California Immigration Lawyer Blog

It has become quite a hassle to obtain a California state driver's license or state identification card ("ID") when you are a non-immigrant such as in F, M, or J status (students, students in vocational schools, cultural exchange students). Recently Immigration Customs and Enforcement issued a fact sheet on applying for a driver's license or ID card for non immigrants in F, M or J status.. The fact sheet is helpful as it provides basic information on how to apply for a driver's license or ID card. It is not state specific but it does list all of the websites for all of the Department of Motor Vehicle offices in the United States.

The steps in applying for a driver's license or ID card in California are listed on the California Department of Motor Vehicles website. You must do the following in this order:

• Obtain a Social Security number
• Complete a Driver License or Identification Card Application
• Present an acceptable birth date/legal presence document
• Pay the application fee

In order to obtain a Social Security number, you must go to a local Social Security office. You may find out more about the process on the Social Security Administration's website. For those in F, M, and J status, you will find additional guidance by reviewing Social Security's electronic fact sheet, "Social Security numbers for non-citizens."

The fact sheet issued by ICE is useful because it provides an email address to use in case the DMV does not issue the driver's license or identification card. It has been difficult in the past to get the immigration authorities to communicate with the DMV about a person's immigration status. In the fact sheet, ICE promises a one-to-two day turn around once they receive a request for information as to why a student's ID or driver's license was not issued. This is great news as students have suffered a great deal of frustration in the past waiting for the agencies to communicate with one another.

A few days ago I saw a client from the San Francisco Bay area who had different spellings of his name on his government issued documents: one version on the green card, one on the California Driver's License and finally another on the Social Security card. In the past, the different versions of spelling did not matter so much. A person could usually explain the difference to an employer if there was a question when completing the I-9 form. Unfortunately a discrepancy between what USCIS shows and what Social Security shows may now mean that he may not get hired because if an employer uses e-verify, the system could not verify that he is the same person authorized to work in the United States.

E-verify is an internet based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the Social Security Administration that permits participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. (For more about e-verify, see my previous post, "To e-verify or not to e-verify, that is the question.") One of the criticisms with e-verify is that there are mistakes such as this when a person has legal status but the data used is inconsistent.

The best way to resolve the problem is to make sure that both agencies have the correct spelling of your name. Not only is it necessary to get around the problems with e-verify but later in life, you may wish to receive Social Security and you will want to make sure that you have been credited with all of your earnings.

If the problem is with USCIS and you have a green card, you can file a Form I-90 to correct the spelling of your name and obtain a new green card. If the error is the fault of USCIS, the application is free. You must send the application in with proof of the correct spelling of your name.

If you are applying for citizenship and your name has a minor spelling or translation error, you may be able to convince the officer that you do not need to make a name change, but rather the mistake is simply due to a mistake in translation. You should bring a document with you that shows the correct spelling on it to show the officer. You will then obtain a certificate of naturalization with the correct spelling of your name and your name will be correct in USCIS records.

If you wish to change your name and then change your immigration documents, you will need to obtain a court order of your name change. Once you have the court order, you may submit it with either your Form I-90 (to obtain a new green card) or with your application for citizenship so that your new name will be placed on the naturalization certificate.

Continue reading "How to inform Social Security and Immigration if my name is misspelled or it changes " »

The Office of the Inspector General ("OIG") of the Social Security Administration ("SSA") recently released a report on Religous workers' use of Social Security numbers. The religious worker program has come under a great deal of scrutiny lately because of alleged fraud. The objectives of the study were to (1) assess Social Security number (SSN) use by non-immigrants with a religious worker classification as well as to (2) evaluate Social Security's own internal processing procedures. I will discuss the results of the first objective.

In order to conduct the study, the OIG selected a population of 5,392 nonimmigrants to whom SSA assigned original SSN's based on evidence that they were R-1 religious workers from April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006. From this population they randomly selected a sample of 200 records to assess R-1 religious workers' use of SSNs. The OIG found that some religious workers were using their SSNs for purposes other than to work for their sponsoring religious worker organizations.

