Hey my husband was offered his first job in the US pending background checks. We just heard back today that the background check came back "Negative" and that he would not be able to take the job. He obviously had to clear the government background checks to get the K1 Visa. He has been here for 3 weeks and had absolutely no encounters with the law. What could have possibly come up? What do you think we should do? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Christina

We do background checks here, were his done finger print based? You would be surprised how many people find other people makeing up names and they just happen to be actual, social security numbers are guesed up maybe changing one number at time of arrest. If and when the "real" name, social etc surfaces they are not taken off but now become aliases. Fingerprints based will be the only true way to tell.....

No clue, maybe credit rating??? Soem companies do check ur credit rating, and him being new woul dhave no credit. Wouldnt make sense to deny someone a job just on that,one would think.

Very rare where they deny a job based on credit. Hmm...I wonder what it could be.

That's too bad. A company recently did a background check on me and they said that they could not find my SSN (it is not a valid number or something similar). They still offerred me the job regardless. What kind of job, if you do not mind me asking, that your husband is applying for ?

Thanks a lot for the replies...They were not based on his finger print. He is applying for a job at Target (the store) and all they have so far is his SSN and address. I'm thinking it might have something to do with his SSN because we are also having some trouble opening a bank account (they tell me his SSN doesn't verify, but when I called the SSN office they say everything is fine).

They wouldn't give me any info over the phone so later on today I'm going to go down to the store to see if I can get more info. This is so frustrating because we really want to squeeze in as much work as possible before the K1 I-94 expires!

Thanks
Christina

Check with your SSO (Social Security Office), and find out why your SSN cannot be used to verify your background.

You can also go do your own record check for acceracy... or maybe the company might provide information about what they saw. I know my son was turned down on a job lately and the company told him about a prev. company that had given him a bad report.

I was turned down for a job at Safeway because they already had my SSN number in their system with an adverse marker. When I pointed out I had never worked for Safeway they conceded that someone else had either used my number or they had mistyped someone else's number when entering it. Either way they made it clear it was my problem and they didn't give a toss.

It wasn't even a decent job just the bottom of the heap packing groceries but a bit of digging by my wife made it clear that US Citizens have the first call on jobs there. There seems little chance where I am of getting a decent job of any kind.

If they cannot verify your SSN or SSN came back as invalid number, try to go down to SSA office and get a signed statement that that SS number belongs to your name.

I got that statement once in 2006 for DMV (they could not verify my SSN even after I showed them my SS card). As for the job, I just showed them the signed statement and it was okay.

I doubt very much that anything has come up on his background check. It is probably the fact that they cannot find him in the system that is causing a problem. Maybe your husband can contact them and let them know that he will not be verifyable for a while however he has gone through strict immigration processes.

Good Luck

I agree he will not have a credit history to associate with a new social security card and this shows them as not being here in the USA. We went thru this with my husband when we went to purchase a car and also make sure that they spelled his name and have his social security number correct that they were trying to verify. Toyota mispelled my husband's name and put his first name last and misspelled, and his last name first as well as they mistyped his ss card number. What a mess took me three months to correct with all three major credit agencies.

Good luck and follow thru with what Broma suggested since it will not hurt to try and get them to understand that he had to clear his immigration checks to be here in the USA now.

We recently went through the same thing. We got a copy from that company that did these checks in the mail and one said "high risk for fraud" and another copy that said "high risk for social security fraud!" We contacted the company and they said no problem that my husband only needed to send a copy of his social security card, his work permit and a picture ID to them and they would process everything again. They said the company he had interviewed with would look over everything again. Well....today, a month after the fact we received the same exact letters in the mail stating once again that this company will not hire him. I'm guessing it's because when they try to pull info on him there is nothing because he's only been here for 6 months. Sucks though.

Due to privacy laws, your husband will probably have to make the inquiry.

They are required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to indicate what source provided the "negative" information. Additionally, that source is required by law to provide you with a copy of whatever report was provided by the party that requested info from them and used it to deny you a job. Have the potential employer write you a formal letter indicating you have been denied, the source(s) used to provide information, and so forth. They are required by law (FCRA) to do this. Feel free to inform them of this fact if that balk at your request, etc.

Cheers!
AKDiver

If his name or even part of his name matches anyone on the SDN list provided by the Treasury Dept, he could have trouble getting a job or getting credit. This is because the US law prohibits anyone from giving support to terrorists even a very simple transaction could be considered support. So buisnesses have either denied/delayed employment or credit if someones name even partially matches anyone on the list. Some of the names are very common in the middle east.

SDN list: http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/

Hey just wanted to update, we did get a report from the Background check agency and the result was "Invalid SSN." So I called them, and they said that we need to go to the SSN office and get a letter confirming that this number belongs to my husband. Then we need to bring this letter and a copy of the SS card to Target (the store where my husband is applying) and they can resend everything and run another check. I'm not sure its going to work but we're willing to try.

This is so frustrating because we thought once we had the SS# things would be okay. We have not been able to open a bank account or clear these background checks even though the number is fine.

How is a letter from the SSN any harder to fake than the SSN card itself? Hell, it's even easier!

At any rate, I don't think a job at Target merits any kind of real effort - I'd look elsewhere.

I don't understand either about the letter. I don't get why they can't just call the Offrice and verify. Unfortunetly, my hubby really needs a job and Target is the only place that called us back. He doesn't speak English, but he speaks Spanish. I am kind of dissapointed because I thought he'd at least be able to get some kind of job with the Spanish (at least where I'm from there are a ton of fast food works, restaurants busboys and such that don't speak any English). I guess no english + 1 month in the country + Muslim name = tough time finding a job.

Even a DMV could not do a call & verify. I needed to go to SSA office myself & got that letter. I still keep that verification letter in case I need it in the future.

Good luck with the job !

Well, the point was really, what is the point of the letter? If one can fake a SS card, one can much more easily fake a letter from SS that says the fake SS card is real. In the end, it's just fucking stupid.

Cheers!
AKDiver

It may be stupid but it works.

I would not read between lines here. They had other candidates whose SSN were easy to verify and preferred to hire somebody else. I work part time in the store and my observation is that management there are not a bunch of rocket scientists, they are afraid of things that never happened before and scared to death to do something that was never done before. Lack of local references is a problem. Being a foreigner is a problem. Unverified SSN is a BIG problem in eyes of a limited person.

By the way: all new SSN's are unverifiable through credit check (not sure about criminal history), even though they are all issued by Social Security Administration.

Good luck in job search.

Ana