Nightmare trying to get a SSN

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I apologise as i know that have been numerous posts about problems getting a SSN but i'm going a round in circles now...

At POE i asked the immigration guy when i could apply and he said on the 10th day of you being here.

So on the 10th day i went to the Social Security office closest to us, i had the SS-5, my birth certificate & passport with I-94. I was told by the lady that on a K1 i couldn't get a SSN!

So i came home and printed off all the information from VJ on K1's can get a SSN, should have taken it 1st time around!

Back to the SS office the next day armed with all the documents required and the information on Employment authorization for nonimmigrants (RM 00203.500) and the memo. The girl i saw this time input all the information and gave me a letter saying it had all been forwarded to Homeland Security to determine if i could get a SSN and i should hear something within 4weeks.

So 4days later i get a letter from the social security office to say that they cannot give me a SS card at this time because Homeland Security have verified my status as a n alien nonimmigrant not authorized employment in the United States.

I tried calling the social security office and everytime i got through and said what the problem was they hung up on me!

So yesterday i went to a larger social security office close to a Military base, thought they may have more experience of K1's, took all paperwork with me and waited 2hours. When i got to the window and presented all the paperwork the girl input everything. She then advised that it would be forwarded to Homeland Security for them to decide and i would hear back within 4weeks.

I showed her all the paperwork showing a K1 could get a SSN and she said she didn't know of many successful people getting it on a K1 regardless!

Well this morning i received a call from the social security office to say NO i couldn't get a SSN!

What am i doing wrong?? does anyone know of an office in NC that does approve SSN for K1's i'm willing to travel to get this sorted out!!

As i have been told that SC have changed the requirements for getting married and we both must have SSN to get married! We'd booked the wedding when we had been told that i didn't need one so now i'm freaking out!!

The day after my wife arrived here (as my fiancee) on a K-1 visa we went to the SS office. Sh efilled out the form, showed her passport and K-1 visa and I-94 card. They accepted her application. We received the card in one week.

K-1 visa holdres are indeed entitled to a SSN. It does not authorize work but has nothing to do with work. Children are required to one before their first birthday. For work? Sounds like you have all the ignoramuses in one place. Go to a supervisor

[Anh map 2,098]

Check the guide here on VJ for Getting a SS Card. It does advise waiting a couple of weeks for your info to get in the system. Obviously just based on the feedback here in this thread it can happen sooner.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...om&page=ssn

For what it's worth, we waited until after marrying to get the SS number for Linh. One less name change to process.

Googling marriage licenses in SC I see that it says that SOME probate judges require both parties to have SS cards. Sounds like you should do a little calling around to find out if that will be the case where you planned to wed.

Best of luck.

[I'm Gone 60]

Back to the SS office the next day armed with all the documents required and the information on Employment authorization for nonimmigrants (RM 00203.500) and the memo. The girl i saw this time input all the information and gave me a letter saying it had all been forwarded to Homeland Security to determine if i could get a SSN and i should hear something within 4weeks.

So 4days later i get a letter from the social security office to say that they cannot give me a SS card at this time because Homeland Security have verified my status as a n alien nonimmigrant not authorized employment in the United States.

So yesterday i went to a larger social security office close to a Military base, thought they may have more experience of K1's, took all paperwork with me and waited 2hours. When i got to the window and presented all the paperwork the girl input everything. She then advised that it would be forwarded to Homeland Security for them to decide and i would hear back within 4weeks.

I showed her all the paperwork showing a K1 could get a SSN and she said she didn't know of many successful people getting it on a K1 regardless!

Well this morning i received a call from the social security office to say NO i couldn't get a SSN!

As i have been told that SC have changed the requirements for getting married and we both must have SSN to get married! We'd booked the wedding when we had been told that i didn't need one so now i'm freaking out!!

As far as the requirements to be assigned an SSN as a K-1 nothing has changed on the SSA side of things. So without knowing why SSA is saying your aren't eligible to be assigned an SSN it's hard to say.

If immigration recorded your status incorrectly as say F-1 normally a G-845 would need to be sent with a copy of your I-94 and that would take more than a few days to receive a response.

The verification process is a three step process. They do an inital verification request while you are at the office and I assume that didn't verify or they would have told you that you would be assigned an SSN. The next step is a secondary electronic verification request, those normally come back within a week, so I assume this is where SSA is saying you aren't eligible from the response they received. Like I said if your status was entered wrong, immigration would normally ask to see a copy of your I-94 and that would be sent along with the Form G-845 and that gets mailing there and back, so it can take a month or more sometimes.

I would say go back to the SSA office and ask to speak with a manager to try to find out what's the problem, was it a status mismatch and in that case ask was a G-845 sent to resolve the matter and why not.

[I'm Gone 60]

It sounds like the USCIS hasn't entered your K1 visa entry in the system, that's just my guess.

That shouldn't cause an SSN application to be denied, since SSA has more than one way to verify his status.

It sounds like the USCIS hasn't entered your K1 visa entry in the system, that's just my guess. If that's the case, the SSA cannot give you a SSN unless your entry info appears in the system and this can take anywhere from 2-7 weeks. Call the USCIS to find out this information and then go to another SSA office. You still have time to get your number since they can assign you one until 2 weeks before your I-94 expires.

Diana

Thanks Diana

I will call them tomorrow to double check.

I got the impression everything was in the system when i went in on the 10th day but perhaps i misunderstood.

This is something you must go into the office to discuss, since a manager might need to get involved.