Continue reading "R-1 religous workers' use of Social Security numbers" »

I recently received a question at my office as to whether non-immigrant students (on F-1 student visas) have to pay Social Security taxes. After a little research, I discovered that they do not have to pay Social Security taxes. I was surprised to learn this because there are other non-immigrants who do. Nevertheless, as long as they are they are working in employment authorized by United States Citizenship Immigration Services ("USCIS"), wages should not be deducted from their pay checks for Social Security. Of course, the IRS points out in its explanation on foreign student liability for Social Security that if they were to engage in self-employment or in unauthorized employment (not pursuant to the terms of their status), they would be liable for Social Security taxes.

The other non-immigrant categories exempt from Social Security taxes include: J-1, M-1, Q-1/Q-2 (scholars, professors, teachers, trainees, researchers, physicians, au pairs, summer camp and workers).

Last weekend I spoke at a conference for Social Security attorneys along with my colleague, David Wright. Our talk was about immigration issues that arise when representing applicants for SSI and/or SSDI. We gave examples from our own cases and discussed issues such as refugees applying for SSI, temporary residents applying for SSDI and the pitfalls that can occur when permanent residents apply for disability. There have been some recent changes to eligibility for SSI by certain groups of immigrants and we highlighted those changes.

You may find a copy of our written materials on my blog here.

Attorneys were interested in our presentation and now know some of the questions they should ask their clients before taking on representation.

Effective today, a new law extends SSI eligibility for an additional two years to asylees, refugees, persons granted withholding of removal and other humanitarian immigrants. This law will benefit many people who had been cut off of SSI because they were not citizens.

If you lost SSI because you were not a citizen within seven years, you may now receive an additional two years if you meet one of the following conditions:

1. You are under 18 years old or over 70 years old; OR
2. You have been a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) for less than six years; OR
3. You applied for lawful permanent residence within four years after you started receiving SSI: OR
4. You are or were granted status as a Cuban Haitian Entrant; OR
5. You have been granted withholding of removal; OR
6. You have a pending application for citizenship but you are not yet an American citizen.

Continue reading "New law extends SSI eligibility for asylees and refugees " »

I often wonder why it is so difficult to speak to a live person when I call the local Social Security office. I either receive a busy signal or I am sent to some kind of message system. Sometimes, when I am in line waiting for my turn, I am suddenly disconnected. The Social Security Administration ("SSA") is a government agency that we all use at some point in our lives. Why is it so hard to talk to someone? What can you do to obtain the information you need? I will address both questions in this post.

Recently the Government Accounting Office ("GAO") published a report on SSA's poor service. You may see the report here: Social Security Administration Field Offices: Reduced Workforce Faces Challenges as Baby Boomers Retire. In preparation for the report, they reviewed SSA's internal data and also visited 21 field offices and two Social Security Card Centers over a two year period from 2005-2007.

Their data combined with SSA data showed that between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, the average waiting time to first contact for all customers increased by 40 percent from 15 to 21 minutes. Nationally, 8 percent of customers - about 3 million people waited more than 1 hour, which included 420,000 customers who waited more than 2 hours for service in fiscal year 2007.

The SSA's data from 2006 also showed that 51 percent of customer calls to 48 randomly selected field offices went unanswered. Because SSA based its results only on customers who were ultimately able to get through to the field offices, the actual percentage of calls that went unanswered may have been higher. In addition, staff at 13 of 21 of the offices that GAO visited characterized their phone service as inadequate, while 2 of these offices did not answer their offices' phones at all.

The GAO believes that the poor performance is directly related to budgetary staff reductions and that the situation is only going to get worse. SSA projects that 44 percent of its workforce will retire by 2016. The first wave of approximately 80 million baby boomers is reaching the age of retirement eligibility, and the SSA estimates that retirement and disability filings will increase the agency's work by approximately1 million annual claims by 2017.

Continue reading "Why can't I reach a live person when I call the Social Security Administration?" »