SSN & Green Card After Entry with a CR-1

[JAC&MEH 34]

I will apologize in advance if I am posting this in the wrong area.  My wife obtained her CR-1 and entered the country on 7/14/20.  When we submitted her DS-260, we answered YES when asked if we wanted the SSA to issue a SSN and card.  It's now been over 3 months and we have not received her card.  I contacted the SSA after she had been in the country for a little over a month and they informed me that due to COVID that it is now taking up to 3 months to receive her card.  They told us she could come in for an interview and they would issue her a SSN but they warned against it as she may then have 2 SSN's assigned to her so we headed their advice and waited.

 

Another issue is that she has also not received her green card which I was lead to believe could take up to 120 days which we are beyond that as well.  My concern is that nothing that was supposed to just automatically occur after entering the country is happening.  Does anyone know whether or not a SSN must be assigned BEFORE they will issue her a green card? The reason I am asking is that generally (BEFORE COVID), it would only take 30 days to get your SS card in the mail and then another couple of months you would get your green card.  Perhaps the reason that she has not received her green card is due to the fact that she does not yet have a SSN assigned.

 

We have made an appointment with the local SSA office for an interview in a couple of weeks so that she can at least get a SSN assigned but will we then need to also manually request the green card that was supposed to have already arrived?

 

I would appreciate anyone chiming in that is either intimately aware of the process following entry into the country or has also only recently entered the country and perhaps is in the same boat as we are.

[Mike E 11,739]

SSA and USCIS are separate agencies and it is not uncommon for the SSN to fail to be issued to new LPRs
 

It is also not uncommon for new LPRs (via immigration visa - IV) to never receive their green cards.  I gather that the reasoning is because those who arrive on an immigration visa already have an I-551 in the form of their endorsed IV.   
 

Start preparing your I-90 or just make appointments with the nearest USCIS field office to get I-551 stamps each time your I-551 stamp expires.  

[HRQX 4,145]

47 minutes ago, JAC&MEH said:

Another issue is that she has also not received her green card which I was lead to believe could take up to 120 days which we are beyond that as well.

Did you pay the $220 USCIS Immigrant Fee before or after she entered the US? On which date was it paid? https://my.uscis.gov/uscis-immigrant-fee

[JAC&MEH 34]

All fees were paid per the CEAC status page on 2/28/20

[HRQX 4,145]

16 minutes ago, JAC&MEH said:

All fees were paid per the CEAC status page on 2/28/20

USCIS Immigrant Fee is paid separately after the visa is issued. If you haven't paid it, Green card will not be issued until you pay it: https://my.uscis.gov/uscis-immigrant-fee

Edited October 24, 2020 by HRQX

[JAC&MEH 34]

Maybe that is the issue....  Could that also be the reason why her SSN has not been processed or are those two not inter-related at all?  According to the SSA website it states that the DoS and Homeland Security will share her info with the SSA if we answered YES on the DS-260.  Maybe they don't release the information unless you have paid the $220....  When I go to the CEAC website, it says:

 

	Transaction Date	Service	Amount	Payment Status
Select	28-FEB-2020 17:11	AOS	$120.00	PAID
Select	28-FEB-2020 17:15	IV	$325.00	PAID

   

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to General Immigration-Related Discussion.

[HRQX 4,145]

20 minutes ago, JAC&MEH said:

or are those two not inter-related at all?

They shouldn't be inter-related. For SSN, it's just selecting "Yes" on DS-260 and entering with the Immigrant Visa. So it's an issue that SSA should resolve.

 

For the green card, pay the $220 on USCIS.gov: https://my.uscis.gov/uscis-immigrant-fee Blue "Next" button

They'll provide you with a new USCIS case number that should start with "IOE" If the card isn't issued within 120 days of payment, you can submit an out of processing times inquiry: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/expect-green-card "You paid the immigrant visa fee AFTER you entered"

[JAC&MEH 34]

Thanks for clearing up my confusion.  I feel really stupid now.  I paid the fees just now but was not issued a new case number but then again, my original I-130 case number started with IOE so maybe I just keep using the same receipt number.

[JAC&MEH 34]

This is where my suspicion came from:

If You Requested an SSN When You Applied for Your Visa 

If you requested an SSN card as part of your visa application, U.S. Department of State (DoS), Form DS 230, “Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration” or the electronic Form DS 260, “Immigrant Visa Electronic Application”, DoS and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will share with us the information needed to issue you an SSN card. Therefore, you do not need to fill out a special application or go to a Social Security office to get an SSN.

We will assign you an SSN and issue you a Social Security card after you arrive in the United States. If you already have an SSN, we will issue you a replacement SSN card. We will mail your SSN card to the U.S. mailing address where the Department of Homeland Security will send your Permanent Resident Card. You should receive your Social Security card within 3 weeks after you arrive.

 

That made me think that perhaps by inadvertently holding up her green card, I had also delayed their normal process for issuing her a SSN.  We'll see.... Either way, you have been extremely helpful!

[HRQX 4,145]

3 minutes ago, JAC&MEH said:

I paid the fees just now but was not issued a new case number but then again,

Was there a field to put in email address? If so did you get an email? https://www.uscis.gov/forms/filing-fees/uscis-immigrant-fee/uscis-immigrant-fee-payment-guide "You will receive a payment confirmation from ELISdonotreply@uscis.dhs.gov with the subject “Pay.gov Payment Confirmation: Immigrant Visa.” The email will include your receipt number beginning with the letters IOE. We encourage you to save this email for your records."

[JAC&MEH 34]

This is the email that I received:

 

 

Your payment has been submitted to Pay.gov and the details are below. If you have questions about this notification or need technical support, please contact us online at https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/contactus and reference the receipt number(s) shown below.

Application Name: USCIS Immigrant Fee
Pay.Gov Tracking ID: 2XXXXXX
Agency Tracking ID: XXXXXXXXX
Transaction Type: Credit Card
Transaction Amount: $220.00
Payment Date: Oct 24, 2020

Transaction Date: Oct 24, 2020 04:56:53 PM


Your payment was applied to the following case(s):
IOE03789XXXXX


THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE.  PLEASE DO NOT REPLY.

 

The IOE number that they reference above is the same receipt number we received on our I-797C.  I was reading a section about verify identity in my case status account.  The account was established BEFORE she ever received her Visa.  When I try to follow the directions, it asks for her A number and Case number and then brings me back to my logon page.  After I log on, it says I have not completed my identity quiz so I start that process and I immediately get an error.  Very strange.  I was thinking maybe it was because the account had already been established earlier but it does mention it may ask questions of things that may appear on your actual visa which clearly I did not have access to when I created the account earlier.  Very odd.

[HRQX 4,145]

7 minutes ago, JAC&MEH said:

The IOE number that they reference above is the same receipt number we received on our I-797C.

Interesting. Some have reported experiencing the opposite:

 

[JAC&MEH 34]

I looked at it again and you are correct.  It is different but it was only a couple of digits off in our case.   That's really strange.  I just glanced at it and  then looked at my I-797C and they looked the same.  After getting your message, and looked more closely it was just off a few digits.

[JAC&MEH 34]

When I was looking at other people's experiences, their I-130 Receipt number was not and IOE number and then when they paid their immigrant fee, they got an IOE.  In our case, we had an IOE from the get go.