Not able to apply for Social Security number, help?

[Canadian Bacon 6]

So, unfortunate we moved to a deep red state where the social security administration doesn't know how to do their jobs and border on harrasment and discrimniation charges (Nebraska). We waited the 12 days as others on this forum have recommended and went to our local SSA office to see if my husband (legal PR) had a number assigned or if he was in the SAVE system. They couldn't bring him up so we left and decided to wait until the next week, we went again and the same thing - we were told to wait a couple more days. My father brought him back a couple days later(mistake) the manager was called to try to look him up and from what I've been told and heard on the phone, called him an illegal alien and printed papers on how to apply for a CR-1. You can imagine how much this must have pissed both of us off. After all the work and delays we went through just to be treated like skum under a "managers" shoe! I tore the papers up when I saw them. We have our CR-1 visa.

We haven't gone back since, we called but they refused to help us and would not accept our application stating that we don't have a green card even though we showed them his passport with his temporary green card, I-551 stamp, and other USCIS/NVC acceptance comfirmation letters, ect. They stated the Alien number was fake, which all immigration government organizations stated was real and valid. The problem is, is that it's an 8 number instead of the usual 9 number ID code....which will be hilarious when we should them the greencard and it has the same number! Having the greencard changes nothing about the format.

I got paranoid and called DOS, NVC and USCIS/ELIS to see if everything was okay. It was all supposedly fine. We're still waiting on the greencard to be printed, I paid it roughly 40 days ago and I think it's still in "Optimized" - I can't see the status and haven't had any more emails on it because ELIS locked me out. I'm goig to call back on Monday to see what's going on with them printing it. The thec. lady at ELIS said my husband wouldn't be in the SAVE database because the greencard has to be printed first but this information doesn't seem right...

What do we do? We want to file taxes soon and my husband needs to use the fafsa to get scholarships/loans for university this Fall.

Obviously we'll wait until we receive the greencard to go back again but my question is, should we try a different administration office? I'm not sure if we can do that when applying for a SSN but it's only 90 miles away and I'll need to go to the town it's in to activate our new phones anyway.

Any help or advice is appreciated!

-Crystal

[Darnell 8,479]

OK that's weird.

I suggest you go to a CBP office nearby and ask the staff at the counter to look him up in the SAVE system.

[NikLR 13,232]

all registration numbers for the recent CR1 are 8 digits. They need to add a 0 after A to get 9 digits.

Example:

see how the registration number is 8 digits? The A# is A00000473

[NikLR 13,232]

Also see the line at the bottom.. are they too stupid to read?

[Canadian Bacon 6]

all registration numbers for the recent CR1 are 8 digits. They need to add a 0 after A to get 9 digits.

Example:

see how the registration number is 8 digits? The A# is A00000473

Also see the line at the bottom.. are they too stupid to read?

Thank you guys for the replies! My brother is a cop and I was thinking about having him look up my husband in the SAVE database - he knows how to do it. The closest CBP office on the other side of the state, about 4 hours drive - ironically where we're thinking on moving to in the next month or so.

I've tried walking them through it but I think part of the problem is, is that he's not a citizen. There were other permanent residents in the office the couple itmes we went and it seemed they always turned them away too! They say the I-551 is no good without the endorsement but it is endorsed! There's a US border patrol stamp with the CR1 endorsment and date written on it. = _ = I can't believe the manager can't firgure this out. He wanted to send a form to USCIS to request proff and that takes weeks, where all they have to do it look properly...

[Canadian Bacon 6]

Well the local CBP won't help, they say they only do I-94 and customs stuff.... They said to talk to USCIS but they won't do anything for us when I call. They say just to "wait".

[Dave&Roza 748]

Go to another office. Most of those SSA people in those Midwestern states not trained at all. I would also e-mail the main SSA website and state what happened. Give them the date, time, the people your husband and Father interacted with and also tell them of being called an illegal alien. You should get an e-mail from the main office that will instruct the local office on the proper procedures for an IR-1/CR-1 visa. Yes, you will have to educate them. After getting the SSC, I would go back to that local office and show them just to be a PITA assuming I had the time .

Good luck,

Dave

P.S. If your brother can look him up and get a print out to give to you that would be great. At least have him verify the information in the database is correct.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Dave&Roza

[Canadian Bacon 6]

Go to another office. Most of those SSA people in those Midwestern states not trained at all. I would also e-mail the main SSA website and state what happened. Give them the date, time, the people your husband and Father interacted with and also tell them of being called an illegal alien. You should get an e-mail from the main office that will instruct the local office on the proper procedures for an IR-1/CR-1 visa. Yes, you will have to educate them. After getting the SSC, I would go back to that local office and show them just to be a PITA assuming I had the time .

Good luck,

Dave

P.S. If your brother can look him up and get a print out to give to you that would be great. At least have him verify the information in the database is correct.

Good idea, I'll send them an email. We're going to go to a different one on Monday and if they can't do it, it's only an hour some drive to the next office and they have to know how to do something - it's the state capitol! Haha, in the mean time, my brother's going to have a friend from ICE check his documents to make sure the border patrol and everyone did their job.

Luck(or not), we do get to go back after he gets his card because I'm in the middle of changing my last name.

I called around today and all I had was problems, the people we're supposed to call to fix ELIS accounts have to transfer you to officers because they're too new to have those priviledges. Waited 40+minutes for a call back only for the phone I had borrowed to have weird chirping sounds on the officers end so go no there with trying to see if the greencard had been issued. The old MSC reciept number had been changed since yesterday so hopfully that may mean they're doing something with the case at USCIS(printing the greencard).

