Don't know ex husband's SSN

[JadedGal 0]

I'm currently putting together my i-751 petition alone. Things ended sour between my ex husband and I, we're not on speaking terms. However, as I'm looking through the i-751, they're asking for his SSN in part 3 and I just realized that I don't know it and I never came in contact with it during our marriage. He was the one who mainly took care of paperwork and after we split, a lot of important documents got left behind that he refuses to return to me now. What do I do? Is there anything else I can provide instead or should I explain in the cover letter why I can't provide his SSN?

[thisamericanlife 3]

Did you ever file taxes together -- regardless if you filed married jointly or seperately - as long as you filed MARRIED? If so, your ex-spouse's SSN should be listed on your previous tax return/s somewhere. If you don't have a copy in your possession, go to the IRS website and order a tax transcript.

[VOL 425]

Call a private detective......

[JadedGal 0]

thisamericanlife, during our 1,5 yrs of marriage I lived a very secluded life. I didn't have any family or friends there and I rarely got the chance to leave the house by myself, less alone have a job. Not having any income, I didn't have any taxes to file. I don't how how he filed his, we never discussed taxes :/

[thisamericanlife 3]

thisamericanlife, during our 1,5 yrs of marriage I lived a very secluded life. I didn't have any family or friends there and I rarely got the chance to leave the house by myself, less alone have a job. Not having any income, I didn't have any taxes to file. I don't how how he filed his, we never discussed taxes :/

Okay. That may be an issue in your ROC case. I don't have any experience in that respect, so I can't really give you any advice beyond this: you may want to get some independent legal advice. As for being secluded for nearly two years ... was he abusive to you/was the seclusion out of choice, or mental cruelty?

My second thought is to go back through your initial immigration paperwork (I-130), because at some point he will have had to put down his SSN to get you to America. You should have copies of that somewhere.

[thisamericanlife 3]

Also, I can't work out if you're filing jointly or separately. It sounds as if you are divorced/divorcing? If so, you should have his SSN in the divorce paperwork somewhere - typically you have to fill out a vital statistics certificate to even get divorced - so there has to be a record of it somewhere.

However, if you really don't have any record of the SSN, I would suggest you make an InfoPass appointment and ask USCIS what your next step should be.

[JadedGal 0]

thisamericanlife, thank you so much for taking the time and respond. Unfortunately, I'm not in possession of our i-130 pack. When I packed my belonging and left, I was depressed and not in the best state of mind. All I was thinking was that I needed out, I gathered essentials and my dog and left to never return. Many important documents (including the copy of our i-130 pack) were forgotten. I tried going back to the house recently and even had to call the police for assistance to retrieve documents and belongings with no luck. Our divorce has been finalized so I'm filing on my own. Looking through our joint petition for summary dissolution, there's no mentioning of his or my SSN.

[onye uwaoma 131]

thisamericanlife, thank you so much for taking the time and respond. Unfortunately, I'm not in possession of our i-130 pack. When I packed my belonging and left, I was depressed and not in the best state of mind. All I was thinking was that I needed out, I gathered essentials and my dog and left to never return. Many important documents (including the copy of our i-130 pack) were forgotten. I tried going back to the house recently and even had to call the police for assistance to retrieve documents and belongings with no luck. Our divorce has been finalized so I'm filing on my own. Looking through our joint petition for summary dissolution, there's no mentioning of his or my SSN.

if he has filed for divorce you can find the ssn on attached paystub in support of income and expense declaration form...

[Ms Hogan 295]

thisamericanlife, during our 1,5 yrs of marriage I lived a very secluded life. I didn't have any family or friends there and I rarely got the chance to leave the house by myself, less alone have a job. Not having any income, I didn't have any taxes to file. I don't how how he filed his, we never discussed taxes :/

You can go to the IRS web site and try logging in using your SSN and your birth date. Then you can see if there is a tax transcript there tied to you. If he filed jointly and married then there should be something there for you to look at.

[novedsac 355]

Are you in the discovery process of your divorce? If so, request a copy of his social security card/statement, along with a whole slew of other documents you should be looking at. If he doesn't provide, then they can be subpoenaed from the source.

As mentioned previously, if he filed a married joint return then he would have used your social security number and you can get access to the tax transcripts. Interestingly, though, you would have had to sign these returns. If he filed married separate, then you cannot get a copy of the tax transcripts in this manner - but you can obtain them during the discovery process as noted above.

