October 15, 2002 - The Social Security Administration (SSA) has issued final policy instruction on the immigration verification policy for Social Security Number applications reported in our September 11th article. The final SSA policy instruction eliminates the 30-day grace period that allowed the SSA to issue a Social Security Number during the first 30 days of a foreign national's admission, even if "SAVE" database verification was not available.

Now, unless the SAVE system can confirm the applicant's immigration status, the SSA must send a written verification request to INS for every applicant and await a response. According to the latest policy instruction, INS assured SSA that it would improve the timeliness of SAVE database updates to help reduce the need for written verifications. SSA offices advise that the processing time for the written verification is six to eight weeks. Special SSA verification procedures apply to asylees and refugees.