In NE Ohio here and approaching the end of my fourth week in the US and still no SSN. I am being paid nonetheless as per the responses above.

Thanks for your reply. Is there any particular reason to time it for the 1st January?

Glad to hear they can come sooner than expected! Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. Hope yours arrives soon. Good to know that being paid without the SSN is indeed possible.

My guess would be to coincide with US tax year.

Rene

Hi,

I moved to Colorado back in June. I waited 10 working days to apply, and the person behind the counter said 4-6 weeks for me as well and that I couldn't come in to get the number before that. I think this might be a stock response.

I phoned them up the next day though, and I spoke to someone else and they said I could come in, so I did and they gave me the number then and there. that was within 48 hours. It might be worth calling your local SSA Office, you don't have anything to lose.

I ended up getting my card in the post anyway after 4 working days, which really surprised me, it seems like that time is very different for everyone.

And as others have mentioned, they can still pay you before they have the number, luckily I had mine already for the first payroll, but our finance person had me setup and ready to go anyway before I had it.

Good luck with the move, I am sure it will be amazing once you are in and settled.

Thanks for that. I spent so much time and energy researching the L1 visa process and the actual 'moving' part - I need to spend a bit of time researching the 'everything we need to know when living there' part!

Excellent! Thanks for the reply. Hopefully we'll be in for a pleasant surprise then. I'll get my husband to give them a call and see - like you say, nothing to lose.

After speaking with his company (and explaining that after speaking with several people we had been reliably informed there should be a way for them to pay him before he received a SSN - thanks everyone!) they have decided that it actually is possible to proceed and the relocation package should be sorted next week. Hooray!

Looking forward to the chaos that the next few weeks should bring and excited to start our US adventure. Thanks so much for the responses and advice, much appreciated.

My situation differs somewhat because I had been assigned an SSN years ago on a student visa but having lost that card I was prepared for the worst when I got here.

I went to SS Admin Office the day after I arrived and to my delight I got to speak to a very helpful smiley man who couldn't do enough for me. I explained how I had just arrived and had so much to do and he was good enough to type up a note on official headed paper with my address that I gave him on it and my SSN on there as well. I am quite sure you're not meant to do that based on someone's word but he did and I was grateful because that letter with my address on it was good enough to open a bank account and a letter from in turn them was enough documentation (2 with your address along with an I-94 which you need to print off yourself now) to get my drivers test booked.

You need to collect all this stuff in the right order so you can get your life moving in the right direction. I suspect it's 'who you get' a lot of the time at these places.

Within 10 days I had my SSN (and card), a bank account, my drivers license and anything else I required. Since then I've sorted my health and dental insurance and that has been based off the documentation I've collected since I arrived and of course the visa in my passport.

The SSN card itself arrived within a week. Perhaps Glendale SS Admin are just better than elsewhere but I suspect I have been lucky. I tried hard to get all this sorted quickly and it paid off thanks mostly to that first guy at the SSN Admin Office.

I wonder if the SSA are routinely doing more checks now before issuing a social security number?

When I got mine last year the card arrived within a week.

I think you're right.

Thanks for the reply, glad to hear it all fell nicely into place for you.

Could very well be the case. Although if these kind of delays are going to happen to anyone it's usually us!

Just a quick update if anyone is interested - just received my social security card through the post today - exactly 4 weeks to the day that I applied for it (though the card has 24th Oct - 1 week ago printed on it).