[I'm Gone 60]

It sounds like the USCIS hasn't entered your K1 visa entry in the system, that's just my guess. If that's the case, the SSA cannot give you a SSN unless your entry info appears in the system and this can take anywhere from 2-7 weeks. Call the USCIS to find out this information and then go to another SSA office. You still have time to get your number since they can assign you one until 2 weeks before your I-94 expires.

Diana

Thanks Diana

I will call them tomorrow to double check.

I got the impression everything was in the system when i went in on the 10th day but perhaps i misunderstood.

You may have to go back to the SSA office AGAIN so that they can tell you whether or not you are even in the system yet. If they are still refusing you a SSN, I would definitely go to a higher court and get some letters written to your Congressman or Senator.

Needs to find out why SSA is denying the application first and if they are incorrectly denying it calling in the big guns couldn't hurt, but the problem is that SSA normally approves or denies the application based in the info immigration provides them, so SSA is probably just going to say immigration says you are not eligible, so then you have them going to immigration to find out what's the problem. You are then caught in the middle and you only have 76 days after entry to be assign an SSN based on K-1 status, so your eligibility time might really be up by the time all this is sorted out.

You need to marry I think. They want to have a proof you married

Wrong

[Jenni and Bo 0]

I'm surprised that you got this reaction here in NC, though I had a bit of a runaround, they never flatout denied me an SSN. I went about 3 1/2 weeks after arriving here in Raleigh. The girl took all of my information, but she was able to look me up in the DHS database right at the SSN office, and she noticed my information wasn't there (nice 10 days eh?). But she still took all my info, copies of my passport and my application, and she said it would take about 4-6 weeks for my info to log in the system and them to issue my card. I received my card in the mail last Thursday, about 3 weeks from my application date.

Are you far from Raleigh? I would just come here to apply if you can - they seem to have their ducks in a row

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Check the guide here on VJ for Getting a SS Card. It does advise waiting a couple of weeks for your info to get in the system. Obviously just based on the feedback here in this thread it can happen sooner.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...om&page=ssn

For what it's worth, we waited until after marrying to get the SS number for Linh. One less name change to process.

Googling marriage licenses in SC I see that it says that SOME probate judges require both parties to have SS cards. Sounds like you should do a little calling around to find out if that will be the case where you planned to wed.

Best of luck.

Drive to the SS office in Burlington, VT. No problems.

Also, a Supreme Court ruling last year in the case of a Tennessee couty ruled that a state (or county) CAN NOT require that a person have an SSN to get married.

I also suggest that you get the SSN number FIRST then do a name change, the SS administration seems to go into infarctions and convulsions over name changes and it delays the issuance of the card and number. Get the card first, then go change your name and have the card while they convulse.

When you apply for a card, you will be assigned your SSN the next day and your fiancee can go back to the office and get the number. You will be in the SS computer data base the next day. The card will take 1-2 weeks to arrive and it will take about 2 weeks for the information to update in the IRS computer database, an issue if you are trying to file taxes electronically at the same time as making a change with SSN, as we were with our son. A person cannot be claimed as a dependent on your taxes unless they have an SSN.

Tell the people in NC to get off their @ss and do their job properly. (a monumental task, to be sure) You should have an SSN immediately. Also there is no "waiting period" of ten days. My wife had her SSN application done 16 hours after stepping off the plane.

[Anh map 2,098]

We must of gotten a person without heart problems at the SS office. Just showed the documentation that we had been married along with the required information and there was no difficulty.

Perhaps it's just our proximity to Vermont that made it all so smooth.

[I'm Gone 60]

When you apply for a card, you will be assigned your SSN the next day and your fiancee can go back to the office and get the number. You will be in the SS computer data base the next day. The card will take 1-2 weeks to arrive and it will take about 2 weeks for the information to update in the IRS computer database, an issue if you are trying to file taxes electronically at the same time as making a change with SSN, as we were with our son.

Tell the people in NC to get off their @ss and do their job properly. (a monumental task, to be sure) You should have an SSN immediately. Also there is no "waiting period" of ten days. My wife had her SSN application done 16 hours after stepping off the plane.

You will be assigned an SSN once the SSA office has verified you as eligible to be assigned an SSN and that can take weeks and sometimes months. Once the application has been cleared and record established, you can then go back to the office to obtain the number. Normally, it's the next day after the application was cleared.

There is no required 10 day waiting period to apply, but SSA suggests that people with non immigrant status wait 10 days before applying. This saves them some work, since it allows time for the record of your entry to be entered into the database they check to verify status. Otherwise they have to hold the application until the 10th day and try to verify your status again if you apply before being here 10 days and your status doesn't verify.

[Rob&Dawn 1]

Thank you all for your help and advise.

Special thanks to - I Quit, your help was invaluable.

Received a call following your advise today to say they don't know why there was a problem but they have issued me a SSN and i can go down to the local office to get the number and the card will be with me within the week!!

[I'm Gone 60]

Tell the people in NC to get off their @ss and do their job properly.

I guess someone told them.

[Rob&Dawn 1]

Tell the people in NC to get off their @ss and do their job properly.

I guess someone told them.

lol

[Elghazi2008 4]

I have also heard troubles depending on WHICH SS office you go to. Here in NY, I would have more trouble obtaining a SS# in the Elmira area than I had in the Ithaca office because each office has different experience regarding immigration cases. My advice is to go to a different office in the next town over, one that may see a lot of international students coming in for SS#s. Here, we have Cornell University in Ithaca, so we went to the Ithaca office instead because we have so many international students coming into the area. Best of luck

EDIT: Woop, sorry. I posted this from the other location and hadn't realized that the problem was already solved. Glad to see that it's all settled now though :-)

Edited April 1, 2009 by Elghazi2008