[ElectricGypsy]

I thought when we returned at the airport, we were told by Immigration that paperwork would be coming in the mail in about a month that we could use to take Keira in to get her SSN. Does anyone know what paperwork or what is needed for me to get a Social Security Number for her?

[sakelley]

You should be receiving her Certificate of Citizenship in the mail. Ours came a little over 5 weeks after getting home. You will need to take that, her Chinese birth certificate, and adoption decree to the SS office. I ended up taking all documents we received in China, including her Chinese passport, just in case.

[cungar]

Hi Sharon,

You live in California right? We applied for our Keira's SSN about a week after we got her home in January. They didn't require anything besides her passport. We brought the red book and I think they looked at that. We got her card about 3 weeks later. We didn't get the Citizenship certificate until 1.5 months after we got back. I would ask at the Social Security office.

[KarenInCa]

It's extremely confusing (for the people that work the desk jobs at the SS office) when you get the SS without changing her name.
We did it, but it was a fairly big battle between us and the 9-5 guy at the other side of the desk. We did bring the Citizenship Cert, and her Chinese passport, and the papers from our agency in Chinese and English, stating that she was abandoned, etc. I don't know if we needed all of them, but from the fight we endoured, we could have had anything, and the clerk would not have granted us her SS# without a battle.
Even with our being prepared for a fight, we had to fight hard to tell the guy that we ARE her parents, and that she IS a U.S. Citizen. He continually told us that we need her "birth certificate", and/or papers showing that we adopted her IN the United States.
When I finally used the key words, "We officially adopted her in the US Consulate in China, so she was adopted on US territory, and is recognized by the Federal Government as being our legal child", emphesizing the words US Consulate, he finally walked over to another person that speaks Mandarin, and translated the form for him, to show that they were the same thing in English...THEN after another half hour or so, he gave us her SS# papers and sent us on our way.

I have never assumed (until I was warned about getting a SS # for our daughter without re-adoption in California) that someone who works in a sepcified department, and should be familiar with their own agency protocol, would have such an incompent manner. But be prepared.

[monami7]

Your baby girl is SO CUTE! She made me smile just looking at her. We got a ssn for Lilly withing a month of having her home. Call your ssn ofice. We had to go in and wait and turned in the papers and they sent it to us in the mail.
Congratulations on having Kiera home!

[Lissa]

My only advice is have everything...more than they ask for. Our biggest (and only) problem was there was no birth location listed on Lydia's birth certificate and our SS office required a birth location. I tried to get them to take Guangxi China but they said they needed something more specific. I tried to explain she was left in a rural area and there was no way to know specifically where she was born, but they insisted. So we resorted to the listing on her abandonment papers which we fortunately brought along with us. Her official birth location now, according to the US government, is the name of the dam where she was found. Absurd...yes, but something we had to do in order to secure her SS card.

[sak9645]

Let me repost this information, which I wrote for another board.

You can get a SSN for any foreign child who has been legally placed with you for adoption, just as soon as you arrive home with him/her.

It doesn't matter whether the adoption was finalized overseas, or whether the child came home on a decree of guardianship for adoption here. It doesn't matter if he/she came home on an IR-3 visa or on an IR-4 visa. It doesn't matter whether or not you have readopted or done a recognition in your state. And it doesn't matter whether he/she is already a citizen, or whether you will need to do a readoption or recognition before he/she becomes one.

Just wander down to your local SS office. Bring originals of your child's birth certificate, adoption decree or decree of guardianship, and foreign passport. Also bring some identification for yourself, such as your passport.

If you happen to have already done a legal name change or adoption/readoption, and/or have already obtained a Certificate of Citizenship or U.S. passport for your child, bring those documents, too. However, you don't really need them just to get a number.

Fill our a form to request an SSN and wait till you are called by the clerk. When you are called, he/she will photocopy your documents and hand them right back to you.

You should be able to find our your child's SSN that day. In any event, you should get your child's new SS card within about two weeks.

Do remember, however, a few important things:

1. If your child's American name is not on any of his/her foreign documents, the card will probably be issued in his/her foreign name. Once in a while, a clerk will take pity on you and issue the card in the American name, regardless, but don't count on it. But this is no big deal. For tax purposes, just put the American name with the foreign one in parentheses, or vice versa, when you list your dependents. Once you do a legal name change, through readoption or some other mechanism, bring the order indicating the name change back to the SS office and fill out a name change form. The clerk will photocopy your document and return it to you. Your child's SSN will stay the same, but a new card with the corrected name will be sent to your home.

2. If you do not yet have a certificate of citizenship or a U.S. passport for your child, you can get a SSN for your child, but the Social Security Administration's records will list him/her as a resident alien, not a citizen, even if he is one. The SSA is NOT allowed, by law, to "adjudicate status" -- determine who is or is not a citizen. Only the USCIS or the State Department can do that. For internationally adopted children, the SSA MUST see EITHER a COC or a U.S. passport to list your child as a citizen. (A state birth certificate does NOT prove citizenship for foreign born people.)

But this is no big deal either. If your child comes home on an IR-3 visa, you'll get a COC automatically in the mail. When you get it, go down to the SS office with it and fill out a status change form. The clerk will copy the document and return it to you immediately. Your child's status will be changed in the computer, but his/her SSN will stay the same. You may or may not be issued a new card.

