Wife got EAD card, nees Soc Sec card...

[Ryan76 46]

...to begin work. She may already have a job lined up but they need her SSN, and we told them we will get it as soon as possible. What documentation will we need to take to our Social Security office with us? Will they give her a number to use as we wait for the arrival of the actual card? Will they charge us anything for this?

Thanks

[Martyshk 137]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/ssn

[Dave&Roza 748]

...to begin work. She may already have a job lined up but they need her SSN, and we told them we will get it as soon as possible. What documentation will we need to take to our Social Security office with us? Will they give her a number to use as we wait for the arrival of the actual card? Will they charge us anything for this?

Thanks

Go to the SSA website and look at the SS-5 form. She will need proof of ID, age, and lawful presence. I would take her passport and EAD card and she will receive the card in a couple of weeks--take the marriage certificate if her maiden name is on the passport and married name is on the EAD or if she wants to use the married name on the SSC. You can go back after a few days and get a print out of the number. Now that she has her EAD there should be no probelms from the SSA, but they may say she needs her GC. Ask for a supervisor. There is no charge for the SSC.

Good luck,

Dave

[Ryan76 46]

Go to the SSA website and look at the SS-5 form. She will need proof of ID, age, and lawful presence. I would take her passport and EAD card and she will receive the card in a couple of weeks--take the marriage certificate if her maiden name is on the passport and married name is on the EAD or if she wants to use the married name on the SSC. You can go back after a few days and get a print out of the number. Now that she has her EAD there should be no probelms from the SSA, but they may say she needs her GC. Ask for a supervisor. There is no charge for the SSC.

Good luck,

Dave

Thanks. I can't imagine there would be a problem getting the SSC. I mean, what would be the point of getting an EAD card to work if you still need a SSC, and they won't give it to you until you get the GC? Hopefully there will be no issues. We will take EAD card, Passport, Marriage Certificate, and my folder with pretty much every other Notice of Action we have received. Also the SS-5 form filled out, and hopefully there will be no issues.

[hmh33 117]

She can also start work before she has her social security number. The EAD alone is sufficient to complete the I-9.

[TBoneTX 45,319]

*** Thread moved from General Immigration Discussion to the Social Security Numbers subforum. ***

[Ryan76 46]

She can also start work before she has her social security number. The EAD alone is sufficient to complete the I-9.

That's what I thought too, but all I know is her prospective employer, who deals mostly with finding professional type work for hispanic immigrants, told her she can't do anything with her job application until she has the SSN number.

[Ryan76 46]

Update: This has been a total nightmare. On Dec. 17 my wife and my mom went to the local social security office to apply for her card. They said they couldn't finalize her application because her alien status was pending, and that the information that she had been approved and given her EAD card was not yet in the computer. They gave us a reference number and said after 10 days they would try again. So today (like 17 days later) I called back and spoke to the lady my wife and mom spoke too. She said she had been on vacation and she tried to re-do the application, and it still would not accept it. All she could tell me was that because of the end of the year and/or people on vacation over the holidays, immigration must be "backed up" with entering information to the system. So she said she was going to physically mail my wife's Social Security application to Buffalo, New York, where they would verify her application and supporting documents, and it will take "up to 4 weeks" until we will get her card.

We've had two prospective employers for her...both of which are telling us they need a SSN in addition to the EAD card. But the real killer is my insurance. Originally they told me she was covered, and we could just send them her SSN as soon as we got it. Then I started getting letters that some of her doctor's appointments were being denied coverage "pending information from the insured". So I called and sure enough they are now telling me they had a "policy change" and my wife is not covered until we can provide them a SSN. We just found out she has hyperthyroidism, and she's going to need some more testing and medication.

She also had braces when she arrived and her previous ortho in Colombia didn't do a great job, so the ortho here wanted to take her braces off, wait a month, then put different braces back on. She's due to get them put back on this month. We don't have the money to pay for all of this stuff out of pocket, so it's crucial that we get her SSN/Card.

Has anyone had this big of a hassle getting a SSC? I still don't even fully understand...I mean, she has a US Certified ID Card and Permission to work. How is she not already in whatever "system" they are accessing? I would think that EAD card itself would be enough proof/verification.

Anyway, we're both kind of stressing out here because we desperately need that SSN and now we're being told we may have to wait up to another month.

She's here legally and we're legally married and she has a US distributed EAD ID card.....yet we can't do anything without the SSC. So frustrating. Why don't they just assign you a SSN when you receive your EAD card? We can wait on the employment situation, but I don't know what we're supposed to do about the medical/insurance situation.

Edited January 3, 2013 by Ryan76

[Darnell 8,478]

ya, it's a hassle, to be certain.

hindsight is fun, but she should have gone back the next day, to discover this 'DHS/USCIS verification' thingie.

For now, get back into the SSA office, and get a supervisor. Tell the supervisor the clerk doing the work screwed it up, and don't leave till a proper SAVE database lookup is done.

[Ryan76 46]

"Going back in there" is part of the problem. The Social Security office hours are ridiculous....4 days a week from 9am to 3pm, and 1 day from 9am to noon. I've already had to take numerous days off recently because of some of my wife's medical / orthodontist appointments and I'm absolutely slammed at work this week...there's just no way I can take time off right now. Aside from that, when I called I DID eventually speak to a supervisor and basically got the same response. They also told me they are only permitted to run the application once every ten days, and that sending the hard copy of the application / supporting documents to New York would probably be quicker than waiting.

When you are here legally and get approved for your official US work permit card, why don't they just make things easy and assign you a SSN right then and there? I guess that would make things too easy and efficient.