SSN after arrival

[Loren Y 2,731]

I went to the office within 2 days of arriving, and they said there is no way she is in the system, it has only been 2 days, I said please check the system I am pretty sure she is in there. He grudgingly went to the computer on the back counter ( I almost felt bad he had to get out of his chair... Not), next thing you know he came back with a printout and a shocked look on his face. I had the card in the mail 10 days later, so within 2 weeks of landing at the airport and coming thru port of entry had a brand new SS card. Came thru LAX, but I am sure it is the same anywhere. I printed my I-94 while we were waiting for the bags to come off the plane literally 5 min after leaving the officers desk at POE, so everything is much faster now, Or I was just that lucky.

[The_Empyrean 733]

just go and apply. No need to wait. 

[juggy_11 18]

11 hours ago, C90 said:

I went 2 days after arriving and had to go through manual verification. It took about 3 weeks to get my SSN and then it took another 3 weeks to get my name changed after marriage (had to go through manual verification again) When you go to the SSO and they can't find you in the system, make sure that they file form G-845 to verify your status with USCIS. The SSN officer told me USCIS has to respond within 3 weeks and they did. This was August 2018 btw

From the sounds of it, it seems like people have different experiences depending on which SSA office they go to. So, this whole "just go to the SSA office after arriving, no need to wait" is not set in stone. There's a chance they'd still manually verify you.

[C90 376]

Just now, juggy_11 said:

From the sounds of it, it seems like people have different experiences depending on which SSA office they go to. So, this whole "just go to the SSA office after arriving, no need to wait" is not set in stone. There's a chance they'd still manually verify you.

At this point its more something you should expect, no matter how long after arrival you go. There are people that go into manual verification 3-4 weeks after arrival. This isn't always because of your I-94, USCIS went over to a new system and that doesn't correspondent very well with the SSN system. That's usually the reason to go into MV (this is what the SSO told me when I came there)

[Dashinka 23,235]

19 hours ago, juggy_11 said:

I see. She arrived last week. Do you think it's safe for us to go to a Social Security office any time now? I want her to get her SSN as soon as possible. 

Just go in the afternoon if at all possible.  The SSA offices tend to be packed in the mornings.

 

Good Luck!

[geowrian 22,335]

Whether somebody has to go through manual verification or not would not be due to how long they waited before applying. Usually it's due to a mismatch in their system....name entered differently at POE, typos at POE, name being too long, other info being off, etc.

[juggy_11 18]

So, we bit the bullet and headed off to our local SSA office yesterday morning. The agent who helped us asked for her passport and I-94, entered her information and sure enough.....said there was a "mismatch" in the system. Asked her what the mismatch was, said she couldn't tell me, but assured us she entered everything correctly.

 

She then told us she can either have immigration verify it (which can take 4 weeks), come back in a week, or call USCIS to ask why there was a mismatch. 

 

Ended up calling USCIS and they referred me to CBP. Called CBP and their offices were closed and cust. service told me to call back Monday. 

 

Anyhow, we ended up going to another SSA office (20 minutes away) and I think we unintentionally found ourselves in a "manual verification" situation. When we asked what the problem was, she gave us a strange answer. Basically said, "it says here her visa is invalid, and that they're processing her work permit". I thought that was odd since obviously, we haven't processed any EAD yet. Anybody had a similar situation, and know what she was talking about?

 

Long story short, she ended up submitting our application and gave us a receipt (letter) detailing what they're doing as next steps (basically the letter said they needed to verify her immigration status) and told us it could take 4 - 12 weeks. 

 

Anything we could do next, apart from just waiting? This has been disappointing, to say the least.

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by juggy_11

[ThomasNC1988 762]

56 minutes ago, juggy_11 said:

So, we bit the bullet and headed off to our local SSA office yesterday morning. The agent who helped us asked for her passport and I-94, entered her information and sure enough.....said there was a "mismatch" in the system. Asked her what the mismatch was, said she couldn't tell me, but assured us she entered everything correctly.

 

She then told us she can either have immigration verify it (which can take 4 weeks), come back in a week, or call USCIS to ask why there was a mismatch. 

 

Ended up calling USCIS and they referred me to CBP. Called CBP and their offices were closed and cust. service told me to call back Monday. 

 

Anyhow, we ended up going to another SSA office (20 minutes away) and I think we unintentionally found ourselves in a "manual verification" situation. When we asked what the problem was, she gave us a strange answer. Basically said, "it says here her visa is invalid, and that they're processing her work permit". I thought that was odd since obviously, we haven't processed any EAD yet. Anybody had a similar situation, and know what she was talking about?

 

Long story short, she ended up submitting our application and gave us a receipt (letter) detailing what they're doing as next steps (basically the letter said they needed to verify her immigration status) and told us it could take 4 - 12 weeks. 

 

Anything we could do next, apart from just waiting? This has been disappointing, to say the least.

 

Welcome to the Twilight Zone that is SSA. Its not unlikely that the second SSA office was just making stuff up. You might get your SSN or you might not. We did not, but it was easy to get once my wife had her GC.