SSA Office Wont Issue SSN

[Chanel H. 41]

Hello! My husband arrived in the US on Thursday on a CR1 visa. We selected "NO" on the DS-260 for the question "Do you want the Social Security Administration to issue a Social Security number and a card?". We went to the SSA office today but the person there said they won't issue a card even though we selected "No" because "immigration has been issuing them anyway and people have been getting 2 cards" and to wait 6 weeks.

 

After reading the forum and seeing folks getting different answers at different offices, my concern is that the person at the office is not correct about this. What's everyone's experience with this, it sounds like we should go to another office and try again?

 

Thanks 😀

Edited May 22, 2023 by Chanel H.

[Crazy Cat 41,836]

We selected "yes", and my wife's SS card automatically arrived in 9 days.  You should try another SS office.  If that fails, you'll just have to wait 6 weeks.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[powerpuff 6,697]

Try a different SSA office. Preferably in a larger town/city with bigger immigrant community 

[Chancy 6,241]

22 hours ago, Chanel H. said:

What's everyone's experience with this, it sounds like we should go to another office and try again?

 

Recent experience of someone who successfully applied for SSN at the second SSA office after being misinformed by staff at the first one --

 

 

[Chanel H. 41]

As an update for others who may see this, yesterday we called and they said that the first office was wrong and that the card would not be issued because we selected "NO" on the question "Do you want the Social Security Administration to issue a Social Security number and a card?". They said we need to go to an office and apply. Today we went to another SS office and the person working said that a card has already been issued, yesterday, and to come back in two weeks if it doesn't arrive. I'm pretty skeptical about this because we selected "NO" on the question "Do you want the Social Security Administration to issue a Social Security number and a card?", and the person at the different office yesterday didn't do any application for us, and the person on the phone didn't say anything about a card already being issued, and nothing shows up in SAVE.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Chanel H.

[Chanel H. 41]

Another update- we went back to the first SS office (the one who told us to wait six weeks) and spoke to another person. That person gave him his SSN to write down and said to wait for the card in the mail. We've been able to use the number to open bank accounts and credit cards. Eight weeks later the SS card has not arrived and we are going back to the SS today. I hope this helps someone in the future.