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Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Finland
Timeline
Posted
We went today to get our social security number for my K-1 fiancé, and I just thought I'd mention a few things that surprised me, since I hadn't seen much reference to them here. In the end I think everything went okay, but it was more stressful than I was expecting.


First off, yes, the wait was very long -- probably due to backlog from the government shutdown, or maybe it's always that bad. Line out the door, and even once inside past security, we sat and waited for 90 minutes before our number was called (total waiting time about 2 hours). (We went to our closest office in San Marcos, California.)


More importantly, they required my fiance's original birth certificate from Finland, which is not stated in the guides on VJ nor even mentioned in the SS instructions -- but the lady said "I'll need his original birth certificate" right after we handed her the I-94 printout and his passport. Luckily we had brought it with us, just out of an abundance of caution, but perhaps that should get emphasized more, because I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't had it along.


There was also way more "interrogation" than I was expecting -- not painful, except that when I started to answer for my fiancé, the clerk very brusquely informed me that I wasn't supposed to talk, that it was my fiancé's application and he had to answer himself. The first question was "are you already married" which surprised me, since the K-1 SSN eligibility doesn't depend on marriage at all -- we are not yet married (this Friday we will be!) so I'm glad we went BEFORE marriage. I get the sense that if he had said he was married, there would have been some problems. As it was, unmarried, she didn't question his eligibility for the SSN at all, so we did not need the extra printouts we had brought (from the VJ guides).


Then she did a lot of data entry on her side, and verbally asked him to verify EVERY SINGLE piece of information -- father's name, mother's maiden name, birth date and location, etc. Which is fine, but I don't see why it was necessary -- it's a good thing his English is great, otherwise I would have been more nervous since she wasn't allowing me to talk at all. It seemed like a lot of redundant questions, and he was asked several times to swear that he was telling the truth.


Finally after it was all done, we got a printout stating the application had been accepted and we would receive the card in 1-2 weeks. I hope that's true -- I don't really want to go back and wait another two hours for nothing, so we'll wait and see if it arrives in the mail as scheduled. Fingers crossed!


So, mostly I was just surprised by the birth certificate requirement and the huge number of verbal questions/interrogation -- have others run into that as well?

Relationship since April 2006

K-1 Visa: I-129F filed November 6, 2012, NOA2 May 17, 2013, Interview and Approval July 24, 2013

POE San Diego, September 13, 2013, Wedding October 25, 2013

AOS filed November 19, 2013, EAD/AP received January 30, 2014, interview and AOS Approval on February 27, 2014.

ROC filed December 3, 2015, NOA1 12/4/15, Biometrics 12/31/15, ROC Approval on June 16, 2016, 10-Year Green Card received June 22, 2016.

N400 filed September 14, 2023, same day acceptance and Biometric Reuse notice, Interview on 2/13/24: Passed and same day oath. ALL DONE WITH USCIS.

No RFE at any stage, thanks to VisaJourney!

Detailed Timeline Below!

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Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Argentina
Timeline
Posted

Thanks for the information! Very helpful to know.

K1 Visa

Feb 2013: NOA 1 (CSC)

June 2013: NOA2

July 2013: NVC --> Embassy

Sept 2013: Sent Packet 3

Oct 2013: Interview --> Approved!

Nov 2013: USA arrival

Dec 2013: Wedding

AOS

Feb 2014: Sent

Mar 2014: Biometrics Appt.

Apr 2014: EAD/AP approved

June 2014: Interview waiver letter

Nov 2014: AOS approved

Dec 2014: Card mailed

ROC

October 2016: Sent + NOA1

Dec 2016: Biometrics appointment 

April 2018: Case approved + card mailed (interview waived)

N-400

Sept 2020: Filed online

Feb 2021: Biometrics reuse letter

Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Finland
Timeline
Posted

Good news -- just updating here to say that today, just six days after we visited the Soc Sec office, his card arrived in the mail. So even with the possible backlog from the gov't shutdown, there wasn't any significant delay. Very happy that's over with, and remember, K-1 people, to bring your foreign birth certificate along since it might be required!

Relationship since April 2006

K-1 Visa: I-129F filed November 6, 2012, NOA2 May 17, 2013, Interview and Approval July 24, 2013

POE San Diego, September 13, 2013, Wedding October 25, 2013

AOS filed November 19, 2013, EAD/AP received January 30, 2014, interview and AOS Approval on February 27, 2014.

ROC filed December 3, 2015, NOA1 12/4/15, Biometrics 12/31/15, ROC Approval on June 16, 2016, 10-Year Green Card received June 22, 2016.

N400 filed September 14, 2023, same day acceptance and Biometric Reuse notice, Interview on 2/13/24: Passed and same day oath. ALL DONE WITH USCIS.

No RFE at any stage, thanks to VisaJourney!

Detailed Timeline Below!

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Posted
  On 10/28/2013 at 11:51 PM, Lynkali said:

Good news -- just updating here to say that today, just six days after we visited the Soc Sec office, his card arrived in the mail. So even with the possible backlog from the gov't shutdown, there wasn't any significant delay. Very happy that's over with, and remember, K-1 people, to bring your foreign birth certificate along since it might be required!

Actually the SS-5 instructions do mention that two forms of ID are required to establish age and identy. The passport is used for one and since it contains a picture it is typically used for identy. The BC is used to establish age. Most SSA employees are not properly trained as you almost found out. If your fiance was in fact your husband, I bet she would have said the the K-1 visa is no longer valid and the he would have to wait for is GC before applying for a SSC. Which is a load of BS and the I-94 is the governing document that shows he was admitted to the US legally. The K-1 is no longer valid once it is used to gain entry into the US. We had someone ho knew the K-1 was allowed to get a SSC and did not ask very many questions. She also did not ask for my wife's BC, but we had it anyway as I had read that two forms of ID are required. I always tell people when going to the SSA to apply for a SSN to take their BC along just to be safe.

Glad you did get the SSN without too much hassle. FYI, The lest amount of time I've ever waited at the SSA has been 1.5 hours.

Dave

Posted

I went today, waited about 2 mins before I was called, i was the only person there at 10:00.

A few questions, no request for birth cert, just passport, I-94, SSN 5, and marriage cert, in and out in 10 to 15 mins.

 
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