rlogan

This is more of an informational post for those that have trouble getting a social security number. Our office here is filled with world record stupid an callous employees. They made numerous errors - insisting we could not get a social security number, entering the wrong data numerous times, and finally filing it in the wrong place for 11 weeks and being rude when we went in to ask what the delay was. Cannot reach them on the phone. Line busy all day. Can't make appointments so it is a 70 mile round-trip for us just to waste the time making an appointment with idiots who will screw it up.

The morons at this office told us that since they lost our file for 11 weeks, we should have someone change the entry stamp on her passport. Yea, what a brillian suggestion - why not just forge a green card.

My wife is not working and does not want to work - it is idiotic to do the EAD and pay hundreds of dollars for something she does not want in the first place. She is four months pregnant . What we need is to show co-mingling of finances. Since we were told by the bank and driver's license place we needed a social security number, we went there first. That office has employees that are so stupid you have to actually show them how to do their job. Unbelievably incompetent.

Then the bank through three phone calls now has insisted the law requires she has a social security number before she can get an account. Claiming nothing but a social security number is legal. Insisting the Patriot Act requires a social security number to get a bank account.

Well I finally dug up the Patriot Act section 326, which is the requirement that banks have a "customer identification program". That act resutled in a multi-agency "Final Rule" that describes how banks must conform to the law. For citizens the requirement is a social security number. For noncitezens, the law is clear that a passport number or alien identification number or a number of other options are perfectly acceptable and a social security number is not required at all.

So you can get a bank account without a social security number. In this state, anyway. The federal law says the bank must have a designated CIP officer and we are going to force our bank to identify him and then force him to show us their written CIP program, the specific section for noncitizens, and the required training program for employees. Now they can contend with having us armed with the law instead of just thinking we will slink away after they give us the wrong answers. Next up will be the driver's license and although there too we were initially told that we had to go to the social security office I am absolutely positive they are full of ####### too.

I think in general we are finding you have to be an immigration lawyer yourself in addition to knowing how to look up every other matter of law you run up against. People will insist to you that they know what they are talking about and be completely wrong.

We learned you can also get a social security number for non-work reasons. But that requires going back to the same idiots that lost our file for 11 weeks, were rude to us when we inquired, and made an asinine suggestion on how to fix their mistake.

So we're just going to forget about the SSN until she gets permanent residency and go online to get it. God Almighty the worst thing you can do with this local office is have them in charge of entering anything into the computer. We initailly got our Congressman involved, but I can see that is a big waste of time too. In about a month we might get a letter back from Social Security explaining to the congressman what they already told us. Her I-94 expired because they lost our file for 11 weeks. Therefore punish us and pretend we did not file for 11 weeks.

All this office had to do was look at her I-94, which we brought in with us. Each time we went in (three times) they made it sound so mysterious - as if they were going to Homeland Security and having them "authenticate" a bunch of things. No - all they do is look at the photocopy of your I-94, which is something they can do right in front of you. In fact, they did just that before we left. So it is incredible really. How stupid these people are.\

Don't take no for an answer, and be relentless. Nobody is on your side.

Here's a clue. Go to SS the DAY AFTER your fiancee arrives. Go to the SS office the DAY AFTER you apply and ask for the SSN, they generate the number and update the sytem overnight. The can tell you your SSN the day after you apply. If they don't you have problems. Correct them immediately.

I know, it is a pain, but unfortunately necessatry. Maybe Obama will train SS clerks after he fixes the auto industry

You get a clue. I went in SIX WEEKS before the expiry of the I-94 and we wanted it in her MARRIED name, not her maiden. You are flat wrong about going in the day after. Just unwarranted hyperbole totally inappropriate here.

They tried to convince us we were not allowed to do it, and dealt with a total of THREE employees.

We went in a SECOND time a MONTH before expiry of the I-94.

- so just put your lecturing me like child where it belongs. This office is full of unbelievably incompetent and uncooperative people.

Chibby - thanks. I got pretty rattled when the lady called us with this bizarre instruction to go have our I-94 changed.

I understand now that this is a clerk who had the job of looking at the photocopy of our I-94 and either approving or disapproving of the SSN request.

The file had been lost, and was just handed to her after being found 11 weeks later. She is an employee of the SS office and all she knows how to do is compare an I-94 date. She is so clueless she suggested changing our I-94 because she does not fully understand what it is.

