Immi_Enthusiast

We applied for my then fiance-now husbands SSN three weeks ago tomorrow. I checked the SAVE system and got a message that says "Please contact  Maryland - Social Security Administration, SSA (Single Signon) (WS37) to get more information about your case status." We received a letter from SSN two weeks ago saying it was processing.  What does this message mean? Will it just show up or do I need to contact the local SSN office?
 
We have his AOS packet ready to go but not sure on one question. Where it says "have you applied for a SSN" do we need to mark no since technically he hasn't gotten it yet? Or is it better to wait for the SSN to come in the mail everything for AOS? We marked "no" on wanting to have a SSN issued since we have already applied.
 
 
 

Call your local SS office.   My wife came over in Nov 2020.  After 3 weeks of waiting and no SSN card, I called and they said we were not in the system - there was no record of a request from Dept of State or anyone else.
 
We filled out an SS5 form and sent a copy of her passport, with the endorsed CR1 visa page.  They reviewed it and scheduled an in-person interview to examine the original passport and completed her application.  Her SSN card arrive about 7 business days later.
 
You typically cannot walk-in to your local SSA office.  You can only go if they schedule you.  Also, the SS5 says you will need to send in the original documents - passport - but that is for mail-in processing.  If you talk to someone at the office first, and request an appointment, they should allow you to send the form in with the passport photocopy and finish the processing during the appointment.    
 

I called yesterday to see if any updates. They told me it was still pending and to call back if we didn't have it within the week.

Greetings, wife arrive on an IR1 visa and when we filed DS-260 I remember checking yes on the box where authorized DOS to apply for a social security card on our behalf, however she has been here for a month and we have not received any mails yet and it's not easy getting hold of the social security office. 
Is there a way to check if DOS applied for the social security card if yes, how do we check the status and if no , how can we apply for a card ? 
 
 
Please help.

We're in similar boat, but we never received any notice. Got the greencard in September, local (Boston) SSA office is by appointment only, which requires you to snail-mail all documentation ahead of time. When they scheduled an appointment, they said that they need to request it by mail. We waited 4 weeks, called them up and found out there was a clerical error that resulted in our file just sitting there until we called (not sure why they didn't inform us). The clerical error has since been fixed, but another 3 weeks later there is still no word from them. This dysfunctional system is getting really frustrating at this point.

Hi, buddy. No luck yet. Not today. I contacted office, i need to wait for someone to call me back. I will update my case. Dont worry

My MIL entered to the US about a month or so now, no green card, no SSN. Is there somewhere I can check?

Hello everyone! Just so you know, tomorrow will be the day when 8 weeks will pass after being in ss office. I signed a form to get a new ss card on September 24th, 2021 and still got no news. Will call them, but i guess we all have to wait. Good luck!

@RP&JE hi there, we were in fact approved on our second attempt! We ended up going a bit over the top to prove that she would be staying in the states permanently. I provided our application for a 1 year lease on an apartment which she had signed, the flight itinerary for her one way flight (which I really didn’t want to book until she got the exemption, but I thought it would help), a copy of her airbnb receipt to show that she had an expiring stay in Sydney and no lease/home in Australia because she was expecting to immigrate, the statutory declaration which we re-worded to be more specific about her intent to immigrate and what we’ve gone through during the K1, a copy of her K1 visa, a copy of her passport, a copy of the letter provided by the embassy stating that she would be gone for an extended period of time, a copy of our letter of intent to marry and a cover letter which I typed up to explicitly explain our intent, process and reason we qualify for both the 3 months or more reasoning AND the compassionate/humanitarian reasoning. We got our response within about 24 hours and she’s already arrived here in the US as of yesterday! I’d say if you’re looking to get an exemption, go over the top to secure it the first time. It’s a pretty easy process generally. 

@Stingbass
Hello, I've been following your post and hoping you were able to get exemption on your latest attemp... any update?!? 🙏
Very interested to hear what you ended up including with your request that hopefully worked this time. (if you would be go kind to share) 

Not interesting when you remember the president would love to put a ban/limit/slow down immigrants... more like makes sense he would be okay with the furloughs as it will slower immigration processing.. all while he is getting what he wants.

Webinar link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMIuus8mRJM

Important info so far: 
They plan on catching up on previously scheduled naturalization ceremonies by end of July; ASC are going to have a phased opening starting July 13th; The furloughs are pushed to August 3rd for now, after which 13400 USCIS employees will be furloughed if the agency doesn’t get “bailed out” by congress.

Did anyone already hear about this? https://youtu.be/Yw2SURKxWoI 
Been just watching the video of a NY Immigration lawyer that USCIS puts a halt on GC application of ppl who are already in the US. I am mildly freaking out here!!!

Well, as someone who is engaged to be married to one of these supposed foreign job-stealers, yeah, I'm worried. The financial organization he works for is worried, because they rely on the expertise of highly trained, highly educated workers who already work for them to perform specific roles here from time to time. He was relocated here because he is someone who is particularly good at what he does in a very, very narrow sliver of the financial world. He is a known quantity to them, reliable, dependable, and what they need here, now. He also brings a wealth of experience in dealing with European markets that someone over here is less likely to have. Finding an American to do what he does isn't as simple as snapping your fingers or putting an ad on Indeed. 
 
