Difficulties Receiving SSN for K-1

[molehills 68]

19 hours ago, KateD said:

My fiancé interviewed for his SSN 15 days after his arrival in the US on a K-1 visa. Everything at the interview went fine and the SSN official said he would get the approval in the mail in 2 weeks and the SSN card in a month. A month came and went and we thought maybe there was a delay due to the holidays. After the holidays, we checked in with our local SSN office and they informed us that Dept. of Homeland Security found an error on our application and it was still pending. SSN office couldn't say what the error was, but they would check and get back to us. After a week of calls with our local SSN office, we were told the error was fixed (SSN office said they were never informed what the error was) and we would be receiving the letter of approval in 2 weeks.

 

Well, another two weeks went by and we never received the letter. I called the SSN local office and it was back to the story of there was an error on our application (again couldn't say what said error was) and because the K-1 visa was about to expire in a couple of weeks, my fiancé would not receive a SSN. The SSN office informed us we could reapply once my fiancé's visa was renewed or extended.

 

I am pretty confident there was no error on his SSN application/supporting documents (we checked everything over multiple times and the SSN officer we interviewed with also confirmed that the SSN application was filled out correctly and  matched the supporting documents). I'm not sure what we could have done differently except checked in earlier when we didn't receive our letter within 2 weeks, but not sure it would have made a difference anyways.

 

My questions are:

1. Has anyone else experienced this particular issue? Does this happen frequently? (From reading here on VJ, I know many people have issues arise when dealing with the SSA)

2.  Any ideas what the error could be that Dept. of Homeland Security was referring to? Just wondering if this issue will pop-up again when he reapplies. 

3.  From everything that I have read, it seems he will have to wait for his EAD/AP to reapply for his SSN (contrary to what the local SSN officer said) but I wanted to confirm.

 

Thanks for any insights,

 

KateD

Same thing happened to us, they gave us a run around by saying his name was incorrectly put on the application, it expired, so now we're getting the SSN with the greencard.

[KateD 28]

11 hours ago, FaithProfessoR said:

 

So next time you call. You can tell them this. Did the system requested additional evidence?  if so, did you guys did it? 
 

 

Thanks for the good info. Unfortunately, it's too late for me but hopefully it helps someone else out.

[PWB 213]

The problem we had with SSA was their computer reflected that my Wife did not have legal residency.  The SSA agent working our case was quite simply horrid.  Could not read a visa, did not understand the I-94 and just used HLS as a scapegoat.  What we did was call the National Level of the SSA and reported our problem.  They we able to get the local office to issue her card, but even though we were married they would only issue the card under her maiden name. We got the number and that's what is important and will fight the battle with SSA after she gets her Green Card.  Sorry to say SSA is no different than all the Covid crazy government agencies.

[KateD 28]

11 hours ago, green_rabbit said:

We just pestered the guy at the SSA until time ran out, and nothing happened. We checked the box on EAD for a number, but didn't get one in a reasonable amount of time, so we went back to the SSA to get a number issued, and he ended up with two SSNs which freaked out the people at the SSA. So fyi, your adventures with the SSA could go on a while. It was annoying and difficult. And my credit card still won't upgrade his status on the account with his new SSN.

Thanks for the heads up! At this point, I just assume everything will be difficult and painful.

 

I was wondering about the SSN checkbox on the EAD and AP applications. We checked on both applications and we'll see what happens.

[KateD 28]

17 minutes ago, PWB said:

The problem we had with SSA was their computer reflected that my Wife did not have legal residency.  The SSA agent working our case was quite simply horrid.  Could not read a visa, did not understand the I-94 and just used HLS as a scapegoat.  What we did was call the National Level of the SSA and reported our problem.  They we able to get the local office to issue her card, but even though we were married they would only issue the card under her maiden name. We got the number and that's what is important and will fight the battle with SSA after she gets her Green Card.  Sorry to say SSA is no different than all the Covid crazy government agencies.

Wish I would have thought about calling the National Level. It was super frustrating they couldn't ever give me an answer to what the issue with the application was.

 

I dealt with multiple SSA agents and each one had no idea on what needed to be done to fix the issue--or at least that's what they said. Seems like they should encounter K-1s wanting SSNs with enough frequency that at least someone in the local office should be knowledgeable on the issues. Which makes me wonder if it skews more to not wanting to fix the issues than not being informed of the issues and fixes.

 

The immigration process is like running the gauntlet. If you are lucky, you make it through unscathed. But more likely, somewhere in the long process, no matter all your best efforts, you're going to get whacked.