So in our office's case, they do not actually go to Homeland Security to get "authentication". We give them our I-94 copy and they just look at it.

I see there are other reasons you can have to get a social security number. My wife does not want to apply for work. EAD is nonsensical for us. Pay money to not get what we want. We want a bank account and a driver's license in her married name, etc. So I am going to have my congressman get on their butts.

Already wrote him.

Geez the last post of mine I was trying to edit and the time expired before the edit got done completely. Try again:

thepizzadude - we got a receipt and they said we would get the card in about two weeks. We waited and nothing came, so went in again to talk to them. They were rude to us and said that the paperwork they handed us said it might be up to three months. Well, it did but we were verbally instructed to come in if it did not come to us in a few weeks. So after doing exactly what we were told, they pretended we were somehow out of line for coming in again. Today too the lady started off politely enough while she was busy being coy and asking me to do an impossible thing (extend I-94) to fix their own mistake. But then she got pretty defensive and kept interrupting me... sheesh.

nowhereman - thanks. I was pretty upset and confused. This lady just chirped on about how my wife was out of status and how I needed permission to stay longer.

Obviously totally incompetent with social security - her own job - so completely clueless on immigration.

Just awful.

Appreciate the comments, thanks - I wrote moments after finishing this outrageous phone call from the Social Security office.

It was baffling and distressful because of course the social security employee does not want to just tell me the straight truth in plain english:

"Hi - We just found your application because we lost it, and now you cannot have a social security number because the I-94 deadline has passed"

She also had no idea what she was talking about in sending us to the Department of Homeland Security to ask for an extension on the I-94. Talk about gross incompetence.

We are also suspicious that she still did not enter the name correctly. I am curious from others here what their paperwork said.

When they handed us the letter confirming our application for the third time (first two had mistakes), it was addressed to her maiden name instead of her married name. We asked why it was in her maiden name if the whole point was to get the social security number in her new married name. She claimed it was OK, but she screwed so many things up I have little faith in what she told us.

Did you receive your confirmation of your application in your maiden name or your new married name? We were insistant that we wanted the social security card to read as her married name. It is what we understand to be the first and most important step in officially changing her name.

Thanks.

The Social Security office is a nightmare here. God I hope this has not screwed up our AOS application.

They first told us my wife could not get a social security number, then relented but screwed up her application for a social security number twice in front of us, and then filed it in the wrong place.

They called today and said they had just found it, and they could no longer process it because of their own damned mistake. They said we would have to get an extension of the I-94 or else we can't get a social security number for her.

Well they don't know how to get an I-94 extension and we have the proof we were in there a month before the I-94 expired making our application, so this is an outrage to make us contend with this.

What I am most worried about is that we are just today filing the AOS, and I have no idea if the lack of a social security number is going to prevent the AOS from going through.

First question - can she get an AOS approval without the social security number? We could then go back with the green card and ask for a social ecurity number. Second, is there a way to extend the I-94 under the circumstance? Is there some other thing we should do?

Please help.

How about combining Americano-Filippino?

Ice cream balut!

Shrimp paste tea!

Ground bangus and liver pate!

Meh.

When adults were telling me how teenage years were so "difficult" for a person I thought ####### are they talking about?

The "midlife crisis" thing too - what are they talking about?

Seems like people want excuses.

I always wore a t-shirt and jeans. Sweatshirt if cooler. I wear the same things now. Never needed to be "cool". Lots of grey hair. So what. If that's a crisis then life must be pretty boring for you.

Well my wife is 30 years younger. So I was joking.

Merrilizer I do have to say that under fire you are doing well enough answering. There is a lot of opportunistic sniping. I would like to think I could stay within the bounds of civility and diplomacy, but who is perfect among us.

I do hate to see sincere hopes dashed.

In time I hope you have a big fish on and a nice girl behind you. Not with a knife. With a landing net.

Looks like she has the groundwork for VAWA started. Probably has other options in the works too. So hang on to your seats.

Very common for someone exposed as a shyster to react explosively - an attempt to put you on the defensive.

Yes people who have no money throw it away. But usually the direction of causality is the reverse of what they think. They like to say the money disappears immediately because they are so poor. No - the reason they are poor is because they throw their money away. They don't plan, don't sacrifice for the future. They expect that so long as you have a penny in your pocket, you should give it to them. As if it just magically appeared in your pocket, and it is unfair of you to keep it from them.

If I understand correctly, she overstayed her first work visa here.

