Notifying Social Security of Citizenship status

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dhlunar

Registered Users (C)
My wife became a US Citizen on May 17th. With the paperwork that she received at the Naturalization Ceremony it stated that the new citizen should notify the Social Security Administration at least 10 days after becoming a citizen so that their Social Security record could be updated. However, my wife applied for her US Passport on May 25th and had to submit her "original" naturalization certificate with the application. Is there any urgent need to notify Social Security when she gets her citizenship documents back or can this wait a couple months?

Personally, I feel in an ideal world the Department of Homeland Security should notify Social Security directly, plus supply the information to the Department of State so that passports can be automatically generated for new citizens.
 
There is no urgent need to update the SS records unless one is involved in a process that may trigger a cross-check of the SSA database, such as taking a new job, renewing/applying for a driver's license, registering to vote, or applying for Social Security benefits.

USCIS actually does some form of notification to the SSA when you change you change from nonimmigrant to permanent resident to citizen. That's why it's necessary to wait a few days before visiting the SSA to request the update; if you go there too soon, the data transfer hasn't occurred yet.

But the SSA doesn't want to officially update the new status solely based on the data from USCIS, perhaps because of incorrect or incomplete information that may come from USCIS due to clerical errors or system glitches. So they'll wait until the individual shows up with the appropriate documents.
 
dhlunar said:
Personally, I feel in an ideal world the Department of Homeland Security should notify Social Security directly, plus supply the information to the Department of State so that passports can be automatically generated for new citizens.
Click to expand...

One would think that with all this "integration" after spending trillions of dollars, this would be the case. But alas, our tax dollars are wasted more often than not
 
When I took the oath, USCIS said they will inform SSA of the change in the system, and wait for 30 days for you to walk in to update your information, so there is no rush at all.
 
During my oath today a SSA representative was present and i asked her about the 10 day wait as she was asking people to go to SSA after ceremony and she confirmed that wait is for new SSN only if you have a SSN you can update immediately with the naturalization certificate as proof. Most people from my ceremony went to ssa in the same building along with me but due to big crowd i preferred to do another day.
 
I notified Social Security after 7 years (out of ignorance of the need to). So it's not a big deal if you don't do it immediately.
 
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