Waiting for SSN

[Don]

We just did our SSN application and we used her married name. Just showed passport and marriage license. Things when smoothly no confusion. The woman said we should have the card in 5 days.

 

Utterly different from our experience today...we received three different stories from the SSA.

 

The first office to which we went, said that she could not apply because her visa was expired. After I explained that the visa was expired for entry, but that she is permitted a 90 day stay, the officer pointed to the mark Immigration made and said, "See? they crossed it out. That means it's invalid."

 

"Yes, it's a single entry visa, and she's entered. Of course it'll be crossed off."

 

So then she took all of our paperwork (birth cert & translation, passport, K-1 visa, I-94, marriage certificate, and my driver's license) and went back for a while. She returned and told us that Bobbie would need her EAD or green card to apply for a SSN and told us to come back.

 

So we went to a different office; on the way, I called the SSA's 800 number. After fighting with the automated system which repeatedly asks for the SSN of the person you're calling about, I finally spoke with a live person. He said that a K-1 is immediately eligible, just bring all the documentation available to the local office and they'll process it, would I like the address? *sigh*

 

Arriving at the next office, we spoke with an officer who told us that Bobbie would have to get CIS to change the name on her visa (since I suggested she apply with her married name) in order to process the SSN application. Oy.

 

We're going to a third office tomorrow...it'll probably be the fourth story we hear.

 

Hi, we are in SoCal. She has only been here for less than 20 days. We went to our local SS office. The clerk seemed to be very knowledgable.

 

Another chemist? wow i thought i was the only one on the site.

[hankster]

So Christine just called to tell me that a letter from the SSA just came in the mail today. It was a recieipt letter saying that our application had been received and we should be getting the card within two weeks. I figured she'd be happy. But no, she could only say "Why they no send me the card?" Sigh...

 

It sounds like more or less aduplicate of the receipt letter we got on the day we applied. Why would they send us this letter? Did anyone else get this letter? Seems like I remember others saying they just got the card,not a receipt letter.

 

I'm guessing that if we go to the SSA office they can at least tell us what the number is?

Hey Dave,

just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that.

Have you received your card yet?

[IllinoisDave]

So Christine just called to tell me that a letter from the SSA just came in the mail today. It was a recieipt letter saying that our application had been received and we should be getting the card within two weeks. I figured she'd be happy. But no, she could only say "Why they no send me the card?" Sigh...

 

It sounds like more or less aduplicate of the receipt letter we got on the day we applied. Why would they send us this letter? Did anyone else get this letter? Seems like I remember others saying they just got the card,not a receipt letter.

 

I'm guessing that if we go to the SSA office they can at least tell us what the number is?

Hey Dave,

just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that.

Have you received your card yet?

 

Hank,

I was just on my way to update our SSA experience. Thanks for asking.

A couple days after we got the letter we went back to the same local SSA office to see if they could at least tell us the number since it was past 30 days. This time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk who gave us the number along with a printout that showed what it was,no problem.

 

Then a couple days after that the card finally came in the mail. Figures. Of course it had her Chinese name, given name first,family name last. So we decided to try a different office to get a replacement card in her married name. Again, this time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk. We told her what we wanted to do, she said OK, asked for all our documents,copied them, typed some stuff into the computer, had Christine sign a piece of paper and that was that. She said we should get the card within two weeks, if it doesn't come in 30 days yada yada and we were out of there in 10 minutes. She even let us keep the original card, which surprised me.

 

So the moral of our story is that sometimes impatience doesn't pay. Based on my misunderstanding of what folks here were telling me, I was hellbent on getting her name on the card the way we wanted it, English name followed by married name. I was sure that I had the rules and regulations on my side. As it turns out, if I had only asked to have her Chinese name followed by her married name, or the clerk had suggested that,we probably would've avoided a lot of hassle. Add to the fact that we ran into a less-than-friendly clerk that day and we had a recipe for failure. Mostly my fault though.

 

Live and learn.

Edited December 9, 2007 by IllinoisDave (see edit history)

[Shenzhen K-1]

So Christine just called to tell me that a letter from the SSA just came in the mail today. It was a recieipt letter saying that our application had been received and we should be getting the card within two weeks. I figured she'd be happy. But no, she could only say "Why they no send me the card?" Sigh...

 

It sounds like more or less aduplicate of the receipt letter we got on the day we applied. Why would they send us this letter? Did anyone else get this letter? Seems like I remember others saying they just got the card,not a receipt letter.

 

I'm guessing that if we go to the SSA office they can at least tell us what the number is?

Hey Dave,

just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that.

Have you received your card yet?

 

Hank,

I was just on my way to update our SSA experience. Thanks for asking.

A couple days after we got the letter we went back to the same local SSA office to see if they could at least tell us the number since it was past 30 days. This time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk who gave us the number along with a printout that showed what it was,no problem.

 

Then a couple days after that the card finally came in the mail. Figures. Of course it had her Chinese name, given name first,family name last. So we decided to try a different office to get a replacement card in her married name. Again, this time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk. We told her what we wanted to do, she said OK, asked for all our documents,copied them, typed some stuff into the computer, had Christine sign a piece of paper and that was that. She said we should get the card within two weeks, if it doesn't come in 30 days yada yada and we were out of there in 10 minutes. She even let us keep the original card, which surprised me.

