Cait

Hello again from Minnesota

Well, I've been married for two weeks and a day now, and I am loving
America!

However, there is one question that is causing me a lot of stress. I
have seen a job I would like to apply for but do not have a social
security number. The local office in St Cloud says I have to get USCIS
to give me authorization to work before they can give me an SSN.

I thought having a K1 was authorization to work in itself! Please
correct me if I am wrong.

Please, please can someone tell me how I can get USCIS to give me such
authorization. Sean (my husband) has sent off for the AOS packet and
hopefully it should arrive soon. If there is anything else I need to
do, I would really appreciate some pointers.

Love
Cait

rzack

You need to apply EAD (I-765) with your AOS forms. Need to wait at least 90 days to be approved. When you get your EAD card from USCIS, then go to SS office and apply a SS#. The waiting times may take from 7 to 90 days for you to get the SS#. So...let see...you cannot work at least another 100 days.

Good luck.

SecretGarden

Hi Cait,
Do a search for posts by Michael D. Young, the resident social security guru

By virtue of having a K1 you are allowed to apply for a SSN without first having your EAD (K3 recipients are the opposite--must have the EAD before a SSN will be issued).

Mr. Young has listed links for the SSA policy memo which shows that K1s are entitled to apply for a SSN before having the EAD.

We're going back today (he's been here just over five weeks now) as our first trip down to the office at the two week mark found him not to be in the system yet. Hopefully we'll have better luck today.

Good luck to you,
~SecretGarden
~and Mr. Pink

leebarton

I did it the other way round, which was to get an SSN before I got married while the K-1 was still valid and I hadnt changed my status by getting married. I got the SSN about 2-3 weeks after arriving this way. Now you are married I believe you do have to wait until your I-765 is approved (could take a while - mine just took 120 days in Baltmore region) before you can get an SSN.

This is only my opinion from experience though, others may know differently!

Good luck, and welcome to America

Lee, US Resident for over 7 months now and still loving every minute =)

veryfunny

No need to worry, we are all in this together, just follow some of the advise here. Also look at the timelines of everyone here that may help some.

Eric S.

You could have gotten a SSN based on your K-1. But now that you are
married, I'm pretty sure you are no longer K-1 status. So I think you'll
have to wait until you get work authorization. A lot people apply for an
EAD (using form I-765) when they apply for AOS. If you don't get an EAD,
then you can't work until you get your LPR.

If you're lucky, your local USCIS office allows walk-in processing for AOS,
and will give you the EAD that same day. But it seems like they are
gradually doing away with that and more offices are requiring you to apply
by mail. If you apply by mail, it may take a couple of months to get the
EAD. You can get an interim EAD if your "normal" EAD doesn't arrive after
90 days. Not sure if you can apply for THAT in person or not. You should
check with your local USICS office to see what their procedures are.

- Eric S.


"Cait" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hello again from Minnesota
    > Well, I've been married for two weeks and a day now, and I am loving
    > America!
    > However, there is one question that is causing me a lot of stress. I
    > have seen a job I would like to apply for but do not have a social
    > security number. The local office in St Cloud says I have to get USCIS
    > to give me authorization to work before they can give me an SSN.
    > I thought having a K1 was authorization to work in itself! Please
    > correct me if I am wrong.
    > Please, please can someone tell me how I can get USCIS to give me such
    > authorization. Sean (my husband) has sent off for the AOS packet and
    > hopefully it should arrive soon. If there is anything else I need to
    > do, I would really appreciate some pointers.
    > Love
    > Cait

MarDae

I'm not 100% on this but if I were you I would still try to apply for the SSN now. I don't know how being married affects your K-1 status as far as getting a SSN is concearned. My husband applied for his number before we were married, but it wasn't issued until over a month after we were married and had already applied for AOS. You can find the SSA policy memo that Secret was referring to at http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0100203500 . You will still need the EAD to work even if you are issued a SSN, your card will have wording on it to the effect that you still need INS approval to work (the elusive EAD). You can apply for the EAD at the same time you apply for AOS. If your husband didn't order the I-765 which is the form to get your EAD you can download it off of the Forms and Fees page of the uscis.gov website.

