SSN or Passport, what first?

H

Huracan

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

I have seen a few posts about people debating what to do first, update the SSN or obtain the passport. For a single person it seems straightforward, update your SSN, and perhaps the I-9 with your employer and then send the certificate to obtain the passport which will take several weeks. Now, what do you think about a family case in which there are children who might have obtained citizenship automatically, can one prove to the SSN that they are citizens without a certificate or passport in hand, or will it require a second trip to the SSN office?

Do you think it is a big deal to be a few weeks without proof of citizenship while the passport is processed?

The only thing I know for sure should be done first is register to vote ;)

Anyway, just wanted to start this thread to see what people think would be the order of things in case of a family with automatic citizen children.

My 2 cents
 
In my opinion, the SSN thing is a "get around to it when you feel like it" thing. I'm not quite sure exactly what benefits you get by suddenly being a citizen in the eys of the Social Security folks (much of SS is payments-driven, not citizenship-driven).

But, it only took us a half day for the SSN procedures (drive there, drive back, sit around "in-line" for about 1.5 hours, spend 10 minutes at the counter)

The passport is important - if you want to travel, there's no way around it.

You can submit an N-600 for your children right away if you'd like, the application takes a *copy* of the parent(s)'s natz cert. You can do this in parallel with getting a passport.

Registering to vote isn't a time-critical thing unless there's an election coming (for example there are local elections in Texas in early May, and you can't vote until you've been registered for a month.

What we did:

  1. Wife was naturalized (June 1)
  2. Applied for voter registration same day
  3. Applied for daughter's passport the day of my wife's naturalization ceremony (she was traveling in 4 weeks and had a *very* good reason to be able to prove USC-ness about 2 weeks after that)
  4. Submitted daughter's N-600 application as soon as the passport came back (I somehow thought having a copy of the passport in the application might help - nine months later and having had no news, I'm definitely not convinced)
  5. Applied for wife's passport the day after we got her natz certificate back with my daughter's passport
  6. Wait 5 months
  7. I was naturalized (mid November)
  8. I applied for a passport
  9. The 3 of us applied for voter registration after I got my passport (I had just missed the November elections anyway)
  10. Went to SS office to get our status adjusted during Thanksgiving holiday (so my daughter wouldn't miss school)
  11. Applied for daughter's voter registration 1 month before her 18th birthday

Hope this is useful
 
Updating SSN takes just a few minutes in the local office, so probably it should be one of the first things done. Registering to vote does not require proof of citizenship (in Maryland anyway), so that can be done any time.

Guess it really depends if you have urgent travel plans, otherwise I'd suggest taking care of the quick items before sending for a passport.

BTW, its been nearly 9 months, and I still haven't updated my I-9 at work, even though the company knows I've become a citizen. Seems like they don't attach much importance to it - wouldn't like to bet the govt thinks the same way though!
 
In my opinion, the SSN thing is a "get around to it when you feel like it" thing. I'm not quite sure exactly what benefits you get by suddenly being a citizen in the eys of the Social Security folks (much of SS is payments-driven, not citizenship-driven).

But, it only took us a half day for the SSN procedures (drive there, drive back, sit around "in-line" for about 1.5 hours, spend 10 minutes at the counter)

The passport is important - if you want to travel, there's no way around it.

You can submit an N-600 for your children right away if you'd like, the application takes a *copy* of the parent(s)'s natz cert. You can do this in parallel with getting a passport.

Registering to vote isn't a time-critical thing unless there's an election coming (for example there are local elections in Texas in early May, and you can't vote until you've been registered for a month.

What we did:

  1. Wife was naturalized (June 1)
  2. Applied for voter registration same day
  3. Applied for daughter's passport the day of my wife's naturalization ceremony (she was traveling in 4 weeks and had a *very* good reason to be able to prove USC-ness about 2 weeks after that)
  4. Submitted daughter's N-600 application as soon as the passport came back (I somehow thought having a copy of the passport in the application might help - nine months later and having had no news, I'm definitely not convinced)
  5. Applied for wife's passport the day after we got her natz certificate back with my daughter's passport
  6. Wait 5 months
  7. I was naturalized (mid November)
  8. I applied for a passport
  9. The 3 of us applied for voter registration after I got my passport (I had just missed the November elections anyway)
  10. Went to SS office to get our status adjusted during Thanksgiving holiday (so my daughter wouldn't miss school)
  11. Applied for daughter's voter registration 1 month before her 18th birthday

Hope this is useful
 
I see a lot of people doing a "walk in" FP, does this mean you can do it anytime , without having to wait for your FP date ?
 
Wrong thread to ask the question, but more or less the answer is yes. However, you run the risk that they will tell you they are busy and ask you to come later if they have a busy day.
 
Flydog said:
What we did:

  1. Wife was naturalized (June 1)
  2. Applied for voter registration same day
  3. Applied for daughter's passport the day of my wife's naturalization ceremony (she was traveling in 4 weeks and had a *very* good reason to be able to prove USC-ness about 2 weeks after that)
  4. Submitted daughter's N-600 application as soon as the passport came back (I somehow thought having a copy of the passport in the application might help - nine months later and having had no news, I'm definitely not convinced)
  5. Applied for wife's passport the day after we got her natz certificate back with my daughter's passport

Hope this is useful
Click to expand...

I am just curious, can't you apply for two passports(Mother & Daughter) at the same time using Mother's Natz. certificate for both mother and daughter?
 
I applied immediately for a passport, had the expedited processing (although I didn't have immediate travel plans) to cut down on the time the certificate is not in my possession. Being an avid international traveller, I made the passport the priority bec. I have enough horror stories about lining up at embassies for visas, almost being denied boarding in airplanes and border crossings due to ignorance about visa requirements pertaining to my old citizenship.

SSN? Didnt even know about having to notify them, only learned from this board. Not in any rush, I can't see why its important.

my citizenship interview & oath taking
 
I asked at two or three local post offices and they all said "no, each application needs an original natz cert". So, we resigned ourselves to serial passport applications. Others on this forum have found ways to do "family passport applications". You might find their postings by searching for passport experiences.

We *really* needed to get my daughter a passport as soon as possible after my wife naturalized (she was traveling in less than a month, and she had an internship to go to the week that she got back - one that was restricted to US citizens only). So, the very first thing we did was get her a passport. Also, since N-600s take so long (9 months so far), getting her a passport quickly was an efficient way of getting her proof of citizenship.

Yes, had I not seen it on this forum, I wouldn't have thought to notify the social security folks. I'm not sure what it does either - but I figured it could wait until we all had citizenship paperwork and my daughter had a day off school. So, we went during the Thanksgiving break last fall.
 
I left straight from the Oath Ceremony to the SSN office and got it done in about 1/2 an hour. That way if something did (does) happen to my certification for my passport, I have the SSN now to back up that I am a USC. Without that it would be more difficult as the passport mailed my certificate with my application. That being said, I've been without my certificate for a month now due to the slow passport processing times.

So with that, just make a copy of the certificate, get the SSN taken care of first and then do the passport and hope it eventually comes back (with a passport).

Any gov't etc can check your SSN to verify your citizenship status (plus many other things), so it's very important to keep updated as soon as you become a citizen as it doesn't take long to do.

After that then I did the passport and voters reg...
 
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