Social security claim for children

Mepp7777 asked. . . .Dose anyone know how long after the phon interview, that the field agent would be scheduled ? They have told me there is only one field agent and I need to be patient because it can take many months to get scheduled. This seems like a unrealistic answer. I'm just checking to see what others have experienced. Thanks

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I wanted to have a face to face interview for my wife concerning SS benefits. I applied online for an appointment and received a message from a BOT. The message said somebody would respond to my email in 10 days?

They responded and said a Phone interview would be in two months, they gave me the date and time.

The interview did not answer our questions and lasted several minutes. It seemed the person calling might have been a Filipino.

This is why I'm asking the question on this site. The phon interviewer would not answer any questions about any of the process.   Seems that's standard maybe.   It makes us feel like we have no rights and can't ask any questions.   So my question to them was this,, since not everyone has to have a field visit , how do you determine who dose ?

Second question was , if you have only one field agent and it may take many months to be scheduled , why not waive the field visit and just process it?  These questions where completely ignored ona a email I sent .  My phone interviewer just said I don't know , that's a different group , I just do phone interviews.    This seems unprofessional that nobody is willing to give a  straight answer.    Maybe this should be reported to the ambassador of the Philippines directly ?   Something seems off about all this   

One problem is that the Embassy handles everything for Southeast Asia.

The current administration had plans to hire 87,000 IRS Agents. Better idea is to hire some help for the Embassy.

This is why I'm asking the question on this site. The phon interviewer would not answer any questions about any of the process. Seems that's standard maybe. It makes us feel like we have no rights and can't ask any questions. So my question to them was this,, since not everyone has to have a field visit , how do you determine who dose ? Second question was , if you have only one field agent and it may take many months to be scheduled , why not waive the field visit and just process it? These questions where completely ignored ona a email I sent . My phone interviewer just said I don't know , that's a different group , I just do phone interviews.  This seems unprofessional that nobody is willing to give a straight answer.  Maybe this should be reported to the ambassador of the Philippines directly ? Something seems off about all this  - @Mepp7777

My understanding is that it is because the system has been taken advantage of in the past, and the money has not always followed the child. They want to see where the money is going, if the couple is actually together, if the guardian (usually the mother in the Philippines) is actually getting the money for her child. It is not unheard of for 70 year old expats to take advantage of the benefit to supplement their own income. Or using the benefit as leverage against the Filipina leaving an abusive situation.  So yes, they will want to do an interview in most cases. And as always, resources are limited.

@pnwcyclist

Thank you for the reply.   This makes sense to me and I believe you are right. The one thing that would help is if they would just state the reseans instead of completely ignoring this question. I think clarity on this is not that hard to do   At least in explaining it, we as applicants would understand the extreme wait times    Im 9 months into this and I'm now being lead to believe that the field agent visit may be many more months due to only one person doing it.  So explaining why the process works this way would be nice and people most likely would be understanding to it .  Again thanks

I am still in the US...so this might not totally apply to your situation there in the Phils.

But just to share my experience.

I filed for SSA benefits in Dec of 2021

I have 2 dependent kids now 9 and 12.

Granted the Pandemic delayed the start of the initial application, but only now has SSA corrected my benefits.

That's 3 years later! And only because after numerous visits to our local SS office, we finally had a supervisor intervene and complete the process. We just received more than 50K in back payments!

Money we really needed all along and would have given us the benefit of interest along the way.

The process is not actually difficult. You need to prove your marital status, the children's relationship and the fact you will be suppling their full support.  It's the ridiculous delays of these idiots working for the Federal government that complicates the issue.

I hope your case is resolved much sooner than ours, but be prepared to wait if they are slow there as they are here.