Valuable Documents Submission

[RichardK654481]

I just applied for retirement benefits and they want to see original documents ((foreign) birth and naturalization certificates) but the website says NOT TO MAIL such documents in as they might get lost. They say to go to the local SSA office and have them sighted there. However due to covid-19 all offices are shut and there is no information on when they will reopen. Any advice?

[fffred]

Richard,

My wife is a naturalized US citizen, so I am quite familiar with the need not to send original documents such as you describe via postal mail, nor even via a courier like Federal Express. Some documents are almost irreplaceable, at least not without extreme difficulty. I will say that perhaps certified copy of a birth certificate might not be too difficult to obtain, depending upon the birth country. But a US Naturalization document/certificate, I would never send my wife's certificate by any sort of postal mail nor courier.

For your situation with the local offices being closed, I think you should call the national phone number for the SSA (see this page, scroll all the way down to the bottom and see the phone number shown https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/). Describe the situation to them and ask for instructions as to how to proceed. This will be your most direct method to start with, in my opinion.

Good luck. And c'mon back with an update please. Thank you.

---

@RichardK654481 wrote:

I just applied for retirement benefits and they want to see original documents ((foreign) birth and naturalization certificates) but the website says NOT TO MAIL such documents in as they might get lost. They say to go to the local SSA office and have them sighted there. However due to covid-19 all offices are shut and there is no information on when they will reopen. Any advice?

---

[RichardK654481]

Thanks for the message. I will be contacting them both nationally and via my local office to see what can be done. I understand that it is up to local offices whether to make an exception and allow someone in so we will see what happens.

Richard

[GailL1]

@RichardK654481 

Hopefully by now, you have found a solution to your problems but if not or if others also have this sort of problem - my suggestion would be -

Local offices have staff there - they just aren't conducting face-to-face interviews for the time being.

Government should be accommodating just like private industry is during this shut-down. 

Seems to me, a time could be set with the local SS office for you to drop it off and wait in the parking lot until they have done their verification and then they could give it back to you, verifying that it is all taken care of -

But, ALAS, it is Government and they do not seem to have the same concern for their "customers" as private businesses - since their bread n butter isn't directly connected.

Good Luck and Happy Retiring !