Is there a way to get a spouse a U.S. social security number while waiting for spouse visa?

[dle3452 5]

My spouse is in the Philipines waiting for her spouse visa.  I received a Request for Evidence letter from USCIS.  They want evidence of shared bank accounts, share housing contracts ect...  She has never been to the US, I tried to sign her on to my bank accounts and with out a SSA they can't. My tax preparer didnt put me as married since she isnt here and no SSA.  We were able to add her as my military dependent at the VA in Manila.  

Is there a way I can get her a SSA while we are waiting for the Visa?  

On the items they want shared contracts I wrote in the letter why she isnt on them.

Thank you for any help.

Dan & Juliana Nora

[Lil bear 4,094]

You should have filed Married filing separately.  

[pushbrk 12,636]

1 hour ago, dle3452 said:

My spouse is in the Philipines waiting for her spouse visa.  I received a Request for Evidence letter from USCIS.  They want evidence of shared bank accounts, share housing contracts ect...  She has never been to the US, I tried to sign her on to my bank accounts and with out a SSA they can't. My tax preparer didnt put me as married since she isnt here and no SSA.  We were able to add her as my military dependent at the VA in Manila.  

Is there a way I can get her a SSA while we are waiting for the Visa?  

On the items they want shared contracts I wrote in the letter why she isnt on them.

Thank you for any help.

Dan & Juliana Nora

Shared finances is just one item on a list of possible types of relationship evidence.  Concentrate on the other items.  Most important is evidence of time spent together in person.  That would be passport stamps, boarding passes, and photos together.

[EmilyW 1,349]

You also need to adjust your tax return.  My understanding is that you can't file electronically, but you can file via paper.

[KMG 79]

18 hours ago, dle3452 said:

My spouse is in the Philipines waiting for her spouse visa.  I received a Request for Evidence letter from USCIS.  They want evidence of shared bank accounts, share housing contracts ect...  She has never been to the US, I tried to sign her on to my bank accounts and with out a SSA they can't. My tax preparer didnt put me as married since she isnt here and no SSA.  We were able to add her as my military dependent at the VA in Manila.  

Is there a way I can get her a SSA while we are waiting for the Visa?  

On the items they want shared contracts I wrote in the letter why she isnt on them.

Thank you for any help.

Dan & Juliana Nora

My husband is not on my bank accounts, but I did create a last will and testament as evidence.

[W199 322]

19 hours ago, dle3452 said:

My spouse is in the Philipines waiting for her spouse visa.  I received a Request for Evidence letter from USCIS.  They want evidence of shared bank accounts, share housing contracts ect...  She has never been to the US, I tried to sign her on to my bank accounts and with out a SSA they can't. My tax preparer didnt put me as married since she isnt here and no SSA.  We were able to add her as my military dependent at the VA in Manila.  

Is there a way I can get her a SSA while we are waiting for the Visa?  

On the items they want shared contracts I wrote in the letter why she isnt on them.

Thank you for any help.

Dan & Juliana Nora

Are you implying that you filed your taxes as being single despite being married? If so, then wow, your tax preparer was really incompetent.  Now if anything, the evidence of filing as single shows you don't consider yourself married. 

 

Furthermore,  If your  Wife has no or little income, and you do have income, then the tax rate for filing anything other than Joint is much higher. Therefore,  you are throwing away a big advantage of doing a CR-1 which allows you to save taxes by filing jointly. You Wife does does not need to be in the USA or have a SSA to do that.

 

You might want to consider filing amended taxes so at least you will have some evidence. 

 

Most likely it will be favorable to file as Joint. If the SSA refused your Wife a SSN, all you need to do is to use that rejection letter and fill out a form with the taxes for an ITIN number, You could then use that number to open bank accounts as well. The IRS instructions very clearly explains how to do this.

 

[TiffAndMike 38]

Do you rent or own your home? If you rent, you could always add your spouse to your lease. My husband is on my lease.

 

Also, you could put her as an authorized user on your credit card. No SSN needed as an Authorized User. Capital One Venture is a really good card for this as there is no forigen transaction fees. It would be easy to prove combined finances as there would be transactions made in both the Philippines and USA.

[pushbrk 12,636]

1 hour ago, W199 said:

Are you implying that you filed your taxes as being single despite being married? If so, then wow, your tax preparer was really incompetent.  Now if anything, the evidence of filing as single shows you don't consider yourself married. 

 

Furthermore,  If your  Wife has no or little income, and you do have income, then the tax rate for filing anything other than Joint is much higher. Therefore,  you are throwing away a big advantage of doing a CR-1 which allows you to save taxes by filing jointly. You Wife does does not need to be in the USA or have a SSA to do that.

 

You might want to consider filing amended taxes so at least you will have some evidence. 

 

Most likely it will be favorable to file as Joint. If the SSA refused your Wife a SSN, all you need to do is to use that rejection letter and fill out a form with the taxes for an ITIN number, You could then use that number to open bank accounts as well. The IRS instructions very clearly explains how to do this.