-Crystal

[Darnell 8,479]

Well the local CBP won't help, they say they only do I-94 and customs stuff.... They said to talk to USCIS but they won't do anything for us when I call. They say just to "wait".

That's exceptionally strange.

Sounds like yer calling them, via phone, though, so

I suggest you call back, and ask for the shift supervisor, and ask for a SAVE db lookup. The gear is there in the office.

[TBoneTX 46,117]

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

[NickD 203]

Last visit I had to our local SS office, the guy at the counter was a certified idiot, had to politely ask to speak to his supervisor, at least she had some brains.

Bush wanted the SS to keep track of immigration, SS told him where to jump. But Obama got the SS involved by giving them a 100 million bucks. Unfortunately, even with all that money, they still don't know anything about immigration.

Try to explain to an idiot what a USCIS one year extension notice is on an expired conditional green card to an idiot that never even heard of the USCIS! Too many agencies, too many idiots. Worse yet is trying to explain an I-551 stamp in a foreign passport book.

[Canadian Bacon 6]

Last visit I had to our local SS office, the guy at the counter was a certified idiot, had to politely ask to speak to his supervisor, at least she had some brains.

Bush wanted the SS to keep track of immigration, SS told him where to jump. But Obama got the SS involved by giving them a 100 million bucks. Unfortunately, even with all that money, they still don't know anything about immigration.

Try to explain to an idiot what a USCIS one year extension notice is on an expired conditional green card to an idiot that never even heard of the USCIS! Too many agencies, too many idiots. Worse yet is trying to explain an I-551 stamp in a foreign passport book.

Haha I know!

Ugh, my husband threw a hissy fit when I told him we were going to an SSA office 2 1/2 hours away, last night, until I gave in and prepared instructions for the SSA office people at our local office. I can't believe I let him talk me into going there again.

Anyway, I brought our whole case file with everything in huge folders, along with papers and Loomis envelope. Mike(the "manager") saw me and the papers and ran and hid in the back rooms until we were gone! He made the woman that was handling us have to go back and find him to ask him on the DHS verification proceedures - although I already had a 50 page stack of highlighted print outs explaining the SAVE database, the verification process, the time it takes before immigrants should go to the SSA office, an explaination from USCIS and DHS showing that a I-551 IS a greencard foil, ect. Luckily the woman in the office was familiar with immigrants because of her extended family. Plus it helped when he handed her the passport at the page the visa is printed on and told her it WAS a greencard. :/

They still couldn't find him in the SAVE database, I sent an email to them last Friday to make sure they have his record right. She did the second proceedure DHS verification process without telling us until right before we left - but I just left it. At least this way, she actually accepted the application and we'd get his number eventually!!????? FUUUUUU D:

The "manager" said his name was miss spelt last time he went but I've checked with everyone, DHS, USCIS, DOS, consulate, ect. and they all say his name is correct so the manager doesn't know jack. Haha, I can't believe he ran like a coward to the back room with his coffee and donuts! Pretty sure he even spilt some coffee on the carpet.

So, following other instructions based on the SAVE database, was it a good idea to have DHS verification or did we mess up? I read somewhere(can't find the link) that that would be the easiest. Since we won't be getting the PR card for around another 2 weeks(printed), that should be long enough for his SSN to be issued around that time.

-Crystal

Edited January 6, 2014 by Canadian Bacon

[Darnell 8,479]

ya, without successful SAVE db lookup at the SSA office,

you should have simply left and then gone to CBP office to check things there.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/405546-ssn-howto/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/405546-ssn-howto/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/405546-ssn-howto/

IMO, DHS verification is the kiss of death. IMO, that office needs special retraining. You can facilitate that, with several phone calls into the national IRS call center, getting the right person...

Edited January 6, 2014 by Darnell

[Canadian Bacon 6]

ya, without successful SAVE db lookup at the SSA office,

you should have simply left and then gone to CBP office to check things there.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/405546-ssn-howto/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/405546-ssn-howto/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/405546-ssn-howto/

IMO, DHS verification is the kiss of death. IMO, that office needs special retraining. You can facilitate that, with several phone calls into the national IRS call center, getting the right person...

Wow, well I hope everything goes through....Either way it's all messed up - there's never been a time in our case that something wasn't messed up because of system errors/translations/etc. I called around to other CBP offices but they won't answer anything about that. If anything, we'll have to drive the 4+ hours to Omaha's office when it warms up. Does the CBP office have to be on the border or is any state good?

Kind of pissy right now because USCIS finally reset our ELIS account to check the GC status and they haven't done jack with it since the 29th of November. Could this be part of the problem? It's just in "accepted" not "optimized" - as if we never even POE'd. D:

Hopefully it'll be fine once we need to file taxes - if not well, I guess it's a good thing I didn't make any $$$ anywhere and that it's just a report of what my husband made in Canada... no tax needed paid to either parties so they should accept it with "immigrant, SSN pending" and a letter. It's annoying because the DMV won't give him a driver's license with out a SSN or DHS verification and he can't file the FAFSA. :/

[NikLR 13,232]

For my driver's license I ended up going to the Department of Revenue (it's the overall leader of the DMV here in Colorado) for them to verify and correct my SAVE db. (I didn't have any issues with the SSN however) Darnell suggested I go to the CBP but it turned out later I couldn't get my driver's license until there was a special note put on my DMV file saying I had checked out so going to the CBP wouldn't actually have helped me in the long run. I think the SSA office did the DHS verification with me and honestly I got the SSN a week later so it must have worked out. I had planned on asking at the SSA office about the SAVE db but forgot after waiting there 1/2 a day.