The fact they applied for K-1 after her work visa expired did not make her a legal immigrant. He married an illegal alien.

So I guess it is pretty ironic to be screeching about "illegal alien" now. She was illegal when he married her, and illegal while he went through the k-1 process.

I did at one point think about bringing my wife in through Mexico or Canada since it is so easy. In Alaska we can cross the border in many places without any kind of immigration hassle.

But we did it all legally.

I wouldn't marry an illegal alien. It's bad enough she's so creepy she's always got her hands all over this fat old man 30 years her senior. But if she turned green (illegal alien) then that would be the last straw...

K-1? What are you talking about? I married her when she was illegal? What are you talking about?

Ahhh, thee internet....where strangers don't know diddly.

When someone answers with an insult instead of directly providing information, you can be more sure you are right about the basic issue.

She came on a J-1 visa. It expired.

You married her a matter of days before it expired. That does NOT grant her a new visa. When we want to say it "nicely" we say "out of status". When we want to imbue it with evil, we cry loudly "illegal immigrant".

You flatly stated that you and your family found her "odd jobs", which is another "nice" term you were using at the time because you were still "in love" with her then - but if you want to imbue it with evil again the fact is "odd job" = working for money and again is an ILLEGAL *gasp* act.

What I am commenting on is this change in attitude from it being alright for her to stay here while out of status and also work for money without employment authorization - to this shrill cry of horrible crimes being committed as an "Illegal Alien".

It's OK so long as you are in love, but then it's a high crime when you are no longer in love, and you need to act as a sherriff's deputy in bringing to justice a whole network of illegal aliens now - the same people you knew about before, but took no action against until things started going sour with the wife.

So it's all about revenge and vindictiveness. I wish you no ill will. But get off the vindictiveness train. It is not healthy.

And eight years difference is shocking. I can't imagine finding something in common with a girl so much younger.

If you want some real fishing, Merrilizer, check out the Filippina with a thousand dollars in salmon from her last fishing trip:

www.alaskafilippina.blogspot.com

If I understand correctly, she overstayed her first work visa here.

The fact they applied for K-1 after her work visa expired did not make her a legal immigrant. He married an illegal alien.

So I guess it is pretty ironic to be screeching about "illegal alien" now. She was illegal when he married her, and illegal while he went through the k-1 process.

I did at one point think about bringing my wife in through Mexico or Canada since it is so easy. In Alaska we can cross the border in many places without any kind of immigration hassle.

But we did it all legally.

I wouldn't marry an illegal alien. It's bad enough she's so creepy she's always got her hands all over this fat old man 30 years her senior. But if she turned green (illegal alien) then that would be the last straw...

When people start screeching about how someone "used" someone else for their own benefit it is mostly just theatrical garbage.

All of us "use" the other person in our marriage. It is basic self-interest. Duh - if you are not gaining something out of your marriage then ####### are you doing being married.

Beautiful and young women marry doctors, lawyers, powerful people or movie stars/actors because of the security and status they represent. It is no different from a woman in Moldova bettering her circumstance (and her family perhaps) through marriage to a US citizen. So what.

Criticizing such a thing is absurd. It is idiotic to pretend that the reverse - making decisions that render her life WORSE - are either noble or wise. Sure, I can see a mother counselling her daughter "Find someone in wretched poverty that will starve you, somone really stupid and ugly, with fatal communicable diseases because then people on internet discussion boards will not say you used him..." Just make sure he is the same age.

It is trite to summarize the benefits of life in the U.S. with the statement "green card". If you say that someone got an education for a better life, or moved to another city, or took a different job - nobody would find fault with that. But when you say "green card" for some reason now we are supposed to be disgusted with this filthy behavior of acting to improve your life.

What is wrong is the lying, deceit, and fraud. The plan to divorce immediatly after the green card. It is not just illegal, but morally wrong to harm someone in the process.

We don't know the other side of the story. It is possible she was looking at him the same moment he references above thinking "Jesus this guy is kind of a nutball, but I am going to make this marriage work..." She may have had reservations but was sincere. It may further be true that after living with him she realized it was untenable and then made other plans. This would all be legal and at the same time morally sound.

On the other hand she may have from the outset been intending to dump him all along, never having been interested in marriage, just enduring it long enough to get what she wanted. Knowing she would hurt him and doing it anyway. In that case the lying, deceit, and fraud is both illegal and morally bankrupt.

