A Social Security totalization agreement generally does two things: it lets someone working abroad stay on their home country's social-security system instead of paying into both, and it lets contribution years from both countries be combined to clear a benefit-eligibility threshold that neither country's contributions alone would reach. The US has this kind of agreement with roughly 30 countries — the UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, and most of the EU among them. India is not on that list.
Confirmed: no agreement is currently in force
Despite over a decade of intermittent talks, India and the US do not have a totalization agreement in effect as of this writing. Indian trade-body commentary has put the cost of this gap at over $1 billion a year in Social Security taxes paid by Indian firms' US-deployed employees with no offsetting benefit, and Indian government statements as recently as 2024 describe the two sides as still in dialogue rather than at a signed agreement — treat "no agreement" as the current status to re-check periodically rather than a permanent fact.
What that means in practice
Someone working in the US on an Indian company's payroll (or vice versa) generally can't rely on a totalization agreement to stay exempt from the other country's system — a US assignment typically means US Social Security (FICA, split between employee and employer) is owed in the ordinary course, on top of whatever the person continues to owe or contribute in India, without the "stay on your home system for the assignment" relief a totalization agreement would otherwise provide.
The benefit-eligibility side is the other, quieter cost: without an agreement, contribution years in one country generally can't be combined with the other's to clear a minimum-quarters threshold for retirement benefits. Someone who splits a career between US and Indian employment can end up with contribution history in both systems and full benefit eligibility in neither — years effectively stranded short of each country's own minimum, rather than combined into one qualifying record.
Don't confuse this with unrelated FICA exemptions
Certain visa categories carry their own, separate FICA exemptions under US domestic law — for example, some F-1 student and J-1 exchange-visitor categories, for a limited period. These are not totalization relief and don't depend on India having an agreement with the US; they're worth knowing about on their own terms, but shouldn't be mistaken for the broader totalization coordination this article describes.