LauraLou07

Hi, so i applied for a fiancee visa to the US, arrived and got married and then got my resident permit (2 year) but before i got my resident permit i got my SSN (the only that has for DHS Work Authorization only) but here lies my issue. I was wondering did i need to go and change my SSN afterwards to remove the DHS Work Authorization only wording? My resident permit expires in the beginning of march 2018 so during the 90 days prior to this i shall be removing the conditions. My partner and i were in the stages of buying a house, however the mortgage company said my SSN was not valid which brought this whole thing up. Did i make a huge mistake?? Is this going to be a problem when trying to remove the conditions on my green card?

Pulaski

Your SSN is what it is, and unless you are accepted into the federal witness protection program, it won't change, ever.

If you have a green card I believe you are eligible to have the wording removed from your SS card, so make an appointment at your local SS office.

Whatever your SS card says, it has nothing to do with the removal of conditions from your green card (which isn't a "residence permit"). My SS card still referred to employment restrictions when I had the conditions removed from my green card. Later I became a US citizen and still had my old SS card which referred to restrictions, and it was another 8 years before I got around to get my SS card reissued without the restrictive wording.

Noorah101

Your SSN is valid. The mortgage company is wrong.

You can go to a SS office in person, with your green card, to order a new SS card without the legend.

Rene

Rete

You do not have a resident permit but a conditional green card. Once you received that green card you were to go to the SSA and have the legend removed from your social security card as you no longer required an EAD (employment authorization document) to work as you were a green card holder.

As others have said the mortgage company is wrong. Your green card negates the EAD and the legend which you should have applied to SSA to have removed once you received your green card.

BTW partner indicates to most US citizens that you are not married. I know we are a weird lot, ain't we. Your spouse (husband or wife) would be a more accurate choice of wording That is if you are still married to your sponsoring spouse.

Either fight it out with the mortgage company or go to the SSA and apply to have the legend removed and then show the mortgage company (who are idiots) the new card.

ian-mstm

They are wrong - and you can tell them I said so. Do you really want to do business with people who are this stupid? I suggest you go elsewhere.

Ian

Pulaski

Until just a very few years ago it wasn't typically used by couples who were not legally able to marry. I suspect that many Americans still think of it that way. And I still hear it used that way by people who are now able to marry, and are actually married.
I wonder if the problem is with the number (which is what the OP said), not the card, because I was never asked to show my SS Card during the mortgage process, I just had to give my number, which can then be easily verified electronically. For example it may be in a block of SSN's that weren't issued until recently so it is being flagged as an error. It could even be flagged as an error because it was issued when she was an adult - the background checks that banks can run show the date the SSN was issued, which for most people for nearly 30 years now, was very shortly after birth, so having a SSN issued last year when the person was, say, 28 years old can look a little odd.

Rete

Since her expiry date on the CGC is 03/2018 and she apparently received the SS# when she received the EAD before getting the approved green card, that would mean that it was obtained in 2015 with AOS being approved in 03/2016. Thus the SS# is approximately 2 years old.

Going to the SSA office and applying for removal of the legend will determine if the number is valid and she can then go back to the mortgage company with that information. Personally, I would obtain written verification from SSA that the number is indeed valid. And if it were invalid, then she will be issued the new #.

Wanna bet that someone in the mortgage company office keyed in the wrong digits?

Rete

In my generation if you were living with someone (as I was for many years) without benefit of marriage they were referred to in the US as a significant other. I have only heard the word partner used, almost exclusively, by Brits and they use it whether they are legally married or living together or living apart and in a serious relationship. A distant relative who is lesbian referred to her now wife as partner before they married in 2012. That is the one and only time I personally heard partner used in the US to describe a love interest.

Pulaski

Bingo! (That is what I was referring to.)

Steve_

Once you get LPR status, you need to go back to the SSA office and file an SS-5 to get a new card. You need to do this whenever your status changes for any reason, otherwise if someone runs E-verify on you it will come up with the wrong information.

Try using this: https://www.uscis.gov/mye-verify/self-check

This tells you what an employer will get if they run e-verify on you, if your EAD has expired and you have failed to file an SS-5, most likely it will fail.

You can also "lock" your SSN: https://www.uscis.gov/mye-verify/self-lock this stops people from stealing your identity.

Of course, most employers don't use e-verify so they might never notice, but you can't use a "valid with DHS authorization only" card on form I-9, so once your EAD expires you can't work unless you get a new card.

The one where most people forget is when they naturalize, that can also cause problems with e-verify and DHS SAVE if you fail to file an SS-5.

DHS SAVE is used to check your eligibility for benefits, for example when you apply for a driver's licence.

So long story short, always make sure your status is up-to-date with the SSA.

fbf2006

I would go to a social security administration (SSA) office close to you to apply for a new card. Your number is fine. My husband and I got our green cards earlier this week and actually went to the SSA office this morning to apply for new cards. I'd rather the DHS work authorization notation be removed.

Rete

Please be aware that when Steve or fbf mention getting a new card - they actually mean having the legend removed from your status with SSA and receiving an updated card, with the same number which is yours for life, from the SSA. It is not getting a new card with a new number. I only wanted to point this out because many people think they will be given a new number.

Steve_

I always think the way they do it here is so much more sensible, like people with brains actually figured out how to do it.

The problem with the US is that tons of people have SSNs who aren't authorized to work so they fake cards with the number on it or alternatively they get an ITIN and fake cards. Prior to 1996, the SSA would issue an SSN to anyone, so it was either a regular card if you had work authorization or it said: "NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT" if you just wanted it to fill in a tax return (or work illegally). If you run one of those numbers through the SSN verification system it comes back as valid - because it is a valid SSN number.

Not only that but they had regional batches of numbers until a few years ago, so you could accurately guess an SSN that appeared to be valid.

In Canada what they did is issue a different SIN that begins with a "9" to anyone who has temporary work authorization. So it is obvious to an employer, and all the regular everyday tax paperwork points this out to an employer, rather than having rafts of USCIS instructions and a separate form.

The equivalent to an ITIN is an ITN, and they're only eight numbers long so you can't pretend it is an SIN.

The SIN number itself is devised from a simple algorithm and all the tax software has that algorithm programmed in, so if you enter a fake SIN not derived using that algorithm, the program immediately comes up saying: "check SIN" or something similar.

Also if an SIN isn't used on any tax paperwork for 5 years, the CRA marks it as inactive and you have to go to the federal building to get it reactivated, which helps prevent identity theft.

It's so much simpler and more logical than the American system.

It reminds me of when NASA spent millions on developing a ball-point pen that would work in zero gravity. The Russians used wax pencils.