I love my wife's family. Her parents show respect for their elders, so they are nice to me.

Lira has not met my family yet because we live in remote Alaska and they are in the lower '48. My brother sure seems real interested in meeting her. She talks to my mom and brother on the phone.

he was very tasty, yes.

This one below is trying to stomp our dog. That is what a moose does - raise up and stomp you with its front feet. Or kick with the back. In the rut a bull will "horn" you...

Our dog Torque likes to harass them and get them to chase her and try to stomp. Classic picture here. She is to the left of this cow's feet. If you know animals you can tell this moose is really mad, but Torque is having a great time:

Rocky - looks nice with trees and all. I see you have a Toyota truck. Wise choice!

I like your avatar. I should get my wife that outfit.

It was not an attack on you. And I'm certainly glad you've seen the light of day from your days of trouble.

And I mean that.

The "kidding yourself" statement was made out of ignorance of our circumstance. We are literally very grateful my wife is alive, and not in horrible pain.

I have for years lived under uncertainty about income, something that those on salary or wage don't live with to anywhere near the same degree. I don't think a thing about living for months out of the back of my car if I need to do that for work a long distance from home. I don't expect work to show up at my front door.

It is also wise counsel to live within your means and not borrow stupendous amounts of money for a big house, new car, or use credit cards at 20% interest to eat at restaurants. A lot of people are incapable of weathering a storm financially because they have saddled themselves with debt that can only be sustained if nothing bad happens to them.

Medical bankruptcy is actually the most common, and believe me what we have learned is that we have to be in charge and rely on ourselves because if we relied on them we'd be up to our eyeballs in debt and she would still be suffering. I recommend if you have health problems that you read voraciously, get involved in support groups with the same problem, and do NOT be dependent on one source of help - a source that makes a lot of money from your sickness.

Look - the question in the initial post is whether or not the US is still the Promised Land.

I may not have stated it clearly enough - but it isn't the Promised Land. It has been referred to as the "Land of Opportunity".

And there is opportunity. But it is the opportunity to succeed as well as to fail.

Good luck.

My husband and I discussed this matter many, many times so it's not something that we have to argue about.

Good for you. We did too. And there were tears because I said some things that were difficult for her to accept, but that were exactly true.

The most difficult matter for Fillippina-Americano marriages is to on the one hand fulfill the cultural obligation to help, but on the other hand not interfere in the incentive for them to work.

If you are not prepared to accept this cultural imperitive from your wife - then you have no business marrying her. They are my family too and I love them. I built them a house, actually - a little one. I am a builder so I do not mean "buy" a house. I built it with her father. I am not going to have my family living in a shack.

My wife does not earn income. But wow is my life better with her here. Well, except that I have gained 35 pounds. Every time I turn around she is handing me a plate of food.

You can rely on yourself all you want. You can live within your means and not over-extend yourself with debt.

That still won't help you if your employer decides he no longer needs you. Which takes away your health insurance. Which is OK I guess if you don't need maintenance meds to live.

Stop kidding yourself. Most people are ten minutes and a boardroom decision away from personal financial disaster in the US.

I see. So nobody is allowed to express any kind of happiness with their humble lot in life.

I stated flatly we don't have much money. I am self-employed, and don't have the luxury of a steady paycheck or employment benefits in the first place.

You seem relentless about wanting other people to be unhappy. And apparently unless they have your attitude, they are "kidding themselves".

We are happy because we love each other and have the life we want - which isn't about money.

I have a two hundred dollar car. I buy clothes second-hand. Shop the 50% bin at the store, and most of my meat my whole adult life comes from hunting and fishing. We have one asset most people do not have because I am a bush pilot - but we are not well-off by any means.

My wife has a ghastly health problem - and yea, we've fixed that too on our own after six hospitals and numerous specialists - which I paid for because there was no insurance. None of whom could do anything for her.

Life looked pretty grim in December because we weren't sure she was going to live. But you know, I never lashed out at other people insisting that they had to be miserable too because my wife was vomiting bile continuously for 12 days and in unbearable pain.

I am so grateful she isn't on an IV just to keep her alive. Gosh, if I wanted to I could just make an endless post of my mother's cancer, my father's death from heart attack, how I was hit by a drunk driver and suffer daily pain and muscle spasms, numbness, and and big loss in range of motion.

But instead I just have a lot of gratitude for my lovely Filippina, who will give me a child now. I'm not going to wallow in bitter hatred about life.