 

So the moral of our story is that sometimes impatience doesn't pay. Based on my misunderstanding of what folks here were telling me, I was hellbent on getting her name on the card the way we wanted it, English name followed by married name. I was sure that I had the rules and regulations on my side. As it turns out, if I had only asked to have her Chinese name followed by her married name, or the clerk had suggested that,we probably would've avoided a lot of hassle. Add to the fact that we ran into a less-than-friendly clerk that day and we had a recipe for failure. Mostly my fault though.

 

Live and learn.

 

Hey Dave Merry !!

 

When it is all said and done it will have her name how?? In what order again, sorry but I know I will need to know this soon I hope!

[IllinoisDave]

So Christine just called to tell me that a letter from the SSA just came in the mail today. It was a recieipt letter saying that our application had been received and we should be getting the card within two weeks. I figured she'd be happy. But no, she could only say "Why they no send me the card?" Sigh...

 

It sounds like more or less aduplicate of the receipt letter we got on the day we applied. Why would they send us this letter? Did anyone else get this letter? Seems like I remember others saying they just got the card,not a receipt letter.

 

I'm guessing that if we go to the SSA office they can at least tell us what the number is?

Hey Dave,

just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that.

Have you received your card yet?

 

Hank,

I was just on my way to update our SSA experience. Thanks for asking.

A couple days after we got the letter we went back to the same local SSA office to see if they could at least tell us the number since it was past 30 days. This time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk who gave us the number along with a printout that showed what it was,no problem.

 

Then a couple days after that the card finally came in the mail. Figures. Of course it had her Chinese name, given name first,family name last. So we decided to try a different office to get a replacement card in her married name. Again, this time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk. We told her what we wanted to do, she said OK, asked for all our documents,copied them, typed some stuff into the computer, had Christine sign a piece of paper and that was that. She said we should get the card within two weeks, if it doesn't come in 30 days yada yada and we were out of there in 10 minutes. She even let us keep the original card, which surprised me.

 

So the moral of our story is that sometimes impatience doesn't pay. Based on my misunderstanding of what folks here were telling me, I was hellbent on getting her name on the card the way we wanted it, English name followed by married name. I was sure that I had the rules and regulations on my side. As it turns out, if I had only asked to have her Chinese name followed by her married name, or the clerk had suggested that,we probably would've avoided a lot of hassle. Add to the fact that we ran into a less-than-friendly clerk that day and we had a recipe for failure. Mostly my fault though.

 

Live and learn.

 

Hey Dave Merry !!

 

When it is all said and done it will have her name how?? In what order again, sorry but I know I will need to know this soon I hope!

 

Happy Holidays to you as well.

It should have her Chinese given name (first name) followed by her Chinese family name as her new middle name (her maiden name, I forgot to mention that),followed by her married last name (my last name). Sorry for the confusion. I hope this doesn't make it worse.

 

Maybe this will help.

 

OLD

Yang Wei

Chinese family name. Yang, for example

Chinese given name. Wei, for example

 

NEW

Wei Yang Smith

Chinese given name... Wei

Chinese family name... Yang

Our married name... Smith

[Shenzhen K-1]

So Christine just called to tell me that a letter from the SSA just came in the mail today. It was a recieipt letter saying that our application had been received and we should be getting the card within two weeks. I figured she'd be happy. But no, she could only say "Why they no send me the card?" Sigh...

 

It sounds like more or less aduplicate of the receipt letter we got on the day we applied. Why would they send us this letter? Did anyone else get this letter? Seems like I remember others saying they just got the card,not a receipt letter.

 

I'm guessing that if we go to the SSA office they can at least tell us what the number is?

Hey Dave,

just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that.

Have you received your card yet?

 

Hank,

I was just on my way to update our SSA experience. Thanks for asking.

A couple days after we got the letter we went back to the same local SSA office to see if they could at least tell us the number since it was past 30 days. This time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk who gave us the number along with a printout that showed what it was,no problem.

 

Then a couple days after that the card finally came in the mail. Figures. Of course it had her Chinese name, given name first,family name last. So we decided to try a different office to get a replacement card in her married name. Again, this time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk. We told her what we wanted to do, she said OK, asked for all our documents,copied them, typed some stuff into the computer, had Christine sign a piece of paper and that was that. She said we should get the card within two weeks, if it doesn't come in 30 days yada yada and we were out of there in 10 minutes. She even let us keep the original card, which surprised me.

 

So the moral of our story is that sometimes impatience doesn't pay. Based on my misunderstanding of what folks here were telling me, I was hellbent on getting her name on the card the way we wanted it, English name followed by married name. I was sure that I had the rules and regulations on my side. As it turns out, if I had only asked to have her Chinese name followed by her married name, or the clerk had suggested that,we probably would've avoided a lot of hassle. Add to the fact that we ran into a less-than-friendly clerk that day and we had a recipe for failure. Mostly my fault though.

 

Live and learn.

 

Hey Dave Merry !!

 

When it is all said and done it will have her name how?? In what order again, sorry but I know I will need to know this soon I hope!

 

Happy Holidays to you as well.

It should have her Chinese given name (first name) followed by her Chinese family name as her new middle name (her maiden name, I forgot to mention that),followed by her married last name (my last name). Sorry for the confusion. I hope this doesn't make it worse.

 

Maybe this will help.

 

OLD

Yang Wei

Chinese family name. Yang, for example

Chinese given name. Wei, for example

 

NEW

Wei Yang Smith

Chinese given name... Wei

Chinese family name... Yang

Our married name... Smith

 

Thanks for the information, now go take care of the girl with the new SSN#