How important is to have a new SSN?

[panpan 0]

This question is for my wife, who became a USC earlier this year. She has not go renew her SSN yet, but how important is it?

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

A social security number (SSN) stays with a person for life. It will never change and never has to be "renewed." Am I correct in guessing that you are talking about exchanging her social security card from a restricted one to an unrestricted one?

If so, it's not important. I still have mine from 1991 that says "not valid for employment." If she's looking for a new job, however, it makes sense to initiate the exchange of her card soon, simply because it looks better when submitting it to the human resources department.

Otherwise, do it when it is convenient for you and you can fit it in your schedule. I would apply for a passport first though . . .

Edited July 24, 2009 by Just Bob

[lucyrich 20]

You don't need a new number, or even necessarily a new card (plenty of LPRs already have an unrestricted card), but you need to inform the social security administration of your new US citizenship status. The reason is twofold: certain social security benefits are only available to citizens, and more importantly, the social security database may be used to feed other government databases. If you don't tell the SSA about your status, you may eventually find it hard to renew a drivers license, or an employer who is using e-Verify may have a problem verifying your employability, or some similar bureaucratic nightmare may befall you at some day in the future.

It's probably not urgent that you do it right away. After all, your old LPR status already gave you most of the privileges that a citizen has. But your green card was going to expire eventually unless you renewed it, and I'm guessing some problems might start showing up after your green card expiration date passes.

I'd recommend doing it fairly soon after naturalization, while you're still thinking about it and while you still know where your naturalization certificate is. Get it done so that you can put it behind you and forget about it.

[lucyrich 20]

Just found a bit more info on the issue, in the USCIS Ombudsman's report for 2009

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/cisomb_...report_2009.pdf

On page 65, recommendation 2, is that the USCIS Consistently include information at naturalization ceremonies for new citizens to update their status with the Social Security Administration (SSA). Given the increased utilization of E-Verify for employment eligibility verification, new citizens should promptly update their status with the SSA, which provides status data to the USCIS systems. USCIS Response: USCIS concurred with this recommendation. The agency stated that applicants can find this information on Form M-476 (A Guide to Naturalization), a resource noted on the first page of the N-400. USCIS also stated it is developing a standardized information packet for all newly naturalized citizens to take home from the oath ceremony.

Read that carefully. Note that it says the SSA database provides your citizenship information to the USCIS systems. Does that seem crazy or what? The USCIS is the one that naturalized you, shouldn't they be providing that information to the SSA? Why is it the other way around? And the ombudsman's recommendation is to manually remind newly naturalized citizens to go down to the SSA office, instead of recommending that the USCIS fix the computers so that the USCIS automatically updates your citizenship status in E-Verify as soon as you naturalize. This is bureaucrazy at its finest.

Anyway, that's how the system is today, so the only thing you can do is live with it and follow the process to update your citizenship status with SSA. Probably at some future date, they'll be emphasizing this a bit more to newly naturalized applicants.

If you read through more of the report, there's info about the E-Verify program. It looks like its use will become more widespread in the future.

[NickD 202]

Our nearest SS office is 37 miles away, special trip when my wife and daughter got their EAD's, they couldn't do anything without those cards. For the conditional and USC, it was when I had business to do in that town that comes once a month, could wait until then. Only typed out the application once, changing the status and the date with Acrobat, while bringing in the evidence, either the EAD, GC, or the USC certificate and another form of photo ID. Wife or daughter had to sign, here, on their application.

Would try to be there at 7:57 AM, they open at 8:00 AM, well maybe later, this is a government office not a store looking for business to be first in line. At times the line can be 3-5 people long, that is unbearable.

Was nice getting the LPR SS card, no restrictions, but the USC card looked exactly the same. But as LucyRich already pointed out, their are advantages to having your status changed to a USC.