Social Security Cards, Licensing and H-1B Adjudication

Thomas E. Cook, Acting Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Adjudications at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has issued a memorandum to all Service Center Directors, District Directors, and Officers, addressing the issue of adjudication of H-1B petitions where the beneficiary is unable to obtain a state license solely because he or she is not in possession of a social security card.

According to the regulations of the Social Security Administration, an H-1B applicant needs to be physically present in the United States in order to obtain a social security card. In turn, the INS denied some H-1B petitions in cases where the alien beneficiary had not obtained the required state license. In most cases the applicants were unable to obtain such licenses as the State Regulatory Agencies required a valid social security card in order to obtain a state license.

The memorandum provides new guidelines for INS officers involved in the adjudication of these H-1B petitions. The guidelines provide that an H-1B petition filed on behalf of an alien beneficiary who does not have a valid state license shall be approved for a period of one year provided that the only obstacle to obtaining state licensure is the fact that the alien cannot obtain a social security card from the Social Security Administration. The petitioner must also provide proof that all other regulatory and statutory requirements have been met for obtaining the state license. Moreover, the alien beneficiary must obtain the valid state license by the time the extension application is filed. If the alien beneficiary has not yet obtained the valid state license, the extension application will be denied.

  View the INS memorandum. (PDF/91 kb, 2 pages)