Hi Gang!

Well, after a process which stretched out to 16 months between application and entry into the US (and a four month absence), my wife and son and I rejoiced at being reunited in the US in early December! Her GC arrived in late January, and we were relieved to have that out of the way. However, her social security card has not arrived. About a month ago, we went to our local Social security office with a fresh SS application, figuring that her application which was part of her immigration had gotten dropped somewhere along the way. We were told that her application is actually in the system, but that it's 'pending', and that they could not give us any further information. I recently discovered that, according to this Social Security policy document, apparently her application should have been cleared, or she should have been asked to submit another application (which we had with us).

Have any other GC holders had a three-month delay in getting their SSN? What can be done? The SSA phone menu system is the most impenetrable I can recall encountering in recent memory.

Can I call the State Dept? Will that help?

Will it help to call my Congressman?

Any insights or experiences on this would be greatly appreciated; we need to file our income tax soon.

Matt & Chandra

I have had a similar problem in that I have not received mine but I have only been waiting for 3 weeks. I went to the SS office today and they have said they still have not received a request from immigration to give me a SS card. Lady there told me just to fill out a new form as if they were going to receive the request for a SS card they would have it by now. I don't think we can trust the immigration service for this.

As said by the previous poster go to your local SSA office and apply for your SSN... that is the fastest way to get one...


Kez

Oooooh Matt, your situations sounds a lot like my husband's and you know what I ended up doing? I called the local SSA office where we had gone (twice) to give them a new SS card application and went off on them, then the rude receptionist transferred me to someone else, got a voice mail and that upset me even more. So, I went off on her too and said that it was ridiculous how they had handled my husband's SS card application and that I was going there in person that same week to make things happen. This was on a Monday and we went in on Wednesday and all of a sudden the lady who saw us that day said "Oh, your application was approved on Monday but we still don't have the card but here's the number". What a coincidence that the application was approved the same day I had to leave a nasty message on sombody's voice mail. Veeery interesting...

The card arrived in the mail the following week.

You need to be on these people or they'll play you like you don't exist because to them, you're just a number.

Diana

Thanks so much to all who replied.

Diana, I found your experience above to be intriguing. I have not been able to acquire a phone number for any SS office, including the one where we visited (and maybe were too polite..... ); all I can find is the same toll-free number with the impenetrable menu system. In the event, we're planning on faxing the permission form to our congressman this weekend. Hopefully he will be able to move things quickly.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

hi,

MAtt .. you can go to the socialsecurity.gov website... enter your city or zip code and you will get the SS office address and phone number... call them, they are busy all the time.. and yes for them we are just a number... and threy work tooo slow.. i tell you.... there are 4 windows and they keep just 2 open .. and take break after each application....

I had to wait for 1 month... then i personally applied and got SSN in 14 working days.

Jigi

Did you call the 1-800 number on the SSA website?

Go to the office have your form already filled out. We went on a Monday after the boys arrived that Saturday and within a week and half we had both cards. And it the person in the window does not help ask for a Supervisor because if they came on a CR1 should already be in the SAVE system.

Go back to the office to speak with the office manager Explain that your wife applied through the Enumeration At Entry process and should have received an SSN card within 3 weeks. However, your employee(s) has said that the EAE application is pending, so they need to either resolve the reason for the appliation not having processed or take an application in the office.

RM 00202.315 Enumeration At Entry:

http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0100202315


BTW Did you submit an application for the child? If the child came in as a permanent resident, the child is eligible to be assigned an SSN.

Hi I Q and all,

Our son is a US citizen (born abroad to us several years after marriage; he has the "Report of a Birth..." US certificate), so he's had a SS# for years.

I think maybe we'll try to go to the office this coming week and push a little bit more. She had a filled out form when we went before (we'd thought that maybe her entry into the enumeration at entry thing had somehow gotten dropped), but the agent would receive it (or do anything else) when he saw that she was already in the system.

We've been in contact with my congressman's office, but so far this has been of little help. His aide on this issue said that SSA simply take a lot of time to do things. Not very encouraging.

I'll post anything further to this thread (and appreciate any further pearls of wisdom), in part so it can be added for anyone who has a similar problem in the future.

Thanks!

Matt & Chandra

Well, my wife's card arrived today.

It turned out to have been tremendously helpful, possibly even crucial, to have gotten my congressman involved. A couple of weeks ago, there was a call from the head of the social security branch nearest my permanent residence, who gave the extension to his own office phone. When I told him I was currently in another state pursuing postgraduate studies, he told me it would be no problem. My wife had to submit a new application, but branch head from my home state made a point of giving us a reference number and other information to "ensure we weren't given the run-around". It was clear that this was at least partly in response to my congressman's having made contact with the office.

If your spouse's social security card/number is delayed, call your congressman's office. In addition to having a "point person" for immigration issues, each office also has a "point person" for social security issues. In the case of both immigration and social security, contact with the congressman's office turned out to be very helpful. The US is a representative democracy, and we have the right to make use of that.

Hope this info is useful for someone reading this.

Matt & Chandra