Thanks for the response. I'm surprised it was that bad 5 years ago. It's worse now due to the pandemic. Unfortunately the local office is only taking in person appointments for "limited, critical, dire need situations."  So we'll try again with a cal...

My wife will reach Full Retirement Age later this month. She applied for benefits 9 weeks ago.   The online status shows the application was picked up in Salinas, CA the same day the application was submitted. The status shows that it will take 2-4 w...