Social Security Card Issues - K1 Visa

[beloved_dingo 1,932]

Good morning,

 

I need some advice on how to proceed/best course of action regarding getting my husband's social security number & card. Here's the situation:

 

My husband (then fiance) arrived in the U.S. on Friday, May 17th. We went to the social security office on Thursday, May 23rd but were unsuccessful in applying for an SSN. We were told that their system was showing a "duplicate" application, as if my fiance had already applied for a social (not possible, he's used the Visa Waiver every other time he's been in the U.S.). He told us this was because he "hadn't been in the U.S." long enough, and to come back in 1 week. We couldn't waste more time there on this particular day, so despite the fact I knew we were being told a load a bull, we agreed to come back at a later time. Before leaving, my fiance specifically said that we were getting married the very next day and asked if this would cause any issues when we return. We were assured that it would not be a problem. We got married as planned on Friday, May 24th. 

 

Now due to the fact that SSA is only open from 9AM - 4PM, I have to miss some work to even go up there so we were not able to go back until this past Friday, June 7th. This time, after a lot of typing into their system, the lady asks my husband if we are married. Of course, we have to say yes. At this point she tells us that they cannot process his application because their system will not allow an SSN to be issued after marriage. Now I know a lot of people have encountered this type of problem before, but I also know that marriage doesn't just magically make you ineligible for a social security number. A supervisor comes over and tells me that "the fiance visa isn't valid anymore now that you are married, so the SAVE system comes back as a mismatch and DHS will not allow the application to be processed." When I expressed disbelief about this she said "they track everything with his A-number and update their system accordingly". Considering we did not provide his A-number at any point for the marriage license and it is not on the marriage certificate, I think this is a bunch of bull as well. I would be impressed if state and federal agencies were even that efficient! We wouldn't even have to provide proof of marriage for AOS if that were the case! But I digress...

 

None of this sounded right to me, but I was getting more upset by the second and it was nearing 4PM by this time so of course they didn't want to deal with us anymore. They did let me see the screen showing where the SAVE system came back with the "mismatch" error, but they did not offer to do a SAVE inquiry/manual verification, and unfortunately it didn't occur to me while we were there to ask for it.

 

After we got home, I did some research and also looked over my husband's documents and noticed that the I-94 did not match the K1 visa in his passport - his visa expires July 30th, but CBP authorized his stay until August 14th. I now believe this is the actual reason for the mismatch (please correct me if I am wrong) and it has literally nothing to do with our marriage. 

 

So, my question is this - do we give it one more shot, go to a different SSA office and immediately explain the issue with the dates and ask right off for his application to be processed "manually" OR do we throw in the towel and just apply for the SSN with our AOS/EAD packet? 

 

I cannot go back to an SSA office until either June 21st or June 25th, and I plan to mail off the AOS packet by the end of this week which brings me to a 3rd question - can I ask for the SSN in the packet and still try to apply at an actual office as well? Or will this cause an issue once they process the EAD, if my husband has received his SSN but our forms say that we haven't applied for one?

 

Thank you in advance for any advice (or just moral support) yall may have. This has been incredibly frustrating, to say the least. 

 

 

[Ash.1101 1,755]

Honestly it sounds like they're just incompetent at the office.

the I-94 shouldn't match the K-1 visa expiration. The K-1 visa is used upon entry, it doesn't become invalid upon marriage, it was invalid when your fiance went through POE.

The I-94 date will ALWAYS be 90 days after the date your fiance entered. Your K-1 visa expiration date should be 6 months from the medical appointment.

Is there any other SSA office you could go to without having to go too much out of your way? While going to another office may not change what shows on their screen, you may get someone who is willing to work with you and give you less BS.

You can ask for it to be done manually, but there's no reason to explain the dates because there's nothing wrong with your dates.

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Ash.

[midwinterrose 263]

Just ask for manual verification. My husband got his SSN after marriage and we had an immigration status mismatch despite trying a bunch of different combinations of numbers, dates and order of names etc.  She simply submitted it for manual verification and in four weeks we received the card in the mail.

[junkmart 320]

48 minutes ago, beloved_dingo said:

Good morning,

 

I need some advice on how to proceed/best course of action regarding getting my husband's social security number & card. Here's the situation:

 

My husband (then fiance) arrived in the U.S. on Friday, May 17th. We went to the social security office on Thursday, May 23rd but were unsuccessful in applying for an SSN. We were told that their system was showing a "duplicate" application, as if my fiance had already applied for a social (not possible, he's used the Visa Waiver every other time he's been in the U.S.). He told us this was because he "hadn't been in the U.S." long enough, and to come back in 1 week. We couldn't waste more time there on this particular day, so despite the fact I knew we were being told a load a bull, we agreed to come back at a later time. Before leaving, my fiance specifically said that we were getting married the very next day and asked if this would cause any issues when we return. We were assured that it would not be a problem. We got married as planned on Friday, May 24th. 

