US Immigration from Senegal

Hello,

My fiance arrived at the POE on Dec. 19, 2020. We went to the SSA office on Dec. 31, 2020 to get his SSN. The person who helped us was at least aware that K1s can get SSN, and had done them before, so that was good.

When he entered the data and submitted it, it came back as a mismatch in the SAVE system. He said he would email the relevant agency about that and get back to me.

Today, he said he had spoken to someone at DHS, who asked if my fiance and I had married yet. The DHS employee said that it would take 35 days in order to process the SSN if we remained unmarried (not clear when the 35 days would start -- from POE or from application date or? ). Otherwise, it would have to be resubmitted as a new request if we had married (because my fiance would no longer be under K1 status if we had married (????)).

We have not yet married, though I don't see how this would change anything (neither of us plan on changing our name after marriage). I asked the SSA officer if it made more sense to marry and resubmit the request or to wait for the 35 days for DHS first. He said he wasn't sure, but would let the DHS person know we were not married.

We're still planning how/when to marry, and we have some time, but I'd rather not wait too long for any of this. The SSA officer asked if we were waiting on the SSN to start work (!!) and I said it was just for doing things like putting my fiance on my lease and getting him a bank account and such.

Has anyone heard about this 35 day thing from DHS, or the idea that immigration status changes just after marriage??? Any advice on how to proceed is also welcome.