TehChuck

I arrived in the US on March 12th and never received my ssn. Here that meant I was unable to find a job, even though I was authorized to work, or buy any kind of health insurance.

I kept calling my local SS office a couple of times a week, until they either got so fed up with me, or someone somewhere changed a policy, but they finally granted me a emergency in person appointment yesterday. Now I have the receipt that I applied for a SSN, and the card should arrive in the mail within 10 days.

My advice would be to keep pestering your local SS office until they actually help you out.

I entered the US on March 12th and received my greencard almost exactly 4 weeks later. 

My social security card however is still mia, so I'm patiently waiting for social security offices near me to reopen.

I entered on CR1 on March 12th and received my LPR card last Saturday.

Have you paid the immigrant fee and double checked your mailing address?

This means the consular officer has approved and printed your visa, but the passport itself hasn't been handed over to shipping or become available for pick-up. Give it another couple of days for the bureaucracy to take its course. It took 4 business days for my passport to be shipped to me after ceac showed the visa as issued.

I just attended my IR-1 interview today and the matter of public charge (or the DS 5540) never came up at all. I did have the DS5540 filled out and ready to go, if the CO had brought it up though - I think that is the safe way to do it, since there was basically no reliable information on whether it was needed or not out there. In my opinion it's best to check the consulates website and see which forms they require, and then prepare the DS 5540 either way - I just would'nt ask them in advance and put silly ideas in their head.

The only question remotely connected to public charge, was about my highest level of completed education.

8 minutes ago, Anmol Yash said:

Actually, you can. 

Your spouse can file as MFS without an ITIN/SSN, with 'NRA' handwritten in the spouse's SSN field, and file by mail (you cannot file it electronically)

 

If you choose MFJ, I believe you can send the W-7 along with it (again, by mail). Not sure if you need to get the ITIN first and then file. Will wait for someone to respond!

This is exactly how my wife and I did it. Married filing jointly, and then attaching Form W-7 to the tax return in order to receive an ITIN number. The one major downside is - as far as I understand it - that if you chose to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes, then you don't get to claim any benefits from tax treaties, meaning that all your world wide income becomes taxable in the US. It might be best for your spouse to go see a CPA and figure out what the smartest way would be for the two of you to file taxes.