gray areas in the program that isn't addressed on their website. Does that all make sense? Or did I just make it all more convoluted?

Mahalo,
M.