I have heard conflicting info on whether people here on L1s who are planning on getting extensions (like him) this year will be banned from getting the extension. If they are, not only will we have to drop our plans for our wedding and accelerate them, causing financial plans we put in place a while ago to be scuppered, he will be out of a job, ANY job until his AOS is complete. I am not employed, and my independent source of income terminates when I marry him. So we will have NO earned income. I was in the process of setting up my consultancy when the pandemic hit, and what I do is difficult if not impossible to do remotely. We have sufficient assets to live on until he gets AOS finished, but his company will be out one of its star players in the meantime, and he will lose valuable months in continuing his career. He is the only L1 at this location; there are others back where he was before in San Francisco, and in other locations in the US. 
 
His work said not to worry about it, they've got it in hand but I worry. I worry a LOT. I also worry about his company losing the collective experience of its valued employees already over here, and the value people in other parts of the world can bring here. Organizations are as much about culture as they are about skills, and onramping people into a culture takes time and money. In a difficult time like now, it seems counterintuitive to do something like this. 
 
Just my biased opinion.

Actually, the unemployment rate is not 13-15% it is much more than that. You can find many, many articles around the internet that speaks to why this number not being accurate, here's one reference: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/05/heres-why-the-real-unemployment-rate-may-be-higher-than-reported.html
 
As the articles states: "The agency admitted the real unemployment rate likely exceeds 16%" -- and that is because BLS has themselves admitted that they made reporting errors.
 
Might I remind you that because of this administration's utter incompetence, is itself why the unemployment rate is in tatters, the economy will take many, many years to recover -- and the country is in midst of mass protests and chaos -- these events are all the results of this administration's "America First" promised -- efficient incompetence. If this is your kinda thing, good for you, but it will end come November.
 

Good morning, Bibi,
 
Last week  our office filed a TRO against President Trump to try to stop his Immigration Ban executive order.
 
The immigration ban will hurt a lot of immigrants who are trying to come to the U.S. to be reunited with their families, immigrants who are trying to start a new life in the U.S.
 
So we filed a lawsuit to try to get it stopped.
 
We had a hearing last Thursday with a federal judge to argue that the ban wasn't legal and shouldn't continue.
 
And we received a decision.
 
The judge decided that we did not have a standing, our clients hadn't been harmed yet, and that because the embassies are closed anyway for COVID-19 the executive order hasn't effected our clients directly.
 
As of now, the ban will continue.
 
But we aren't giving up.
 
We are reviewing the response and hope to keep the legal challenge alive.
 
We will continue to fight for immigrants.
 
The embassies are still closed, there has been no word on when they will reopen.
 
But as saddening, disheartening, and frustrating as this is we can't lose hope.
 
There are elections coming up soon.
 
There is a light at the end of this.
 
Until then, we will be working on getting immigration back on track and to get our country back on track.
 
Don't give up.
 
We've got to keep fighting.
 
Best,
 
Jim
 
P.S. We are having an Ask Me Anything webinar on Tuesday, May 26th, at 4pm CST. Register here. I'd love to see you there.

Honestly no. But even if the embassies are opened but international fly is not, then the problem is still not resolved

Linky
 
“US Citizenship and Immigration Services is facing a massive budget shortfall because fewer immigrants are applying to enter the US“
 
 

Call is over.
Looks like they made a decent pivot away from Trump v Hawaii. Not sure if it will work, but they did try.
 
Big issue is standing. They went over that topic several times. The big issue is that since consulates are closed, it raises the question if anybody bringing suit is actually impacted by the EO. Effectively, has anybody actually been refused a visa due to it?
The counterargument refers (primarily) to people who interviewed prior to the consulates stopping interviews. Technically those cases can still proceed, although they did not - as far as I could tell - give an actual case of somebody who would have been issued the visa by now if the EO did not exist.

Still listening in...
 
The arguments are - honestly - not particularly great. Nothing jumps out as compelling to me. Most of the call is asking about processes, and how visa interviews are suspended already right now.
Ouch...they didn't know the difference between F1 and F2 family preference categories (which likely make up most of the cases actually impacted by this EO at this time).
 
Edit: They need to get the conversation away from Trump v Hawaii fast. That can tank this in itself.
Looks like they are arguing it doesn't apply as that was national security concerns. Good...separate this EO from that matter.

Thoughts and Prayers with Jim Hacking immigration Attorney. 
Today 5/14 at 1 pm central, I will be arguing the biggest case of my legal career.
On April 22, 2020, President Trump issued Proclamation 10014 which would bar thousands of foreign nationals from getting immigrant visas to the United States.
Federal law passed by Congress and signed by prior Presidents allows foreign nationals in various visa categories to come to the U.S. and obtain lawful permanent residence.
President Trump and Stephen Miller wish to stop legal immigration to the U.S. and this Proclamation seeks to exclude:
Parents of U.S. citizens
Spouses and children of lawful permanent residents
Adult children of U.S. citizens
Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens
Employment based visa seekers (except those working in health care)
Diversity visa winners
We filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington DC to try and stop the Proclamation.  We are asking Judge Amit Mehta to halt the ban as it is contrary to the Immigration & Nationality Act.
The hearing is this afternoon.
The government has lots of arguments why we cannot prevail, but we filed a solid brief in response.
If you are so inclined, please send us positive thoughts, prayers and blessings our way this afternoon.
We could really use it.
Thank you.
PS - if you would like to hear the argument (which may be me getting crushed by the judge ), you can listen by calling (877) 848-7030 at 1 pm central, access code 321-8747.