Hmmm.... Damn U.S. Government STRIKES AGAIN

Sorry about the disturbing title. But...

Okay, so here's the fluff... My Lady got her work-visa in the mail (post) about a month ago. So... She's been looking for work, going into various places and ACTUALLY INTERVIEWING which is something that I have not been so lucky to have happen.

Anyhoo... She needs a Social Security Number (Like a British "National Insurance" thing). One, you can't work withOUT one in the U.S. and two... You can't have a bank account without one... (The reason for this, is that the marvellous U.S. Gov. doesn't want you to have any savings or checking accounts that make interest, without being able to tax you on that TOO.) Anyhoo.... The bank was nice enough to "give her a break" and allow her to have an account, with the understanding that it wouldn't be TOO long before she GOT her Soc. Sec. Number. Well...

So... We HAVE the work visa. We're gravy, right?

Nope.

I've finally finished working for Pearson Educational Measurement (Scoring essays, as I've explained before). We finished up the last project for the Spring, and I'm back in the world of the unemployed. However.... I think to myself, "Hey, I'm getting out around noon... My Lady, please go downtown, I'll meet you there, and we'll go to the Soc. Sec. office and get your card."

Man... Sounds like a brilliant fecking idea, no?

Anyhooo... First we drive around for HOURS (well, okay, only about an hour) looking for the bloody place... Finally find it after calling three different people (and getting three different directions). Go through the metal-detector, and have our bags searched by armed security guard folk... Get our number.... Wait in the queue for an hour and a half... And finally...

Get to the window, talk to the nice (if slightly frazzled) civil servant... And discover that, although Fi HAS a work-visa... She is "Somehow not in the system."

BLOODY HELL

So...

Okay... The nice (if somewhat MORE frazzled) civil servant enters all of Fi's info, takes photocopies of all the relevant documentation, and... Tells us that it'll be around four weeks before Fiona gets her Soc. Sec. Number.

So... All the jobs that My Lady has applied to... All the interviews that she's had... And any eventual job-offers that come from said interviews are now "defunct."

And... To add INSULT to injury... Her "Bank account" has been frozen today as well... Again, due to her not having a Soc. Sec. Number. That was a coincidence, but not a very friendly one.

Gah.

Okay... So... That's our lives today. Interesting, no?

I'm off... To go weep into my coffee.

Smiles,
Tuckmac