Editing Getting a Social Security Card (section)

=== Actual Process ===

We went to the facility on 16th Street. The closest parking facility is 16th and Hoff which is where we parked. It's quite open in the morning so it wasn't too hard to find parking. Appointments at the SSA facility are, as with most US government functions, booked out for many weeks in advance. In our case, we could only find one a month away so we decided to book that and then walk in and see what happened to the card and what our options were. Without finding out what was the highest likelihood outcome, I did not want to apply for a card.

At this time, Julie'd already written to the office of Nancy Pelosi (our local rep) requesting assistance on the issue. It must have been a common one because one of the options on the drop-down list was for help with this. Nothing ever came of it except that we got signed onto her mailing list.

The other options I was considering were to go to another office instead (wouldn't help, they're all sent from Baltimore) or waiting for the next year (very annoying and no advantage).

==== Enquiring After The Missing Card ====

So first we wanted to find out what happened here and form a picture of what to do. The Social Security phone lines are often backed up quite a bit. In our case, every time we called they were at 70 minutes and I didn't want to keep the phone on speaker phone by me for that long only to lose the line when I finally make it to the front or something like that. So we went in.

{| class="wikitable"
! Time !! Observation
|-
| 0907 || We arrived at this time. There were 11 people line ahead of us and the guy in front of us was #26 for the day
|-
| 0918 || We entered the building. There were 8 people in line ahead of us at the kiosk
|-
| 0924 || We received our ticket D399; currently displayed were B106, A39, C296, D377.
|-
| 0957 || Currently displayed were A47, B108, D389.
|}

The way things work is that you stand in line outside, then the security guys check your bags, and then you stand in line at the kiosk to check-in or to get your walk-in token, and then there are seats where you can sit and wait or you can stand leaning against the wall. If you've got an appointment and you arrive early you end up standing in the line anyway, but then you're called forward to the kiosk if it's around the time of your appointment. After you've checked in, they call you by the applicant's name and token number, though there are the usual screens up in front of you. The token numbers are not called in monotonic order even within the letter codes, i.e. A134 can go before A121.

Of course, after we were called, I did not record the time, but as you can imagine it was a couple of hours. At the end of the affair, we found out that:

# We'd have to apply again and yes, for the third and last time this year
# If we had arrived within 2 weeks of the projected card arrival time, we could have applied for a re-send without it hitting the limits
# Our documents were sufficient, but we'd need an application and an appointment for it

We asked for, and received, Astra's SSN again.

==== Replacing the Card ====

We filled in the standard [https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf Social Security card replacement form] and arrived on the day we had already booked the appointment for.

{| class="wikitable"
! Time !! Observation
|-
| 1013 || We arrived at this time. There was no line in front of us.
|-
| 1020 || We checked in and received number D391
|-
| 1030 || This is the appointment time, nothing happened
|-
| 1119 || We were called in to a pre-appointment booth and received the number A31. I do not recall which A-number was active.
|-
| 1153 || We were called in to the appointment, informed of the date when we should expect it by, and received the number again to confirm
|}

At the appointment, we went through the application again (which was very straightforward), and then we were given a date some 6 weeks out by which time it should arrive and we were told that if we came back within 2 weeks after that we could get it resent again. Last time, when Julie applied she had them put in "c/o Julie Kang" so this time we changed it up and asked for it to be "ATTN: Roshan George".

We walked out, made an appointment for the day before 8 weeks and for the day of 8 weeks, but we actually received it about a week after the application and canceled the appointments. I was renamed "Roshan Geroge" but the mail made it which is the only thing that matters.

==== Security at the SSA ====

One interesting thing at the SSA itself is that it doesn't seem to run by the norms of the rest of San Francisco. The most notable thing was this interaction I observed the security guys having with a dog owner. We were at the front of the room with our pram so what I observed went something like this:

{{Blockquote
|text=*bark bark*
|author=Dog
}}

{{Blockquote
|text=You can't bring your dog in here
|author=Security Guy
}}

{{Blockquote
|text=It's a service dog
|author=Dog Owner
}}

{{Blockquote
|text=Service dogs don't bark at people like that. Take him outside
|author=Security Guy
}}

At that very moment, we were called so I didn't get to see what happened afterwards, but by the time we came back there was no dog or dog owner in sight, so either they were called in to their appointment or they had to leave. This never happens in San Francisco.