I applied for my Social Security Number more than 3 weeks ago and has not received it yet? I need SSN to lease a car. I have been calling the SSA office and they keep saying that they are just waiting from immigration dept.? Do I have to go to the SSA office personally and ask them to check it for me?


What is your experience on this?

Wow.

Hmmm..... they are quoting a month to six weeks here. I have a colleague in the same situation as you, and my husband just applied 1.5 weeks ago.

Until SS can find you on the SAVE system (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) from USCIS...you won't be getting a SSN
SS can request a manual check from USCIS ..I believe its form G-845S
they use ...

Mine took 11 weeks ...

It is all to do with manual verification of you're immigration status. If you are not in the SAVE system then they have to send you're information to get verified. I went through this and it took over 2 months for me to get my ssn. Did you get any information or letter when u applied for the ssn?

Went through a similar process when i got here. IIRC my SSN took just over 6 weeks to come through as they had to do a manual verfication even though i waited the 10 business days after arriving in the US before i even applied.

In '04 when I was over on a J-1, I applied for an SSN. It took about 8 weeks to come through due mostly to extreme incompetence on the part of the social security office. They initially lost my application, then on the second attempt they did allocate me an SSN, but failed to send me a card. I ended up leaving at the end of my internship knowing the number but without the card because it was impossible to get them to replace it in time.

When I arrive in late June, I'm intending to get the card replaced. Mostly I'm concerned about applying for a driving test -- I don't know if they will accept the number as valid without my having the actual card. I'd rather wait until I have a permanent address before applying for a replacement SSN card because it will take longer to arrive than I will have in the temporary place initially. Does anyone know if they will send a card to my work address?

I suppose I should probably phone and ask, but that's not generally been amazingly useful in the past...

Anyway, in other news, I have my H1-B, I'm in the midst of organising movers (NASA wanted 3 quotes, and are now arranging an extra one through Mayflower -- are they any good in CA? I only found a brief mention of them in NYC when I searched BE). I still don't have a definite date for my PhD viva, which is extraordinarily annoying because of trying to organise a whole bunch of moving stuff and an unrelated trip to Albuquerque... gaah!

I think it goes by state as to what the requirements are for a drivers license, here in indiana, u have to show a social security card as proof of social security number, not sure about california, best to check their department, so you know exactly what you need.

Been there done that. Best not to dwell on it and use the downtime productively. Or just faff around on BE.

Why would the OP want to LEASE a car anyway? Bad idea..

I have some experience. LOL

What visa classification did you enter with and when does it expire? If you have been calling the SSA 800#, you have been wasting your time. At some point you will need to go into the SSA office to see what's going on.

I was in Atlanta in 2000 on a J-1 and I got the number the day I applied and the card came about a week later. When I came here on the K-1 I applied the Monday after we got married, they gave me the number right there and then and got a new card in about 2 weeks. Both times I went and applied at the SS office.

You are saying that when you first applied for an SSN you were told the number at that time? They might have told you the next day. You aren't going to know the number until at least the next day. Unless you were accidently assigned a new SSN as a K-1 of course they could tell you your SSN, since you had already been assigned one as a J-1.

you got two ssn's? very weird...

Very funny!!!!

beat me to that lol

but i'm sure it'll come very handy for flogging on ebay

speaking of dodgy, some bird in town, major bust by the FBI because she was printing $20 bills with her puter, on shite paper and an inkjet...scary thing is, she hadn't had a problem spending the money in various fast food joints in town, only got into problems when she went to the bank to exchange them for a roll of quarters And I thought this was a sleepy town *lol*