 

Now due to the fact that SSA is only open from 9AM - 4PM, I have to miss some work to even go up there so we were not able to go back until this past Friday, June 7th. This time, after a lot of typing into their system, the lady asks my husband if we are married. Of course, we have to say yes. At this point she tells us that they cannot process his application because their system will not allow an SSN to be issued after marriage. Now I know a lot of people have encountered this type of problem before, but I also know that marriage doesn't just magically make you ineligible for a social security number. A supervisor comes over and tells me that "the fiance visa isn't valid anymore now that you are married, so the SAVE system comes back as a mismatch and DHS will not allow the application to be processed." When I expressed disbelief about this she said "they track everything with his A-number and update their system accordingly". Considering we did not provide his A-number at any point for the marriage license and it is not on the marriage certificate, I think this is a bunch of bull as well. I would be impressed if state and federal agencies were even that efficient! We wouldn't even have to provide proof of marriage for AOS if that were the case! But I digress...

 

None of this sounded right to me, but I was getting more upset by the second and it was nearing 4PM by this time so of course they didn't want to deal with us anymore. They did let me see the screen showing where the SAVE system came back with the "mismatch" error, but they did not offer to do a SAVE inquiry/manual verification, and unfortunately it didn't occur to me while we were there to ask for it.

 

After we got home, I did some research and also looked over my husband's documents and noticed that the I-94 did not match the K1 visa in his passport - his visa expires July 30th, but CBP authorized his stay until August 14th. I now believe this is the actual reason for the mismatch (please correct me if I am wrong) and it has literally nothing to do with our marriage. 

 

So, my question is this - do we give it one more shot, go to a different SSA office and immediately explain the issue with the dates and ask right off for his application to be processed "manually" OR do we throw in the towel and just apply for the SSN with our AOS/EAD packet? 

 

I cannot go back to an SSA office until either June 21st or June 25th, and I plan to mail off the AOS packet by the end of this week which brings me to a 3rd question - can I ask for the SSN in the packet and still try to apply at an actual office as well? Or will this cause an issue once they process the EAD, if my husband has received his SSN but our forms say that we haven't applied for one?

 

Thank you in advance for any advice (or just moral support) yall may have. This has been incredibly frustrating, to say the least. 

 

 

I believe that if there is a mismatch between your I-94 and visa, you need to get that corrected first, otherwise the Social Security Office will not be able to do a SAVE check.

[Dashinka 23,236]

This SSA office sounds like one to avoid unfortunately.  My wife got her SSN a few days after we were married (I know, supposed to do that first upon a K1 arrival), we had no issues, but they would not issue it in her now married name.  We took care of that after she got her GC.  If you still get the run-around by the clerks, their supervisor, ask for the next level (we needed to do that at the DMV once).  Any K1 entrant (the K1 expires the minute the immigrant enters the country) with a valid I94 can apply for a SSN.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

[Ash.1101 1,755]

11 minutes ago, junkmart said:

I believe that if there is a mismatch between your I-94 and visa, you need to get that corrected first, otherwise the Social Security Office will not be able to do a SAVE check.

I believe the OP was trying to find anything that might explain why this is getting kicked back.

They're saying they believe that since the I-94 expiration date and the K-1 visa expiration date were different that it was causing issues


These wouldn't ever have the same expiration date unless the fiance entered into the US 90 days before their K-1 visa expired. The K-1 visa is null and void once used since it's a one time entry visa, the expiration on that is merely a "come into the US by this date" day. The I-94 is 90 days from the date the K-1 visa was used. 

Example, my husbands I-94 expired the first week of March (He came into the US in Dec) while his K-1 visa expired the second to last week of March (His interview was in late September).

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Ash.

[junkmart 320]

8 minutes ago, Ash. said:

I believe the OP was trying to find anything that might explain why this is getting kicked back.

They're saying they believe that since the I-94 expiration date and the K-1 visa expiration date were different that it was causing issues


These wouldn't ever have the same expiration date unless the fiance entered into the US 90 days before their K-1 visa expired. The K-1 visa is null and void once used since it's a one time entry visa, the expiration on that is merely a "come into the US by this date" day. The I-94 is 90 days from the date the K-1 visa was used. 

