SSN, What to do?
 

Its been 8 weeks since my son applied for his SSN. He has been working for 2 weeks already ,his employer told him he cant be put in the payroll and get paid unless he has the SSN.
He went to SSA office several times already and they told him they are still waiting for the homeland security. Today , he was told that they will send a verification to USCIS again and wait for another 2 weeks. what is happening? he got his EAD thru I-485. He is planning to call USCIS , is it the right thing to do ? any advice?

Poor kid, Its his first time to work and is worried sick that he hard work wont get paid.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Time to educate the employer, gently please. :)
Mr Kid can work, and be paid if he has applied for his SS account. USCIS won't be able to tell him much of anything, and EAD-upgrades are one of the slowest records to get updated in SAVE.
Posts from mdyoung will also be helpful to you regarding how to manage the manual-verification follow up with SSA.

Employers may hire candidates who have applied for, but not yet recieved, their Social Security Card.

http://tinyurl.com/3aqah6
Do legal aliens need a Social Security number to work?

Question
We are a company who is hiring legal aliens without Social Security numbers. Do they need a number to work, or just a work permit?

Answer
You are required to get each employee's name and Social Security number and to enter them on Form W-2. (This requirement also applies to resident and nonresident alien employees.) You should ask your employee to show you his or her social security card. The employee is required to show the card, if available. You may, but are not required to, photocopy the Social Security card if the employee provides it.

A non-U.S. citizen employee who does not have a Social Security number may apply for one by completing Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card. To apply for a card, he or she will need to complete Form SS-5 which is available for download. Or they may obtain Form SS-5 by calling 1-800-772-1213 or visiting the local Social Security office.

The employee will need to submit Form SS-5 with evidence of age, identity and current authorization to work from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (The application cannot be filed by the employer.) The immigration document may be acceptable as evidence of both identity and authorization to work in the United States. All documents must be either originals or copies certified by the issuing agency.

To apply for a replacement card, the employee will need to submit Form SS-5 with evidence of identity and current authorization to work from the DHS. We cannot accept photocopies of documents. We need original documents or copies certified by the custodian of the record. Notarized copies are also not acceptable.

If the employee is a noncitizen, we must verify their documents with the (DHS) before we issue a card. We will issue the card within two days of receiving verification from DHS. Most of the time, we can quickly verify documents online with DHS. If DHS can't verify the documents online, it may take several weeks or months to respond to Social Security's request.

Employers may hire foreign workers who have applied for and are waiting to receive Social Security numbers and cards. The employee may work while the Social Security number application is being processed. If your employee applied for an SSN but does not have it when you must file Form W-2, enter "Applied for" on the form. When the employee receives the SSN, file Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, to show the employee's SSN.

Note that these are SSA's instructions to employers.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Thanks for the advice, I will print this out for him. Oh,yes, I remember mdyoung , wonder where he is ? I can get few more tips from him as well.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

I'm sitting right here. LOL

Well the verification process is now

1. Do the initial SAVE verification if that doesn't verify

2. Do a secondary electronic request if that doesn't verify deny the application

3. However, if the response from the secondary request comes back that they need to see the document(s), then the G-845 is sent with the document copies.

The follow up time on the secondary request is 15 business days and 20 on the G-845.

I would find out what step things are in and is it time to follow up. Plus if you can see why the initial SAVE verification failed. Based on POMS you can have one letter of the name be off and still be acceptable for the SAVE verification.

Example: Dob Smith for Bob Smith would be OK

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Thanks, I will print this up for him to bring to the SSA office to find out what process are they doing to verify.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

My son still has not received his SSN , he has beeen going back and forth to the office to verify. He applied for the SSN with EAD card on May 09 when we are still processing with our green card, on July 10 we received our
GC and he brought his GC back to the local office and check for his SSN, they copied his GC and said will fax it to "where"? and ask him to check after one week. Still no GC, we are planning to go to local office later, what should we ask them? Is the local office has no authority to do anything except to inquire and wait too?

He has been working for more than a month already and his employer wont give him his salary because he has no ssn.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

There are phone numbers to call in POMS to follow up on the secondary verification if no response is received and there are contact numbers for each local verification office if the G-845 has been sent. Still SSA can't make DHS/USCIS do anything.

Here is the archived SSA POMS section that lists all the local immigration verification offices and phone numbers.

http://web.archive.org/web/200503182...lnx/0100203748

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Employer can pay him and use a dummy number!
Then go back and fill in a corrected wage statement as detailed above.