[katiana_ramirez 1]

go to the IRS administration near to your home give them your ID and explain your situation they will give you the copy of tax return if you were married he should declare the tax together and then you find your both SSN on the top

good luck

[JadedGal 0]

Thanks for everyone who replied and came with tips. Unfortunately, it turns out he didn't file any taxes during the time we were married. He worked pretty infrequently, I must he must have worked illegally. So unfortunately there's not tax transcripts tied to me where I can get his SSN.

I looked through our divorce papers as well. It was a very simple Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution as we didn't have any separate/community property or obligations so we only used our full names when we wrote a short declaration saying that there was nothing to be divided.

What else can I do at this point to try to figure out his SSN, my deadline to send in the I-751 is getting closer and I'm just so stressed out. I'm already running pretty thin on evidence for our bona fide relationship as we lived a pretty simple and humble life with his parents so there's no bills or mortgage attached to our names. The only things I have are a bunch of travel documents of me coming to visit him when we were dating and places we traveled together, a joint bank account that we used for everything when we were married, 3 affidavits, a ton of pictures and a long detailed personal statement about how we met, circumstances of our lives and basically covering why the I only have really basic evidence. I don't want to add another red flag by also not knowing his SSN, I mean, USCIS surely has it as it can be found in our I-130 and AOS concurrent filing package. I'm kicking myself in the foot everyday over the fact that I didn't take our copy of the package with me when we split up. Does anyone have any advice to me?

[novedsac 355]

Thanks for everyone who replied and came with tips. Unfortunately, it turns out he didn't file any taxes during the time we were married. He worked pretty infrequently, I must he must have worked illegally. So unfortunately there's not tax transcripts tied to me where I can get his SSN.

I looked through our divorce papers as well. It was a very simple Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution as we didn't have any separate/community property or obligations so we only used our full names when we wrote a short declaration saying that there was nothing to be divided.

What else can I do at this point to try to figure out his SSN, my deadline to send in the I-751 is getting closer and I'm just so stressed out. I'm already running pretty thin on evidence for our bona fide relationship as we lived a pretty simple and humble life with his parents so there's no bills or mortgage attached to our names. The only things I have are a bunch of travel documents of me coming to visit him when we were dating and places we traveled together, a joint bank account that we used for everything when we were married, 3 affidavits, a ton of pictures and a long detailed personal statement about how we met, circumstances of our lives and basically covering why the I only have really basic evidence. I don't want to add another red flag by also not knowing his SSN, I mean, USCIS surely has it as it can be found in our I-130 and AOS concurrent filing package. I'm kicking myself in the foot everyday over the fact that I didn't take our copy of the package with me when we split up. Does anyone have any advice to me?

If you had joint bank accounts, then presumably you also signed the documentation when the accounts were opened. You should have an equal right to reviewing any information the bank may have retained on those accounts. If the accounts aren't too old, the banks may have copies of your original applications which most likely have the applicants' social security numbers. Each bank has a different set of rules around record retention - so if you have multiple accounts, don't stop asking if the first bank tells you they have nothing to provide.

You could also request copies of the immigration paperwork filed on your behalf, though this sometimes takes awhile, especially if you have to go through a FOIA request.

Are you still on good speaking terms with family or friends who may know him? You could ask for it, directly or indirectly.

[JadedGal 0]

If you had joint bank accounts, then presumably you also signed the documentation when the accounts were opened. You should have an equal right to reviewing any information the bank may have retained on those accounts. If the accounts aren't too old, the banks may have copies of your original applications which most likely have the applicants' social security numbers. Each bank has a different set of rules around record retention - so if you have multiple accounts, don't stop asking if the first bank tells you they have nothing to provide.

You could also request copies of the immigration paperwork filed on your behalf, though this sometimes takes awhile, especially if you have to go through a FOIA request.

Are you still on good speaking terms with family or friends who may know him? You could ask for it, directly or indirectly.

Our bank didn't require us to use SSN as form of identification. I actually didn't even have a SSN at the time and just used my passport. I don't remember what he used, I think it was his driver's license. FOIA is out of the question as I need to file in about a week or a little more.

I am on speaking terms with his mother and did ask her and she keeps saying she needs to ask her husband and it the subject changes, I think she feels uncomfortable giving away his personal information to me because her son did some very bad things to me after we got divorced and although I've been nothing but nice and forgiving because I don't want to cause them (his parents) hurt she's scared I might use it for bad or sketchy things. I've told her I need it because I'm filing some paperwork and the forms are asking for information of my ex husband but I didn't say specifically what form because I don't want them to know too much about my current life.

I feel so discouraged. If I file the form without his SSN, do you think I'll be denied?

[DC85 113]

In some stated they record the SSN when they issue the marriage license, you can check that as well

Edited March 14, 2015 by DC85