Best of Luck,

MarDae

SecretGarden

Hi again,
I would have to say based on our experience the first time we went to the office, it didn't matter whether Mr. Pink was married or not----they were quite happy to issue him a number but he wasn't in the SAVE system at that point. They knew we had just gotten married because I showed them a copy of our marriage certificate in order to change to my new married name on my card.

Guess we'll see what they say this afternoon!

~SG

Jayways

I am not well-imformed on this process. What I do know is that my fiancee and
I went to get her SS# the other day and there was some confusion. Luckily we
had brought her I-94 (I believe that is it...the little card filled out on the
plane). Apparently, they stamped Angelica's I-94 with a work autorization
stamp and we didnt know it nor request it coming through immigration.

Michael D. Young

Cait wrote:

    > Hello again from Minnesota
    > Well, I've been married for two weeks and a day now, and I am loving
    > America!
    > However, there is one question that is causing me a lot of stress. I
    > have seen a job I would like to apply for but do not have a social
    > security number. The local office in St Cloud says I have to get USCIS
    > to give me authorization to work before they can give me an SSN.

This is the gray area that I don't have clear answer on. Normally, a
person with K-1 status is eligible for a work authorized SSN without the
need for an EAD card for the first 76 days after entry. The problem is
that immigration's policy is that an individual no longer has K-1 status
once they are married.

For U.S. citizens the person would show the marriage certificate to
establish the name change and the card would be issued in the married
name. With an alien you need to verify status through SAVE and the office
is supposed to send the G-845 for manual status verification if anything
doesn't match SAVE, i.e. name, date of birth. So I would assume the
G-845 response would be not authorized to work due to no longer having K-1
status. Then again they might not know their own policy and say the
person is authorized to work.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://policy.ssa.gov/public/referen...ttocategory=EM

EM-02091

Enumeration: Verification of Alien Status for Alien Applicants for Social
Security Numbers

"You should also compare all of the fields on the SAVE query response to
the documents presented by the alien. If there is a discrepancy in the
information, e.g., name, date of birth, the documents presented by the
alien may be not be authentic, even though SAVE reflects that INS
documents were issued to an alien with that Alien Number or Admission
Number. Verify any discrepant documents presented by the applicant by
sending a G-845, Document Verification Request, to INS, rather than
relying on the SAVE query response."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0100203210

RM 00203.210 Changing Numident Data

A. POLICY – CHANGING NUMIDENT DATA — NAME CHANGE

If applying for a corrected SSN card, the applicant must submit one or
more documents identifying him/herself by both the old name (as shown on
the latest Numident record) and the new name. In addition to the person's
name, the identity document(s) must also show information that can be
compared with the Numident data (e.g., age, date of birth, or parents'
names).

The applicant may submit either:

One document showing both the old and new names which establishes both
identities (e.g., a court order for a name change or a marriage
certificate). The document must also show either a photograph of the
person or information that can be compared with the Numident data; or

Two documents, one showing the old name and one showing the new name
(e.g., a driver's license in the old name and a health insurance card in
the new name). Additionally, both documents must show either a photograph
of the person or provide information that can be compared with the
Numident data. (See RM 00203.200E.).

A legal document showing a name change or the basis of the name change
(divorce, marriage, naturalization), although not required, is certainly
acceptable.

The name to be shown on the SSN card (item 1, line 1 on the application)
must match the name on the identity document showing the new name.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now some people could get lucky and the office processes the alien
application as they would a U.S. citizen and just assumes the name
difference from SAVE is due to the marriage and the marriage certificate
is the proof of the name change.

Plus RM 00203.500 is not a SSA memo. It's a section of the Program
Operations Manual System (POMS).