 

This subject comes up often and many are quite adamant about it.  However, in the twenty years I've been following spouse immigration to the USA, I've never once seen any evidence that filing single when married has any immigration related, or IRS related consequence.  Yes, it is not proper, and there's plenty of motivation to amend the return later.  But, the topic here is relationship evidence, so the OP needs to just skip the evidence of comingling finances and concentrate on other forms of evidence actually applicable when the couple hasn't lived in the same country together yet.

 

For what it's worth,.....I.....filed single when married and used the refund to finance my second trip to see my then wife in China.  Her interview lasted two minutes, with not a mention of anything financial, not even a mention of the affidavit of support, except to  hand it over.

 

Edited July 7 by pushbrk

[oldgreg 3]

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-7

 

I filed taxes jointly using this. Get a lot more money vs filing separately or single.

[LBT & MDM 1]

On 7/6/2024 at 8:47 PM, dle3452 said:

My spouse is in the Philipines waiting for her spouse visa.  I received a Request for Evidence letter from USCIS.  They want evidence of shared bank accounts, share housing contracts ect...  She has never been to the US, I tried to sign her on to my bank accounts and with out a SSA they can't. My tax preparer didnt put me as married since she isnt here and no SSA.  We were able to add her as my military dependent at the VA in Manila.  

Is there a way I can get her a SSA while we are waiting for the Visa?  

On the items they want shared contracts I wrote in the letter why she isnt on them.

Thank you for any help.

Dan & Juliana Nora

I was able to open a joint bank account with my spouse and it does not always require a ssn.  My bank sent him the papers via email and he signed them and sent them back via email. My bank is a credit union. I was also able to add him as an authorized user on my credit card account. Furthermore, I was able to open a joint bank account with him in his country. I hope this helps. Don't give up! 

[W199 322]

You don't have much time to reply to the RFE, so If I were you, I would try my best to gather

 

1) Prove to uscis that you tried by

   - Asking the banks for a rejection letter for a joint account

   - Getting a rejection letter from SSA

   

2) Check with more banks, and ask for rejection letters

3) Open a joint bank account with her in the Philippines, I did that with my Wife even though I am a non-resident,

4) Open up a joint credit card. AMEX is very good about adding an authorized user without a SSN. 

5) Send proof of adding her on your military VA dependent

6) Most importantly, the most powerful thing is to add her to your house or lease.

7) Since you have so little, I would throw the kitchen sink at it, include chat logs, plane tickets, photos of you and her together and with her family, and friends in the photos too

9) Show money transfer receipts to prove you are supporting her

10) Anything else to prove you are joining your lives together,

11) Amend your taxes and file properly, and send a copy of filing married jointly, and request an ITIN

 

 

Edited July 9 by W199

[pushbrk 12,636]

2 hours ago, W199 said:

You don't have much time to reply to the RFE, so If I were you, I would try my best to gather

 

1) Prove to uscis that you tried by

   - Asking the banks for a rejection letter for a joint account

   - Getting a rejection letter from SSA

   

2) Check with more banks, and ask for rejection letters

3) Open a joint bank account with her in the Philippines, I did that with my Wife even though I am a non-resident,

4) Open up a joint credit card. AMEX is very good about adding an authorized user without a SSN. 

5) Send proof of adding her on your military VA dependent

6) Most importantly, the most powerful thing is to add her to your house or lease.

7) Since you have so little, I would throw the kitchen sink at it, include chat logs, plane tickets, photos of you and her together and with her family, and friends in the photos too

9) Show money transfer receipts to prove you are supporting her

10) Anything else to prove you are joining your lives together,

11) Amend your taxes and file properly, and send a copy of filing married jointly, and request an ITIN

 

 

Number 9 above is a very bad idea.  The US Citizen sending money to the Philippines is not evidence of commingled finances.  It can hurt, and doesn't help.  Much of the rest won't be possible.  They did not just ask for financial evidence.  It's a laundry list.  In this situation, it's best to concentrate on evidence of time spent together in person.

 

[spicynujac 23]

I agree with the other posters that you are asking the wrong question.  Focus on presenting proper evidence of the relationship, not on obtaining your spouse an ID number in the American public pension plan.

 

Anyway, it is a very onerous process to be assigned a social security number while physically in the Philippines.  The IRS now requires a third party agent to file for you, and the only one in the Philippines is in Angeles City (supposedly the large accounting firms in Cebu and Manila can do this but in reality they do not and you will just waste your time trying).

 

I wanted to obtain a spousal SSN (Social Security Number--I assume you mean this by SSA?) so we could properly file joint tax returns and pay a much lower tax rate but traveling to Angeles City is not something I'm willing to do for this.  You have 3 years to amend your tax returns and hopefully I can do that and get a refund once she is in the US...  But the tax savings can be substantial (several thousand a year for me which should cover the money I'm paying to US immigration).

 

Name	Address
Jim Boyd Foundation	1925 MacArthur Highway 2009 Balibago Angeles City Philippines (6345) 888-2748

Edited July 9 by spicynujac

[W199 322]

What evidence did you enclose in your original i-130 petition?

[dle3452 5]

Thank you to everyone who gave me advice, I will look into the suggestions.

Dan & Juliana