h4 to h1

[billu]

i am on h4 visa in US and i had applied for h1b and have received my I-797A with COS. My attorney/employer have asked me to apply for SSN right away as they said its needed for background checks etc and they said it might take 2-3 months to get the card. Can I apply for SSN right away or should I wait till october 1 as my H1 starts from oct. 1. pls reply
thanks

[txh1b]

SSA will not accept your application for SSN until your status changes to H1b which would be Oct 1st. You can give it a try but it will not work.

[billu]

what to do?

thanks a lot lot for ur response. u were more correct than my attorney/employer. they had asked me 2 apply for SSN right away.
however, when i went today, SSN office first were confused to see I-797A, after consulting each other and looking on their system they finally found I-797 in list of acceptable documents. however, they looked at start date as OCT. 1 and asked me to come back on that date.

Now, I discussed this with my employer.attorney and they said that the company's policy is they cannot allow to start work without SSN. under no circumstances, they said that I can start work without SSN and will have to wait for SSN. Now, my problem is that SSN will take atleast 2-3 weeks to come and by that time it will be 20-25 oct., so will it effect my H1B status? I understand that on h1b, one has to be on payroll all the time.........please help me out as I am worried.......will it be a problem at the time of stamping when I go to visit my home country India next year sometime?.....

[billu]

experts please reply

please do reply....what can I do now?....Should I go again to SSN office and request to issue SSN....

[C4us]

You will not be issued a SSN until after Oct 1. There is no point in trying.

Your employer is being difficult without good reason. It is possible for them to run payroll with the SSN pending. If you are paid once a month, it is likely to be in your hand by that time.

Give them your ITIN number as an alternative to run the background checks. It is more likely to have a record than a new SSN.