Cheers.

cool! i thought the way you describe it, it sounds like alaska... that must have been a huge transition for her... im from CO and wow its way different especially during the winter lol... im from cagayan de oro and hubby and i had been to iligan... timoga falls...

It's all about attitude. You can be excited about moving to the edge of the wilderness, and take fifty below zero temperatures as an adventure, or you can complain.

You do have to be careful. Our dog has a running war with the moose and we have lots of pictures of moose trying to stomp her. One tried to kill me a few years ago too. You do have to run from them if they charge.

This one was orphaned and I raised him for a while. We would go for walks together in the woods, and he would come running to me when I got home from work. But he wandered over to a neighbor's place and chased them all inside their cabin. He was playing, but they thought he was attacking them. The husband wasn't home, but he called me when he got home and said he was going to shoot him the next time he saw him. Wanted to warn me about the crazed moose - I didn't let him know he was mine. So anyway, I ate him. He was delicious.

Timoga! Yes, we've been there of course, and also Tinago.

We've been to the big mall there in Cagayan de Oro. I like the Ozamis area better than Iligan because there are high mountains and it is cooler up there. But I think Mindanao is beautiful.

Not to mention having the most beautiful girls on the planet.

im fascinated by this... 3 months w/ almost 100% daylight... i know alaska is like this and read a lot of fun stuff in alaska... what state you guys from?

We're from Alaska. Interior. Live in a log cabin in the woods. Millions of acres of wilderness outside the front, back, and side of the cabin.

This is a little better idea of the size of moose coming into the yard. My wife is five feet tall and 82 lbs (before becoming pregnant). The hot tub deck here behind this moose is five feet. This moose is probably 1200 lbs or so. But they get up to 1800 lbs:

Lira is from Iligan City, Mindanao.

We are very happy.

Not because it is a "promised land". Nobody promised us anything, nor do we expect it. Not from God, our families or the government.

We have very little money, but did not over-extend ourselves with debt.

We rely on ourselves.

The U.S. is the biggest terrorist nation on earth now, and the government is busy taking our rights on the theory that it needs to do so in order to continue its empire abroad. We're more concerned about that than we are about the economy. We'll just live in the Philippines if the US continues down the path towards a totalitarian police state.

Not one empire in history has sustained its imperial quest to rule over other countries, and all of them had the same hubris as the USA does now - "we're the superpower, nobody can stop us, the chosen people, blah blah blah..."

Good lord, what a creep.

If you did not have enough money for AOS before, it sure sounds like you won't now either, even if you wanted to apply yourself.

As you said, life in the philippines sounds better.

It's freakin' cold out there. I won't survive the winter. I'm a wuss. Must be tough navigating your way through the snow using that bulldozer eh? Have you seen any mooses?

We see moose in the yard pretty often. Occasionally bears. I had to shoot one trying to break into the cabin. Not the one in the picture above. It was a black bear trying to break in. Wolves you never see, but they come in and steal anything they can eat if it is a bad year for them food-wise.

She saw five moose a few days ago working on the airplane. Lots of sandhill cranes too.

A moose in the background here. To the left of her face. In February we have very little light - this is the middle of the "day":

But in the summer it doesn't get dark for three months.

Lira lives in the interior of Alaska. Gets down to -50 F in normal winters, as low as -65 F or colder in the really good ones. Not wind chill. Raw temperature.

We live in the forest about 35 miles from town. Here she is running a D-3 bulldozer clearing the road to our cabin:

A skid-steer (some call it a bobcat, which is a brand of skid steer):

Cutting with a chain saw (we heat with wood):

She can handle a .44 magnum pistol:

Her doggy Torque, who weighs 30 lbs more than she does:

Sleeping with a grizzly bear hide blanket (husband shot this bear in self defense)

Oh, then there's her husband. Renegade Bush Pilot:

Pretty much the same life she had in the Philippines.

She has a blog at

http://alaskafilippina.blogspot.com/

I reckon there ain't no problem during the interview. However, a real problem will exist in married life. How can a young woman live with somebody old enough to be her grandaddy or daddy? Will they ever be seen together in public? I reckon not! The young woman must be ashamed of being seen with her daddy or grandaddy. Be realistic, girls and old men!

Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

I'm 30 years older. 50 vs 20.

Yea, its creepy to see how this youngster chases after me. She has no shame.