Irony and the US Government
Ahhhh - my lovely government never ceases to amaze me. Last week or so, I finally got around to applying for Jesse's social security number. I started figuring out what I needed to take with and in doing so found an interesting catch in the process.
1) I needed to bring the adoption decree with me as proof of his new name - I also needed 2 other forms of ID, one being his green card, and one with his new name (lucky for me he has his own YMCA card).
2) Then I read online (while downloading a form) that according to the Social Security Administration the adoption decree does not give him proof of citizenship - even though as soon as the papers were signed he became a US Citizen.
3) His SS number was issued as a permanent resident able to work and once he received either a passport or his certificate of citizenship we simply present that and his status will be changed....here's the irony....
In order to apply for a US passport or a certificate of citizenship all we have to do is present the adoption decree to prove he's already a citizen!!!!!!! The very paper the SSA claims is not a valid source of proof is the ONLY proof needed for a passport or certificate!?!?!?!? Does that make any sense to anyone? Both government agencies - both working under the same laws......all I can do is scratch my head.
1) I needed to bring the adoption decree with me as proof of his new name - I also needed 2 other forms of ID, one being his green card, and one with his new name (lucky for me he has his own YMCA card).
2) Then I read online (while downloading a form) that according to the Social Security Administration the adoption decree does not give him proof of citizenship - even though as soon as the papers were signed he became a US Citizen.
3) His SS number was issued as a permanent resident able to work and once he received either a passport or his certificate of citizenship we simply present that and his status will be changed....here's the irony....
In order to apply for a US passport or a certificate of citizenship all we have to do is present the adoption decree to prove he's already a citizen!!!!!!! The very paper the SSA claims is not a valid source of proof is the ONLY proof needed for a passport or certificate!?!?!?!? Does that make any sense to anyone? Both government agencies - both working under the same laws......all I can do is scratch my head.
posted by Hannah | 4:10 PM
5 Comments:
Clear as mud! Make sure you take good notes of what you're doing so I can ask you lots of questions when our time comes! =)
Ah, now you have observed the great divide between the State Dept (passports) and Homeland Security/Citizenship & immigration (certificates) and the Social Security administration.
None of these folks communicate at all, so it is indeed true that you have to do just what you're doing -- get the adoption degree, get the SS (actually you can have an SS without being a citizen, so you can get it before the adoption is finalized if you want), get a passport and/or certificate using the decree, then go back to SS to prove citizenship and have that altered in their records. Actually I strongly recommend the certificate though it is extra tedium & expense -- because if you don't file for that, CIS will have no way of knowing your child is a citizen. (Since if you only get a passport, that's issued by State, CIS is never notified of your child's adoption finalization and citizenship status.)
You are completely right that there is no internal logic operating here.
Julie H
paperwork queen
Julie - thanks for the heads up about the certificate and CIS stuff. We were planning on putting that off because of the $$$ - now we'll make it a priority.
Hello, been months and months since I have visited your blog, so glad to see you are going well. You will have noticed I turned off my blog for a while, too many dramas with the adoption unit if you recall and I didnt have anything nice to blog about- however good news James came back from afghan safe and sound and our file has gone to Thailand. I am going to still leave my blog off for a while until I get some exciting news to talk about. Best wishes for you all in 2008, Gem x
WOW - got to love goverment politics...well as Robin mentioned, I sure know who to come and ask when is our turn to apply for SS...
Thanks for the email and you are welcome to visit our site before, during and after our travel!!! 3weeks & 2days to go and we take off for Thailand - 1wk later we meet our girl!!!
Hirally (the link in my name should lead you to our web page)
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