Expatrian

I saw your post when researching for this one. My thoughts were your original SSN has the earnings and credit history on it, so that can always be identified as your original and true SSN. The second SSN will never have any history attached to it (if you never use it for anything), and will never be seen anywhere else but SSA. If it did end up in any other gov databases automatically, the SSA would hopefully by able to clear that up. But since you new SSN will never see the light of day in the private sector, my feeling is it would very unlikely be compromised (i.e., identity theft) or cause any issues for you. All my theoretical opinion of course.

S Folinsky

Back in the mid-90’s, former INS went over to a “user fee” basis of funding for adjudications. I was involved in a legal challenge to the system (local counsel for the attorney appearing pro hac vice, butI digress). So, somewhat familiar with the system.

The filing fee is determined by the marginal cost of processing plus a surcharge for general operational costs. That surcharge is the same for each application and often exceeds the marginal cost. As a weird addendum, the costs of no fee applications, e.g. asylum, are added to the general operational costs. One year, a continuing budget resolution omitted that little thing, resulting in a temporary fee reduction.

Nutmegger

This is a good non sequitur!

OldJuddian

Thanks to this thread I went to SS office yesterday with my teen to update our citzenship status. There was a long line in the parking lot, but at least the security guards were polite and professional. Once getting in was told that their ticket machine was broken, it could not print tickets so they provide pen and paper to write down the number, also the touchscreen was flaky so often a guard would help. It was more of a thump-screen rather than a touchscreen. Soon after sitting down a number of windows shut down, maybe lunch break starts at 10am? There were a few cases of 'your name is not on the list, you are not coming in' which seemed fair until it was discovered that no-one who had a booked appointment was on the list, and they were then let in very late for the timed-appointment.
Eventually my number came up and I went to the designated window where I found a telepresence person (i.e. a screen and camera). Rather than being able to hand across my completed SS5s and US passports I had to write down the relevant details on a notepad and hold them up to a camera. It was a comedy of errors, including entering my teen's details into my application so needing to start all over again. I heard other agents saying that the computer system was flaky and kept going down that morning. Then the printer broke down so we had to wait until someone fixed it and could bring the paper summary for a final check. I have zero confidence that this was successful - but at least I tried. I managed to complete it all in two hours which had been my guess.

At least it rates better than my experiences with their Escondido office and was in line with my (low) expectations.

tom169

Ah, the US government everybody.