SSN, EAD, AOS etc ?'s

[Purple_Paladin 17]

The more I read here, the more I'm a bit lost.

So forgive me if this has been covered but I'm trying to be sure that I "get it."

 

My fiance is coming July 16 with his daughter (on the K1) and his cat. The plan is: we file for the marriage license the next day, July 17, and as soon as it's issued, we get married. 

 

Could we go to the Social Security office the same day we file for the marriage license? The time line below says that we should apply for his SSN before getting married. We don't need to wait for his SSN to apply for the marriage license? Do we? 

 

In PA it takes 3 days to get a marriage license, so I don't want to wait because I could only take off 2 weeks from work to get as much as possible done. Also: on the app for the SSN card it states that our proof of documentation must be certified original copies. If we use the I-94 travel document, he gets that when he comes into the country, correct? We won't need the actual certified marriage certificate? How many certified copies should I ask for?

 

What about his daughter? One of the links here stated that she must have her EAD before she can file for the SSN.

 Does anyone have experience with this? Does this mean that she won't be able to also open a bank account (or do much of anything really) until much later than him since she'll be waiting on the EAD?

 

What about him? How long does it usually take to get the SSN and have the ability to open a bank account and move his funds?

 

The timeline after he arrives really confuses me. 

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

[OldUser 9,867]

With SSN for fiance, it's either right after arrival, while they have valid I-94 and haven't married OR months later, after marrying, filing for adjustment and receiving EAD.

 

SSN is asked from both parties for marriage license. If one party doesn't have it, they don't have it.

Edited June 20 by OldUser

[Purple_Paladin 17]

Follow-up ? As seen below from the SS appointment website, he needs proof of identity and a passport isn't listed. 

How does that work? Doesn't he need the SSN to get a drivers license here?

 

I was hoping to make an appointment for him for the day after he comes. 

 

Documents we accept include:

• Permanent Resident Card (I-551), Green Card
• Arrival/Departure Record (I-94), along with unexpired foreign passport
• Admission stamp in an unexpired foreign passport
• Employment Authorization Document (I-766), work permit

One proof of your identity

 

 

Documents we accept include:

Permanent Resident Card (I-551), Green Card

Employment Authorization Document (I-766), work permit

U.S. driver's license

or non-driver's state-issued ID

[Edward and Jaycel 1,898]

5 minutes ago, Purple_Paladin said:

Follow-up ? As seen below from the SS appointment website, he needs proof of identity and a passport isn't listed. 

How does that work? Doesn't he need the SSN to get a drivers license here?

 

I was hoping to make an appointment for him for the day after he comes. 

 

Documents we accept include:

• Permanent Resident Card (I-551), Green Card
• Arrival/Departure Record (I-94), along with unexpired foreign passport
• Admission stamp in an unexpired foreign passport
• Employment Authorization Document (I-766), work permit

One proof of your identity

 

 

Documents we accept include:

Permanent Resident Card (I-551), Green Card

Employment Authorization Document (I-766), work permit

U.S. driver's license

or non-driver's state-issued ID

 

When we got Jaycel's SSN right after we arrived, we brought her I-94, her passport with the stamped K-1 visa in it and her birth certificate and that was enough for them to issue the SSN (BTW you do not get the I-94 at the Port of Entry) you go in the website a couple of days after arrival and download it)

[Purple_Paladin 17]

3 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

When we got Jaycel's SSN right after we arrived, we brought her I-94, her passport with the stamped K-1 visa in it and her birth certificate and that was enough for them to issue the SSN (BTW you do not get the I-94 at the Port of Entry) you go in the website a couple of days after arrival and download it)

So the embassy kept his original birth certificate. They gave him the translation of his birth certificate but it's not a certified copy. We aren't sure if they put his birth certificate in the sealed packet they gave him with the K1 or not. 

Is that what they did with your spouse? Was it in the sealed K1 packet? Did the POE agent give the documents back to you after opening the packet?

[MalloryCat 715]

is he able to get another certified copy of his birth certificate?

 

that will be needed for AOS as well

 

they won't give you anything from the packet at POE

[Purple_Paladin 17]

3 minutes ago, MalloryCat said:

is he able to get another certified copy of his birth certificate?

 

that will be needed for AOS as well

 

they won't give you anything from the packet at POE

 

It took 3 months for him to get the last copy. It took even longer for his daughters copy. He has a French official identity card. 

In France, you can't get copies of birth certificates as easily as here, they don't give multiple copies at a time and you must justify why you even need it. 

He's going to apply for another copy, but he's coming in less than a month. He'll have to have it sent to his father, ten have it sent from his father to here.

It might be September by the time he gets it. 

 

Can he get a drivers license without an SSN, just with the passport and I-94? If so, he could maybe get the drivers license right away and we could use that for the SSN.

[MalloryCat 715]

4 minutes ago, Purple_Paladin said:

 

It took 3 months for him to get the last copy. It took even longer for his daughters copy. He has a French official identity card. 

In France, you can't get copies of birth certificates as easily as here, they don't give multiple copies at a time and you must justify why you even need it. 

He's going to apply for another copy, but he's coming in less than a month. He'll have to have it sent to his father, ten have it sent from his father to here.

It might be September by the time he gets it. 

 

Can he get a drivers license without an SSN, just with the passport and I-94? If so, he could maybe get the drivers license right away and we could use that for the SSN.

wow.. thats crazy lol

 

that depends on the state.

I know here in michigan my husband couldn't get even a state ID card without a SSN.

but check your states rules, sometimes they have a drivers license transfer thing. where if you have a license from a certain country they will accept that and give you a license for that state.

for example, in Michigan, german citizens could get a michigan license if they had a valid drivers license from germany. unfortunately my husband didn't have that so we have to go through the whole drivers test process for him. 

