For any that have experienced the CR-1. Is the date they mail out the green card and social security card based on having visa issued or when you go through POE? Planning on spending a couple of months in Manila visiting wife's family and friends and don't want these laying around the post office. Thanks

It is processed after you go through POE.

Green card will be mailed from USCIS, Mesquite, TX in about 3-4 weeks after POE. If you don't receive your SS card by then, go to your nearest SS office and re-apply. Take your green card, passport with you, if you go to the SS office.

hi,

These days the Green card and SS card... take 6 weeks arrive... so go and enjoy your holiday and manila and come back soon

Jigi

7 weeks for us and still no SS card even after we went in person.

Diana

Visa issuance does not mean that you will ever use it. The trigger point is activation at arrival into the US.

Wow, that long???

It may take a while to get the SSN and the Green Card.

In my wife's case, it took about 60 days for the social security card to arrive after entering the US. She went to the local SocSecAdmin office after about seven weeks and the card was in the mail about three weeks later. However, she is still waiting for her Green Card. She did receive a welcome letter from USCIS about two weeks ago informing her that the POE paperwork had been received by USCIS (i.e., about six weeks after she had entered the US). We'll expect that the card will follow within the next two or three weeks now. For now, of course, the temporary I-551 stamp in her passport is just as good. There is no real urgency on our part since after entering the country on a IR/CR-1 visa, receiving the social security card as quickly as possible is more important than the actual green card.

Yup. We even went in person and got a reference number and now every time we call for status my husband either gets this "Sorry we cannot help you unless you have a social security #" (duh! that's why he's calling). Or 2. they put me on hold forever and a day and then come back and say they don't have a status on it. Today I called again and was transferred to someone's voice mail, I left a very stern message and demanded some king of explanation on this.

Diana

Apparently, my husband's packet was not processed until 6 weeks after entering the US. We have a green card, but no SS card yet. I share your frustrations Mononoke!

Since I won't return from Manila until late March, it sounds like I'd better either get my wife a TIN for my income taxes or figure if I'm going to owe anything, pay that then ask for extention to file.

4 weeks on monday since i immigrated - no green card, no SchutzStaffel card - my wisconsin driver's license was confiscated at Clearwater and i was given a scruffy bit of paper which says temporary license 30 days - i have temporary license plates on my new car and they expire soon... I have a temporary car title too

So a month in and no nothing.

Never mind eh ? It's a world better than Darwen Lancashire where we spend 10 months this year. If I have to go back to England in a family emergency I will use the 12 months green card thing in my passport but without confidence - the driver's license people shook their heads when I showed em it and didn't recognize it as a green card...

Bought 1.5 litres of Gordons gin for $13.99 today - i felt like a shoplifter - jeez stuff is cheap.
I bought a brand new 270 horse power luxury Toyota for peanuts ! My wife got one too - same colour- Mr Bush what are you doing to the dollar ?

I know there will be a fight for the green card etc but I will have to be patient

I feel bad saying this, but hubby got his SSC within a week of POE. We are still waiting on the greencard and having a similar issue in that the stamp in his passport is not being recognized as the temp "green card". We are trying to apply for his financial aid for school in March, but the Fin Aid rep at his university is not sure what the A# is. I remember when I first entered the US when I became a LPR it was handwritten in my passport, but now with the MRIV, no one is sure. I have been told that the A# is the registration number - does anyone know if this is so?
Thanks and I hope that those who are waiting for SSC will receive it soon.

The A number is indeed the registration number on the immigrant visa which serves as the temporary I-551; just add the A.

Regarding problems with the stamped visa being recognized as the temporary green card, it says so right on the visa -- albeit in very fine print -- that this serves as a temporary I-551 valid for one year. So this should not be any issue for anyone who can read.

At the POE, the officer told my wife that currently it may take three to four months for the green card to be issued because of USCIS being overloaded with cases.

yes on my IR1 visa it had an item that said 'registered number'

when i came in through chicago they wrote 'A' in front of it - this is the 'alien' number which should appear on the green card

I feel bad about complaining when there are all those people back in the queue who would dearly swap me for the stage I am at, but all my licenses etc are time limited and the sands are running out and it's like there is no end to the uncertainty

on my K1 visa a couple of years ago it actually had the 'A' printed in front of the number

they like to make everything different to keep everyone confused i reckon


I am learning that this process is never over and I refer to things that are not obvious

This thing is never over

I don't think POE officers know the schedules of the issuing office in Texas and I prefer to look at the signature timelines of vj folk and they are saying up to 7 weeks (usually) at the moment..


Why cant they endorse the visa :

'THIS VISA ACTS AS A GREEN CARD FOR 12 MONTHS'. It just goes on about 551 which means nothing to all these other agencies.

It is always the same with lawyers and technical people - they use their own geek language and so the real world is messed up by them

Computer programers are also a perfect example - ivory tower mentality

How the process is supposed to work is described in much deep detail here:

RM 00202.315 (SSA-POMS)
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0100202315

If you haven't gotten you SSA card in 10-14 business days after arrival, go to the SSA office to apply for it. Even if the visa data was transmitted to SSA, SSA may not be able to issue an SSN card with it if without your intervention if any visa data entered by the consulate on the MRIV record is incomplete, invalid, or your name/DOB closely matches someone else.

If I had chosen the message, I would have written:
'UPON U.S. ADMISSION, SERVES AS I-551 TEMPORARY EVIDENCE OF LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCE FOR 1 YEAR'

Also, I would include an 'A' in front of the registration #.

Local Dept. of Social Services grudgingly accepted the visa and admission stamp as a 'green card', but only after asking more than once after seeing it, "have you applied for a green card?" and being told "no, she already has status as a permanent resident as of her admission date", but I'm sure they are going to manually send it in with a G-845S for verification before giving final approval of the public benefits applied for, especially since they didn't bother next asking for A#.

I went to the SS office a month after landing - they said 2 weeks to the card..

I then chased them every week - but nothing happened until the GC was produced

I wrote every week and phoned them and left messages etc

Good job I had a restricted ss card from k1 otherwise i would have been without bank accounts/credit cards/driver's license / car/car insurance etc etc

Feel sorry for recent immigrants

Guess it was worth the 1+ hour wait we endured in the airport waiting for new immigrant processing---seemed unfair to watch other people coming after us & going before us, but then again, maybe they only gave those people a sloppy job?

We did that too but it did not speed up the ss card

most people report that asking for a ss card on the immigrant visa form has no effect