SSN... legal alien not allowed to work...

[Daviation]

So I have followed a number of the posts on obtaining SSN and the discussions on whether to use married name or not (we had decided to use Given Name, Family, Married Name).

However, upon beginning to fill out the application for my wife, I was not prepared for the portion of instructions saying that for "Legal Aliens Not Allowed to Work" or "Other", then one must provide a "... document from... a government agency that explains why you need SSN... and that you meet the requirements for the US Government benefit."

Huh?

Can anyone advise what this means? And what must we have to satisfy this requirement?

Is the I-94 in passport and marriage license sufficient to meet this requirement?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

David

[pha]

Good question. I had the same one. Interestingly, there always seems to be a Dave just ahead of me in the process.

[LeeFisher3]

You need to check "Legal Alien Allowed to Work".

 

Her Mother and Father's name are required but SSN is not required unless they have one.

 

Documentation needed:

• Passport
  
• Visa
  
• I-94
  
• Birth Certificate(Translated)
  

Give the married name a try, but don't get into a fight over it. Some offices require that the name match the USCIS computer system. If that is the case get it in her un-married name and after you get the green card in her married name it's a 5 minute visit to the SSA to change it.

[Randy W]

You need to also have work authorization. For a K-1, this means at least 14 days left on the I-94, or an EAD card. K-3's (also k-1's and K-4's) must have the EAD card.

 

CR1/IR1 have a green card or I-551 stamp, so this is all they need.

[IllinoisDave]

You need to check "Legal Alien Allowed to Work".

 

Her Mother and Father's name are required but SSN is not required unless they have one.

 

Documentation needed:

• Passport
  
• Visa
  
• I-94
  
• Birth Certificate(Translated)
  

Give the married name a try, but don't get into a fight over it. Some offices require that the name match the USCIS computer system. If that is the case get it in her un-married name and after you get the green card in her married name it's a 5 minute visit to the SSA to change it.

 

Lee's right of course, some offices want the name to match the one in the system. Ours did. So we just applied for the first one in her unmarried name matching the passport. Then, after we got that card, we went to a different SSA office (may not be necessary to go to a different one, wife didn't like the karma in the first one) we applied in given name/family name/married name and got the new card with no problems.

 

So you can do that or wait til after the green card. Depends on how soon you want one with her married name. Good luck.

[dnoblett]

Which visa did you enter the USA on?

 

K-1 is work auth for the 90 days of the I-94 card, so can apply for SSN within 76 days of entry, after that and SSA cannot issue the card before I-94 expires and the K-1 needs to wait until they have EAD or green-card.

 

K-3 is not work auth, so cannot get SSN until they have EAD or green-card.

 

CR-1 and IR-1 are GREEN-CARD visas and they get I-551 stamp in passport, the I-551 stamp is work authorization.

 

In all cases check "Legal Alien authorized to work"

 

One note: many have reported that K-1 attempting to get SSN after marriage have been turned down by SSA.

[Randy W]

 

 

One note: many have reported that K-1 attempting to get SSN after marriage have been turned down by SSA.

 

 

Not true - marriage does not affect your Social Security status. The requirements are as stated above.

 

Married people are often turned down for cards in their married name, since the card name should match the USCIS database name. But many have found that they can get a card in the immigration card first, and then go back to get a replacement card in the married name.