Just to emphasize - I'm from Russia. The country with very high level of bureaucracy and complexity of governmental services. In Russia we learn from the very early age that all governmental procedures are designed not in the way to help and assist people, reduce their time and money costs and make the processes clear and simple but exactly on the opposite - to make them not seek too much help from the government, not to apply for any services, just not come and not disturb the system and if come then pay with the time, money and nerves. People are not the customers, they are interference, they are supposed to feel guilty and indebted towards the system overall and it's single representatives. It changes lately or it tries to change, but it's still there and I am still used when I have to deal with any governmental services to be cheated, badly informed, badly treated, to be ready to fight, prove, find the ways etc. I know that the world is not perfect and that no country is perfect. But I still thought that probably it's somehow better here. It is, but there is an example how I really almost got cheated by the procedure. Not intentionally, obviously, it's just the bad thought process.
There is such concept as Social Security Number. In few words it's a unique number assigned to individuals including but not limited by US citizens based on certain criteria which serves the purpose of supporting and tracking their Social Security status. Even before coming to US I knew that it is very important to have SSN, that you literally are not allowed to work without it. At the same time it's not the same as to have work permit. To be allowed to work you also have to obtain some certain papers confirming your work permit. I'm not aware about these processes for US citizens and Green Card holders but for my L2 visa I am not allowed to work until I get EAD (Employment Authorization Document). So, generally my visa allows to work but only after receiving this EAD. In comparison there are types of visas which not allow to work under any circumstances. That's why I was so concerned to apply for EAD asap, I'm not allowed to work until I have it in my hands. And here we are coming to the interesting part. When you read the rules of receiving SSN you read there clearly in English:
"To apply for an original card, you must provide at least two documents to prove age, identity, and U.S.citizenship or current lawful, work-authorized immigration status. If you are not a U.S. citizen and do not have DHS work authorization, you must prove that you have a valid non-work reason for requesting a card."
I am exactly that one, who is not a US citizen and I do not have anything that I would consider "DHS work authorization". I'm waiting for it for 2 months already and praying each day to get it asap. So if you follow the standard logic you will come to the conclusion that you can only apply for SSN as soon as you have your EAD approved.
Even more. I was even not the only one who read it like this. Simply googling I found several immigrant forums where people come to the same conclusion and advise others to do the same. Even more, our swiss friend, who came here just 4 months earlier also read it like this. And I was also waiting to get EAD and only after that to apply for SSN.
And then just last week I don't even remember why I started to doubt this opinion. I've called to SS Administration office and asked the girl if I'm eligible for SSN with my L2 visa before I have EAD. She needed to keep me on hold for some time since she didn't know the answer and then she came back and said that looks like I am, I just need to bring my marriage certificate with me!
So, today I went there, the only documents that she checked were my passport, my marriage certificate with NOT-notarized translation and my I-94 number which she also awaited to get printed from me and I had to explain to her that it is not being issued in paper since something like 3 months already, you apply for it online and just get the number and no stamped papers.
So, now in couple of weeks I'll get my SSN and hopefully in not later than a month my work permit and I will be allowed to work. If I would not check, the process would take longer. That's how it is.
To be completely honest these paper things didn't go smoothly even with my move to Austria. There we, my husband and I, also had to make lots of additional investigations, calls, to come personally to the embassy in Moscow and to the registration office in Austria to find out how the procedure should be applied in our case. And we also received different answers from different employee and most of them were quite sure of their opinions, even those who were how we found later completely wrong.
There is such concept as Social Security Number. In few words it's a unique number assigned to individuals including but not limited by US citizens based on certain criteria which serves the purpose of supporting and tracking their Social Security status. Even before coming to US I knew that it is very important to have SSN, that you literally are not allowed to work without it. At the same time it's not the same as to have work permit. To be allowed to work you also have to obtain some certain papers confirming your work permit. I'm not aware about these processes for US citizens and Green Card holders but for my L2 visa I am not allowed to work until I get EAD (Employment Authorization Document). So, generally my visa allows to work but only after receiving this EAD. In comparison there are types of visas which not allow to work under any circumstances. That's why I was so concerned to apply for EAD asap, I'm not allowed to work until I have it in my hands. And here we are coming to the interesting part. When you read the rules of receiving SSN you read there clearly in English:
"To apply for an original card, you must provide at least two documents to prove age, identity, and U.S.citizenship or current lawful, work-authorized immigration status. If you are not a U.S. citizen and do not have DHS work authorization, you must prove that you have a valid non-work reason for requesting a card."
I am exactly that one, who is not a US citizen and I do not have anything that I would consider "DHS work authorization". I'm waiting for it for 2 months already and praying each day to get it asap. So if you follow the standard logic you will come to the conclusion that you can only apply for SSN as soon as you have your EAD approved.
Even more. I was even not the only one who read it like this. Simply googling I found several immigrant forums where people come to the same conclusion and advise others to do the same. Even more, our swiss friend, who came here just 4 months earlier also read it like this. And I was also waiting to get EAD and only after that to apply for SSN.
And then just last week I don't even remember why I started to doubt this opinion. I've called to SS Administration office and asked the girl if I'm eligible for SSN with my L2 visa before I have EAD. She needed to keep me on hold for some time since she didn't know the answer and then she came back and said that looks like I am, I just need to bring my marriage certificate with me!
So, today I went there, the only documents that she checked were my passport, my marriage certificate with NOT-notarized translation and my I-94 number which she also awaited to get printed from me and I had to explain to her that it is not being issued in paper since something like 3 months already, you apply for it online and just get the number and no stamped papers.
So, now in couple of weeks I'll get my SSN and hopefully in not later than a month my work permit and I will be allowed to work. If I would not check, the process would take longer. That's how it is.
To be completely honest these paper things didn't go smoothly even with my move to Austria. There we, my husband and I, also had to make lots of additional investigations, calls, to come personally to the embassy in Moscow and to the registration office in Austria to find out how the procedure should be applied in our case. And we also received different answers from different employee and most of them were quite sure of their opinions, even those who were how we found later completely wrong.
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