Example, my husbands I-94 expired the first week of March (He came into the US in Dec) while his K-1 visa expired the second to last week of March (His interview was in late September).

 

Agreed that if it is a date mismatch, that is not an issue, and after rereading it appears it is just a date mismatch. I thought maybe she was talking about a name mismatch, like putting a last name as a middle name, etc.

[Ash.1101 1,755]

Just now, junkmart said:

Agreed that if it is a date mismatch, that is not an issue, and after rereading it appears it is just a date mismatch. I thought maybe she was talking about a name mismatch, like putting a last name as a middle name, etc.

Yeah name mismatch def could cause it and it's happened before. For us we couldn't even find his I-94 because the CBP officer grievously misspelled his very easy to spell last name. 😂

[FaithProfessoR 171]

Hey I'm sorry to hear that. The sad true of SSA that they do not have proper training to issue SSN to new immigrant. Normally Customer Service Representatives are more adept than Claim Specialists on this topic. 

 

Marriage dosen’t affect the application 

the 90 days rule is important you must do it thru the 90 days

 

If you get the letter for 4 weeks that means that SAVE created a Mismatch but can be easy overcome if the employee comes back to the application after a week of your visit they can approved the SSN with no problem. 

 

But that the thing they don’ t do it or they come with weird excuses. 

 

Best of luck! 

 

 

 

[Ontarkie 13,915]

~~Moved to SSN, from K1 P&P - THe OP is now dealing with SSN issues~~

[beloved_dingo 1,932]

Thank you for all of your responses. We are going to send off our AOS paperwork this week as planned and visit a different SSA office on June 21st to request manual verification (if we still get a mismatch). 

[mc962 55]

A slightly different situation, but still somewhat similar:

 

My wife's name is apparently very common for people coming from her country to the U.S. (it's common in general), so they had to do extra verification that took like 2 months instead of the expected 2-4 weeks. By the time she got the card we had already been married for at least a month.

 

We just kept going back every few weeks until it all worked out. I'm wondering if your spouse has a common name, and they messed something up somehow at some point.

[Canerican 242]

I know that when I came to the USA I was told that I needed to apply for an SSN first thing when I got here, but needed to wait about two weeks to let the SSA system update, that was back in March 2013. I did wait about that time and did receive a SSN before getting married. I was also told that it was no big deal if I did not get my SSN till receiving my EAD as I was not authorized to work till I got my EAD. Yes it’s a pain in ge but because you have to wait a week or so before getting the SSN after receiving the EAD but what is a week compared to the at least two and a half months you will wait for the EAD. 

[The_Empyrean 733]

Ok, from what i gathered about SSN in general.

You should apply for one right upon entry, as K-1's are eligible for one, even though you cannot work with it when you receive it. It'll say "valid only with DHS Work Authorization" or something along those lines.

When you get married and adjust the name, it's gonna be very difficult for SSO to figure out your name to match your cases, (manual verification might be an option).  That's exactly why you should do it immediately upon entry. There is a SS office employee handout which says that K-1 is eligible. If they insist you aren't, show em that.

if you do it immediately it goes like that:
Entry->SS application->marriage->change of name upon SSN receival-> fixed SSN with married namie->AoS/EAD/AP.

If you skip the application part prior to the marriage and thinking of name change, only viable option is to request for SSN via EAD, as USCIS will match you up with their data and send over all the information to Social Security office in Maryland.

From my understanding, they cannot issue you a SSN as your name has changed and it no longer matches any of Your ID names, Passport, K-1 i-94 etc, and marriage certificate doesn't help as a "proof of a name change", as they have no proof to what name you have chosen. When you apply before marriage, they have all data connected within agencies, and just have to change your last name to whatever you choose it to be, maiden, Maiden-husband's, husbands.

You can try going to different office and push for manual verification using your I-94, passport and wedding certificate, but i believe you'll be told to apply for SSN with EAD.

Just a quick tip, make sure to remember what name You put on Aos/EAD/AP forms if you change your name, because if you put different one on SSN from AoS, you'll have a massive headache.

In a nutshell, it's like doing a prostate exam through the throat. They wont care at this point, and only listen to USCIS, but it doesn't hurt to try. 

Good luck.

[NikLR 13,220]

Dont wait too long. They wont issue the SSN if its 2 weeks before the I-94 expiring.  Since it can take a couple weeks for the SSA office to get their stuff out, end of june would be your personal cut off.