My pregnant K-1 fiancee's i-94 expires in 17 days and she has no SSN to get health coverage

[Nat&Amy 623]

1 hour ago, ADW & JOP said:

I think that is site specific. I got married at the San Diego city hall, less than 10 feet away from where they provided us with the certified copy 1-2 weeks later.

Agreed, it is very location specific. Got married in Hawaii and had to wait 5 weeks for the marriage certificate to be ready.

[Ed&Midori1031 330]

It's too bad that you didnt file for SS after a couple of weeks of your fiance being here.  Not trying to make you feel bad, but it would've been easier.  And having to adjust your wedding plans, it cant be easy. 

[Sarah&Facundo 589]

13 hours ago, jaysaldi said:

Thank you. We're getting married tomorrow. So if for some reason we don't have the NOA1 before open enrollment ends on December 15, I could sign up for myself by December 15 and add her before January 10?

 

Or do I also get until January 10 to sign up just by virtue of having gotten married on November 11? 

This was my experience. I got married to my husband in April. I (USC) had health insurance already through the exchange which covered me January-April. When we got married, we had 60 days to get a policy as a "life change event." We ended up having to get a whole new insurance plan. Also, we needed to register by the 15th of the month to get health insurance the following month. Because we filed after April 15th, we could not start our joint plan until June 1st. We just risked it for the month of May and hoped for the best, but of course I would not recommend doing that with pregnancy. 

[jaysaldi 213]

12 hours ago, Sarah&Facundo said:

This was my experience. I got married to my husband in April. I (USC) had health insurance already through the exchange which covered me January-April. When we got married, we had 60 days to get a policy as a "life change event." We ended up having to get a whole new insurance plan. Also, we needed to register by the 15th of the month to get health insurance the following month. Because we filed after April 15th, we could not start our joint plan until June 1st. We just risked it for the month of May and hoped for the best, but of course I would not recommend doing that with pregnancy. 

Thanks. Since we got married today I'm looking into doing a special enrollment before November 15 that will give her coverage for December. The coverage will of course have a high deductible and out of pocket maximum, so it may not save me anything, but it would be good to have in case there is a an expensive complication.

[jaysaldi 213]

As a final update to this, today I received a letter dated yesterday Nov. 14 that SSA can't issue a card at this time because her immigration status expires too soon (Nov. 28). That's not a surprise. 

After leaving the SSA office on the 12th being told she needed manual verification, I tried to check her SAVE check status online. I tried using both her I-94 number and her passport number. Each time, it would say "No case" or "connection timed out"

 

When I checked SAVE this morning, I saw her file and it seemed to say that she was verified and it said SAVE returned the case to DHHD and SSA  on the 12th. I don't know if that means she was verified on the 12th or not.  It doesn't matter now because I didn't see it before the time ran out.

Why didn't I see her case in the SAVE online system on the 12th or 13th?  I think it's because her I-94 number includes a capital A and I searched using a lowercase a. And her passport contains a capital N and I searched using lowercase n.  Because when I search on SAVE now using the capital letters, her file comes up, but when using lowercase, it doesn't.  Most search functions are not case sensitive, but SSA's database search is.

 

Had I searched SAVE using lowercase I might have seen that case was returned to agency on 12th or 13th and been able to go back and ask about the status and whether the card could be processed.  As it is, we'll have to wait 6 months or so to get her card.  I did get her signed up on my health insurance plan under the exchange, I just need to send in her post-AoS I-797 when we get that.

 

TL; DR: The SAVE search function is case sensitive

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by jaysaldi

[Crazy Cat 41,352]

1 hour ago, jaysaldi said:

I did get her signed up on my health insurance plan under the exchange, I just need to send in her post-AoS I-797 when we get that.

Great!!!!   That is a biggie!!!!