My wife and I are dealing with a frustrating situation due to how poorly local SSA office has been handling the issuance of her SSN. I was wondering if there is a similar option to writing to a local Congressman to get the issue expedited as with USCIS cases that are being held up. Basically, there are a lot of moving parts, to make long story short:
in 2020, our primary residence (a home I owned) burned down, insurance has agreed to reimburse me but I need to buy a like-kind property within 2 years (1 year has already elapsed, and I need to show submitted 2020 taxes to lenders)
we filed an extension on 2020 taxes anticipating that she would have her Green Card in the fall
in summer of 2021 she received her EAD and shortly after (September) we had her interview and she received her Green Card
we requested her SSN in August using EAD documentation (because like with many others, we did not automatically receive an SSN despite requesting it on the forms we initially filled out), SSA told us not to resubmit the application with her Green card as that would introduce additional delays
local IRS office has told us that we need to wait until her SSN is issued before submitting our 2020 taxes since she no longer qualifies for an ITIN
without her SSN, she still can't get paid (even though she can and has started working)
because we can't file taxes without SSN, we can't make offers on any of the properties on the market because lenders require last year's taxes to be filed (meanwhile the clock is ticking)
to date, 4 months after requesting it, we have not received her SSN (a process that SSA has claimed would take 4 weeks). Based on SAVE portal, we see that her SSN application got returned twice already to SSA, after calling local SSA office, the reasons seem to be:
1st time SSA clerk forgot to attach a portion of the file (which resulted in a delay until Nov 3, when it was resubmitted)
2nd submission had a discrepancy in the address (because our old primary residence burned down), and this seems to be causing another several-month delay
the file was just resubmitted for the 3rd time and we're still waiting for it
Meanwhile, we can't purchase a new home until we get my 2020 taxes submitted (and are running out of time with insurance reimbursement), which we can't do until my wife gets her SSN, and her 2021 income likely won't be paid until 2022, pushing us into a higher tax bracket. Basically, the apathy exhibited by SSA in processing our case is causing real financial harm to us. The only complaint form I see online for SSA seems to be to report fraud, which is not applicable here, if anything this seems more like negligence. What are our options? Can we write to a local Congressman to get them to follow up with SSA as some people recommend with USCIS? Is there another agency we should contact who can expedite the process with SSA? My understanding is that it should never take 4+ months to get an SSN, even in post-COVID world. Thanks.