Poor kid.. should be getting his paycheck! That isn't right, and it's just becasue the employer can't be bothered to learn something new. Gentle pressure time, IMO.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

WE came from local SSA office, they said they faxed the secondary request Monday and still have not heard from USCIS and gave us the 1800 nos. and told us to call USCIS ourselves to verify and also told us that there are people waiting longer than us for their SSN.
Is it appropriate that we call the USCIS ourselves ? Since we dont know what are the things that USCIS send to SSA for them to be able to issue the SSN, what question should we ask the USCIS ?

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

What number did they give you?

The secondary request is done electroniclly. The G-845 is what is mailed with the immigration documents and that's only done if the response to the secondary request is to see your documents.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Dept.of Homeland Security
18003755283

I have a feeling the SSA local office just want us to wait, when I asked about the request they sent, they just said its has been sent and other people are also waiting for their SSN.
I wonder why it's taking so long for my son while hubby and I only took 2-4 weeks last year.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Tell them thanks for nothing. That's the USCIS 800# and those people don't know anything.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Do we just use the contact nos. of USCIS in the link you gave above to verify ?

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

If that's where the verification request was sent you would at least have a chance of getting some useful information by calling the verification office, i.e. did they receive anything from that SSA office for your son.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Thanks for your help, I will try to call them on Monday.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

I hope you won't mind my piggy-backing on this thread, having come over from a related thread elsewhere. My wife is in a similar situation to the one described here. She received her work permit in May and we were thrilled that it had come after a very long wait. She then went to apply for her SSN on May 8. They sent off the paper work to homeland security, saying we'd have to wait two months, and we have heard no more.

We are encouraged very much that it seems that she can work with the SSN pending, so many thanks for the advice on this one. But one question: the job she has been offered will effectively be a self-employed one (works on a contract basis for an employer). Should we have any further worries about going ahead as a self-employed while we wait for the SSN? Very many thanks :)

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

No need to worry.

But I would definitely follow up on that SSN - 2 months is ridiculous. Insist you speak to a supervisor.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

hi again,
I don't know how much you know about Social Security and the purpose of the number in the larger scheme of things. It's really just a tax reporting ID number (but it's become so much more!).

I will just stick in here that you should make sure that you understand what being self-employed means from a tax standpoint. As a contractor, your wife has specific labor rules to follow (rather, the employer does--wife needs to make sure she's not being taken for a ride) and she will pay all of her own SS contributions, as well as er, whatchit.. FICA/Medicare. Employers normally pay half, and half is deducted from the employee.

SI tax is quite a bit higher than normal employment witholding, and she may be required to make quarterly income tax payments.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

Very true... :curse:

Around 50% of my income goes on taxes of various kinds... :eek:

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

If You Are Self-Employed:

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10022.html

Publication 334 (2006), Tax Guide for Small Business:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p334/index.html

Small Business Forms and Publications:

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=99200,00.html

I agree it's time to head back into the SSA office were she applied and be sure that she takes her documents.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

That's brilliant; thanks so much for the help. Having knowledgeable people here to talk to is fantastic. :thumbsup:

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

No SSN yet, almost 3 months since he applied for it, tried calling all the SSA and USCIS offices but no one is answering, they will let me hold then will cut off after a while. Kept trying for so many times, same thing.
My son employer said they are not allowed to put dummy numbers and my son is still not receiving his pay(salary and commission), been working hard for 2 months already.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

they are not answering the phone, I have left messages but they are not calling back.
Is it worth going to SSA state regional office to inquire? I think the local office can't do anything about it, or are they the one issuing the number?

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

bah.. the employer is *so* wrong (legal? hmm)
It all comes down to how much you want to antagonize them.

Have you follwed mdyoung's suggestions about how to follow up with the document verification? You will likely have to go INTO an SSA office and speak with a manager.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

I sent PM to you , not sure if you have received it.

I called the numbers but they told me its the wrong number and they dont have anything to do with SSN.

Do we need to start worrying that it is taking so long at this stage? or its just normal for some other people to wait this long?
Is it useful to go to the regional office to follow it up or talk to the regional manager?

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

That section of POMS is what was on the Website before they removed it, so the numbers might have changed, but did you ask if they were doing status verifications for G-845s sent from SSA offices, because they have no idea the SSA office needs it for an SSN application.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

The man who answered the phone was very rude. I started asking about SSN and status verifcation but before I can finish the sentence, the man just cut me off , with a raise voice and said he has nothing to do with SSN and hanged up. I called again to explain and asked him he could refer me to the correct department but he said he does not know and hanged up. I called the third time and asked him what department did I call and who am I talking to, he got upset and asked me who I am and where did I get the nos. he just simply said the number is wrong and wont give me his name and hanged up on me again.

Re: SSN, What to do?
 

I guess that's why SSA took the numbers off the Website. It always struck me as funny that SSA offices have a sh*t fit if someone gives out the administrative number to a field office and they had the phone number off every status verification office posted on their Website.