Noorah101

Excellent!!

Rene

Michael

Bring the e-mail with you in case the office manager is not in the office that day.

randomgirl

We definitely will! I've just printed it out. We're going in just over an hour so hopefully he's still there when we get there.

randomgirl

My sentiments exactly! I'm surprised you didn't hear me cheering when I read that email, hehe.

meauxna

Good news.

Now go, be KIND to the confused lady, and be the gracious recipient of the personalized service you just got (I'm serious).

I will post a big for him and suggest you post *thank yous* to the Big Giant Head who watches over us and answers emails.
thanks, buddy!

randomgirl

Oh we are very gracious, don't worry! And I wouldn't dare to actually be rude to her, but I might be in my head, lol.

It's amazing to have such wonderful people here (and other places!!) who are always willing to help - I don't know if I'd have been able to navigate the whole visa thing without you!

RG

Rete

Big Hugs and Thank You Giant Head. You're a good guy to have around in a pinch.

Random ... play at being a gracious southern lady ;-) They were only telling you what they were told somewhere along the line. At least you didn't get threatened with removal from the SS office by force like we did.

meauxna

I don't remember that story! Do tell!

randomgirl

Hehe, only because we walked out shaking our heads when it was crystal clear we weren't getting anywhere (when the line, "You're not a K1 visa holder anymore, it's changed to a K3," was said one too many times!).
They were so condescending!

At least one good thing to come out of this is that hopefully the staff in that particular Card Center will get some training and this same thing won't happen to someone else. I mean, someone without any knowledge whatsoever of the AOS thing might have bought into their rubbish about having to go to DHS to tell them we got married and get the I-94 changed... *sigh*

All's well that ends well, I guess! And it looks as though it'll end well in, oh, about an hour.

Thanks guys!

randomgirl

Yes, please do! It sounds like an interesting one!!

ian-mstm

It won't.


You don't need a SSN. You need a "unique identifier" and your passport will suffice for that. In case anyone mentions it, it is NOT part of the US Patriot Act. If the teller doesn't let you open an account, ask to speak to the manager. If the manager says no, tell him you will be informing the media of his arbitrary position, and go elsewhere.

Ian

randomgirl

Thanks Ian.

I actually - eventually - managed to get them to accept my application today. Unfortunately for us we got the same woman as yesterday, and she still had to make things difficult for us. She asked us twice if we've updated my K3 (um, no, it's a K1 and you don't know what you're talking about!!) and then got her colleague who we also spoke to yesterday. I'd already given her the email from the SSA, stating that marriage does not alter the fact that I'm eligible for a SSN since I'm still an in-status K1 visa holder. They really tried hard to get rid of us, they told us they'd need to speak to the manager who was in a meeting and they didn't know how long he'd be and asked if we wanted to wait, heavily emphasising how it could be ages. I said that we weren't going to make a third trip so we would wait. They looked really surprised that we wanted to wait, I think they expected us to just leave so we wouldn't be their problem anymore! They went around the corner where I could actually hear them discussing my case with a man (I'm assuming he was the manager) and the original woman came back a few minutes later to tell me that he'd approved my application. They're going to issue my SSN in my married name because we took our marriage certificate with us. Why they couldn't have done this yesterday I have no idea, but it shouldn't have been such a hassle.

Considering that we were dealing with the exact same person as yesterday, it would have been nice if she could have perhaps said something vaguely resembling an apology for the inconvenience she caused us, but no. All she did was sigh repeatedly while she was inputting my information.

Anyway, the main thing is that I should get my SSN in a couple of weeks. In the meantime we're going to enjoy our honeymoon in San Diego!

Thanks again everyone

RG x

HarryTheSpider

Congrats & enjoy your honeymoon!

I'm in Phoenix just now, headed home at the weekend to pack up house and bring wife & dogs back - we arrive 9 Nov for the start of our new lives here...

And will need to be applying for SSNs etc, so I'm interested, and slightly worried (!) about any poor experiences people are having with the offices in Phoenix.

I guess our situation is simpler - I'm on an L1, and The Boss is on L2. I came in on my L1 on 18 Oct, so I'm hoping the SSN application process and time to get the actual card will be a quick breeze....

I'm sorting banks etc out with AIG - very helpful service I'm getting with them, by the way.

Is there anything else I should know about with the application process?

Cheers

Harry