[smilingstone 590]

You can get an SSN before marriage, you just need valid passport with visa inside and print out of I94. I didn't take my birth cert, but states may differ.

 

It was only after I received my first SSN and got married that I had problems getting my name updated to my married name. I had to wait until I could show them my EAD for them to verify my identity.

 

For me, I think I messed up the timing of getting added to accounts as we tried to do that with my maiden name SSN, but we were already married so my legal name had changed. It wasn't adding up to their system so we couldn't do it. I'm now just waiting to receive my new SSN with married name and our next steps are for me to get added to accounts and look into a driving license.

[Purple_Paladin 17]

8 minutes ago, MalloryCat said:

wow.. thats crazy lol

 

that depends on the state.

I know here in michigan my husband couldn't get even a state ID card without a SSN.

but check your states rules, sometimes they have a drivers license transfer thing. where if you have a license from a certain country they will accept that and give you a license for that state.

for example, in Michigan, german citizens could get a michigan license if they had a valid drivers license from germany. unfortunately my husband didn't have that so we have to go through the whole drivers test process for him. 

 

I find a lot about the French system is counter-intuitive to the US system. It's frustrating.

 

As a US citizen, I have the habit of always having a copy of this, so it never occured to me to tell him to be sure he had one. I knew he had it for the K! application. I didn't know that they took it and he didn't have another.

 

I just looked it up. It's tricky because in PA, you need a SSN to get the license. BUT, he can driver for up to a year with his French driver's license. I'm not sure if he can get a transfer license.

We'll have to go to the DMV and try.

 

It's always something it seems. 

[Purple_Paladin 17]

6 minutes ago, smilingstone said:

You can get an SSN before marriage, you just need valid passport with visa inside and print out of I94. I didn't take my birth cert, but states may differ.

 

It was only after I received my first SSN and got married that I had problems getting my name updated to my married name. I had to wait until I could show them my EAD for them to verify my identity.

 

For me, I think I messed up the timing of getting added to accounts as we tried to do that with my maiden name SSN, but we were already married so my legal name had changed. It wasn't adding up to their system so we couldn't do it. I'm now just waiting to receive my new SSN with married name and our next steps are for me to get added to accounts and look into a driving license.

I really hope this holds true for us. He's currently applying for another copy. The website says it's about 20 days, but that's a rough estimate and govt tends to shut down in the summer in France. Add to that, he has to have it sent to his aging parents and hope that it comes before he leaves, otherwise it's at them to send it to us and that's another 10 days, best case scenario.

 

We shouldn't have the name-change issue since I'm the one changing my name, not him. Although, as a cute aside, there was a confusing conversation when we spoke about my new last name, because I will hyphenate. He kept arguing about the order of my hyphenated name, because here, it's traditionally the woman's last name first, which is the way I want it. And in his country, it's the man's last name first, which sounded confusing to me. 

 

Professionally, I'd like to have my own last name first. Finally he said he wants the same for himself and that's how I understood that he thought we would BOTH change our names to my hyphenated name followed by his. He thought his would be hyphenated with my maiden name as well, lol! I found that adorable. 😄

[Edward and Jaycel 1,898]

42 minutes ago, Purple_Paladin said:

So the embassy kept his original birth certificate. They gave him the translation of his birth certificate but it's not a certified copy. We aren't sure if they put his birth certificate in the sealed packet they gave him with the K1 or not. 

Is that what they did with your spouse? Was it in the sealed K1 packet? Did the POE agent give the documents back to you after opening the packet?

 

Like @MalloryCat said, they return nothing from your yellow packet to you. Jaycel was able to get her DL here without a SSN but she was required to have the EAD to get it. When they issued it, it was NOT a "Real ID" compliant license. Once she gets her green card she will have to present that and her SSN to the DMV so they can give her the "Real ID" license. Those are the rules here in CO, I'm not sure of PA.

[Purple_Paladin 17]

3 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

Like @MalloryCat said, they return nothing from your yellow packet to you. Jaycel was able to get her DL here without a SSN but she was required to have the EAD to get it. When they issued it, it was NOT a "Real ID" compliant license. Once she gets her green card she will have to present that and her SSN to the DMV so they can give her the "Real ID" license. Those are the rules here in CO, I'm not sure of PA.

The Real ID rules are the same here, but it's unclear if he'll be able to get a standard non-Real ID license without the SSD. We'll go and try and hope for the best.
Thank you for the reply!

[Purple_Paladin 17]

1 hour ago, OldUser said:

With SSN for fiance, it's either right after arrival, while they have valid I-94 and haven't married OR months later, after marrying, filing for adjustment and receiving EAD.

 

SSN is asked from both parties for marriage license. If one party doesn't have it, they don't have it.

Maybe I misunderstood but, as I understand it, both of these things can't be true. If we must both have an SSN to get married, then how would we apply for the SSN months after marrying?

 

Also I checked the County website and here, in PA, it's not necessary to have a SSN to marry. 

[OldUser 9,867]

2 minutes ago, Purple_Paladin said:

Maybe I misunderstood but, as I understand it, both of these things can't be true. If we must both have an SSN to get married, then how would we apply for the SSN months after marrying?

 

Also I checked the County website and here, in PA, it's not necessary to have a SSN to marry. 

Both can be true. Depending on state and county, you get asked for SSN to get license. If you have it, you provide it. If you don't have it, you say "I don't have it".

 

It's best to get SSN before marrying though. Because SSA staff become reluctant to issue SSN once married until you have EAD. The reason is, I-94 becomes invalid the moment K-1 fiance marries. Their K-1 status is based on them being unmarried from what I understand.

 

Edited June 20 by OldUser