If your child comes home on an IR-4 visa, he/she does not become an automatic citizen until you readopt him/her in your state OR until you do a "recognition" of the adoption, if your state allows it. So he/she can't get a COC or U.S. passport until you do one of these things. Once you have done a readoption or recognition, you can file the N-600 to obtain a COC and/or obtain a U.S. passport for your child. Then you can go back to the SS office, fill out a status change form, and have his status listed correctly.

Although most people get a SSN for their children with no trouble at all, some HAVE run into difficulties because of ill-informed clerks. While the SSA did extensive training of staff after the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 was passed, some clerks may have forgotten or may be new.

Here are some of the types of misinformation you may hear:

1. You need to do an adoption or readoption in the U.S. to get a card. NONSENSE. You can get a card for a child brought home from overseas as long as he/she is in your legal and physical custody and you have documents (foreign adoption decree, foreign passport) proving it.

2. Your child needs to be a U.S. citizen to get a card. NONSENSE. People can get SS cards as long as they are legal permanent residents; your cleaning woman and lawn service guy probably have them, even if they are not citizens. Now, if you have not shown the clerk a certificate of citizenship or a U.S. passport for your child, it is true that the SS Administration MUST list your child as a legal permanent resident, and not a citizen, in SS records, but a card can still be issued.

3. You need to show your child's green card. NONSENSE. All that the SS folks need from the green card is the "A-number" (Alien Registration Number), which is the same one that is in your child's passport, and which proves that he/she entered the U.S. legally. Many internationally adopted children never get green cards, because nowadays, kids coming home on IR-3 visas get certificates of citizenship issued automatically instead.

4. You need to have your child's paperwork translated by an official U.S. translator, which will delay the issuance of the card a few weeks. NONSENSE. You have a translation of your child's adoption paperwork that is official. It is the one that was accepted by the U.S. State Department and the USCIS when your child was granted a visa to enter the U.S. You have absolutely no need for another translation, and Social Security regulations do not require one. DO NOT let a misinformed clerk get away with this one.

5. You need proof that the child mentioned in the foreign adoption paperwork is the same one that's mentioned in the readoption decree. NONSENSE. This one is just plain off-the-wall. You've got documents referencing a child with the same birth date, the same adoption situation, the same parents. An American judge has signed off on the whole thing. What more do you need?

6. You need to provide vaccination records to show that the child has had all his shots before a SSN can be issued. NONSENSE! Thank goodness I've heard of this argument only once. The SSA has NOTHING to do with immunizations, and the request is a total invasion of privacy, and probably illegal.

Here is what you should do, if you hear any of these or any other misinformed comments:

1. Print out a copy of the part of the Social Security Administration's website, which gives instructions for getting a SSN for an internationally adopted child. The home page address is Social Security Online. Carry the document with you when you go back to the
SS office.

2. Ask to see a supervisor. Explain your situation and then show him/her the website printout. Many supervisors are better informed than their staff, and can clear up a situation easily.

3. If the supervisor is no help, consider going to another SS office. Why raise your blood pressure?! There is probably another office within 20 miles of your home or office. Chances are, the personnel at the other office will be able to help.

4. If this doesn't work, call your homestudy agency or, if local, your placement agency. Many good agencies have excellent contacts in places like the SSA, the USCIS, and the Passport Agency, and can troubleshoot problems for their clients. You may even find that your agency has already heard similar complaints before, and has resolved them.

5. If your homestudy or placement agency (regardless of where located) does not have good contacts, check to see whether it is a member of the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS). If it is, ask your agency's Executive Director or other senior staffer to contact JCICS and ask it to help troubleshoot a problem. JCICS is a renowned adoption advocacy
group, and the largest membership association of international adoption agencies in the world. It has excellent contacts in various branches of government, as well as elsewhere. Do not call JCICS directly, as it does not have the staffing to allow it to troubleshoot problems for individuals or non-member agencies. It does a great job of helping member agencies solve problems, however.

6. If JCICS can't help, then by all means call your Representative or Senator, especially if he/she is a member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. While it isn't a good idea to bother these people unnecessarily, they ARE there to help constituents who have tried every other possible way
to solve a problem.

I hope this helps.

Sharon
__________________

[ElectricGypsy]

Big thanks to everyone for their words of wisdom on this. Sounds like I should make sure that I am armed for a big fight with every piece of documentation that I have. Hopefully I'll end up pleasantly surprised without having to put up such a fight...but it sounds like there probably will be one. I"ll try to be as ready as possible!

[sakelley]

It seems like it depends on which SS office you go to with how much trouble you might have. I had absolutely no problems (except their copier jammed while they were trying to copy my documents). But then in our area we have many internationally adopted children so I think the office I used sees this quite a bit. The woman knew exactly what to do. I got my daughter's SS card 1 week later.

[KarenInCa]

Sharon, that was a helpful post. But it's insane that most of us have to go through at least one section on the list of the six 'survival pack' items that you mention. These are people that are paid to do this work and with as many IAs that occur nation wide on a daily/yearly basis, the level of incompetence on IA SS#'s is outrageous.