My advice is go apply for the SSN as soon as you get off the boat and
worry about the name change once you get the EAD card in the married name.

SecretGarden

Hi Michael,
Thank you for your response. We have a slightly different situation in that the applicant in this case is my husband who entered on a K1 almost six weeks ago and doesn't require a name change. To be honest, we hadn't even thought of the possibility that he had essentially voided his K1 status for social security purposes until this thread got us thinking........

We went the first time after he had been here only two weeks (we were married at that point also, which the clerk did not seem to be concerned about) and he was not in the SAVE system. Rather than have her fill out the G-485 at that time, we simply withdrew the application and told her we'd come back in several weeks which we did, yesterday.

We were lucky enough to get the same clerk and had decided that if they asked if we were married we would, of course, tell the truth, but if they didn't, we wouldn't mention it and just see what happened. She had processed my request for a name change on the first visit and had seen the certificate, but we decided to remain quiet on that issue unless asked.

She checked SAVE and his information was there (five and a half weeks after entry on his K1), so she started processing the application. She filled in all his details on the application form (A number, passport number, all identifying information) and then asked if we were married. We said, yes........and then she asked for a copy of the marriage certificate, and entered the certificate number and date of recording of the marriage on the bottom of the application. At no time did she fill out any other form and she said that his number would be assigned within a 24 hour period, the card would come within two weeks, and if we needed access to the number prior to that we could come back to the office, pay a $7.50 fee, and receive his number in person as soon as Wednesday.

All in all, it was a pleasant experience but now I'm wondering if they made a mistake.........*lol* Think I'll remain quiet on this one!

~SecretGarden
~and Mr. Pink (hopefully getting his SSN soon!)
P.S. I also remember her making a notation on the bottom of the application: "K1: work authorized" Guess we'll see.....

mcjimbo

Right,

So i've got a question on this one now.

I was planning on booking a flight to New York JFK solely for the 3 month EAD stamp thingo.

Are you saying that I could just skip this, fly directly to Chicago and get a SSN later on? Maybe i'm misinterpreting things here?

Or do I need the EAD stamp from JFK to get my SSN and start working right away?

Thanks in advance

James

SecretGarden

Hi James,
My understanding is this (take a look at the table in the link that someone provided above)

K3=not work authorized on entry, needs EAD in hand before eligible to apply for SSN

K1=work authorized by virtue of K1 status and can apply for SSN before receiving EAD (employers must see both in order to hire you, if I'm understanding correctly....so I guess I've never really understood how the temporary workstamp can benefit anyone!)

Our issue comes in with the fact that Mr. P. essentially isn't on K1 status anymore since we're married, but that is in fact how he entered the country, and either the clerk overlooked this in agreeing to issue his number, or doesn't know the policy?

The AOS papers ask for social security number, and in Illinois you must have a social security number to get a driver's license, so we felt it was important to get this taken care of. We had to be married right away after his arrival since we needed to add him on to health insurance because of his accident, and since we married six days after his arrival, we knew he wouldn't be in the SAVE system at that point. Our only choice seemed to be to apply for the SSN after marriage, and I'm hoping it works.

?????

~SG

MarDae

As a K-1 you are able to apply for a SSN based solely on your status as a K-1. Your SS card will have a limitation on it stating that you need permission from INS to work. If you want to be able to work as soon as you get here your best bet is to go through JFK and try to get the 90 day EAD stamp. It's not guaranteed that you'll get the stamp but JFK is the place to get it if you're going to get it anywhere. You'll still need to apply for a SSN even with the EAD stamp but at least as soon as you have your SSN with the EAD stamp you can start working. Otherwise you are going to have to wait until you receive your EAD card which you can't apply for until you're married and are applying for AOS. If you need to start working asap it's worth the hassle of going through JFK (as long as you don't go through immigration in Dublin before you get there ).

MarDae

mcjimbo

Thanks for clearing that up SG and MarDae.

SG your just down the road from us in Milwaukee!