Your Social Security number comes first, because the motor vehicle office and every bank will ask for it before they do anything else. If you entered on an immigrant visa and asked for a card on the DS-260, the Social Security Administration mails it to the address you gave the consulate, usually within a few weeks of your arrival. Everyone else applies in person at a Social Security office, bringing the green card or the passport carrying the admission stamp. Driver's license second. Bank account third, then a credit card that reports to the bureaus, because your US credit history starts at zero on the day you land.
None of this is difficult. All of it is sequenced, and doing it out of order wastes weeks.
A workable order for the first month
- Days 1 to 10. Unpack and get a US mobile number, plus a mailing address you control. Your admission record needs a few days to post in federal systems before a Social Security office can verify it.
- Week 2. Social Security number, either by waiting for the mailed card or by walking into an office.
- Week 3. Bank account, then the state driver's license once you have two documents proving your address.
- Week 4. Health cover and school enrollment for the children. Add a secured credit card, plus a tax appointment if you landed partway through the year.
Getting the Social Security number
Permanent residents receive an unrestricted card, the kind with no legend limiting employment. That distinction matters. Investors who adjusted status inside the United States and worked on an employment authorization document first will have received a restricted card reading valid for work only with DHS authorization, and once the green card is approved they should replace it. Applicants going through adjustment of status can request a number on the same form used for the work permit, and the USCIS page on the employment authorization document explains what that card does and does not allow.
Bring originals to the office. Photocopies get turned away, and so does an expired passport.
The driver's license deadline nobody mentions
States give new residents a window, commonly 30 to 90 days from the day you establish residency, to trade a foreign license for a local one. Miss it and you are driving unlicensed, which your insurer will happily point out after an accident. An International Driving Permit is a translation of your home license. It confers no driving right of its own and it does not extend the state deadline.
Take four things to the appointment: proof of identity, proof of your Social Security number, and two documents showing your residential address, which normally means a lease plus a utility bill. Some states waive the road test for holders of a license from certain countries. Others make everyone take both the written exam and the road test regardless of thirty years of driving history at home. Check your state's rules rather than a forum post, since these differ enormously between, say, Florida and Massachusetts.
Book online. Walk in queues at a busy office can swallow most of a morning.
Banking when you have no credit file
A checking account needs a passport, the green card and normally the Social Security number, though several large banks will open an account on the green card alone while the number is still in the post. Ask the branch, and ask before you move money. A large opening wire draws a compliance review at any bank, and the review goes smoothly only if you can document where the funds came from, which is the same evidence trail your petition already built. Our guide to moving money into the US banking system covers the paperwork.
Do not close the accounts back home without advice first. Where your foreign accounts together exceed $10,000 at any point in a calendar year, an annual report to the Treasury is required, and the reporting duty starts with residency rather than with the closing of the last account. Read our summary of worldwide income and FBAR obligations for new green card holders before your first April.
Credit from zero
Nobody in the United States cares that you had an unblemished thirty year record with a bank in Seoul or Sao Paulo. Credit files do not travel. A secured card, where you post a deposit that becomes the limit, is the standard opening move, and a scoring model generally needs roughly six months of reported activity before it will produce a number at all. Being added as an authorized user on a spouse's older account can shorten that.
The practical cost of arriving without a score shows up in your mortgage rate, and again in the deposit a utility company demands before it will turn the power on.
Documents with clocks running on them
- Conditional green card. Valid two years. Form I-829 goes in during the 90 day window before the second anniversary of the day you obtained conditional permanent residence. Keep the receipt notice with the card, since that notice extends the card's validity while the petition sits in queue, and USCIS has lengthened the extension more than once as processing slowed.
- Ten year green card. Renewed on Form I-90 every ten years. Permanent residence itself does not expire when the card does, though employers and airlines will still want a valid card in hand.
- Re-entry permit. A trip abroad of more than a year can cost you residence outright. Applying for a re-entry permit before you leave protects absences of up to two years, and USCIS explains the mechanics on its page about travel documents for permanent residents.
- Naturalization. Five years of permanent residence for most EB-5 investors, with Form N-400 accepted up to 90 days early. Conditional years count toward that five.
Insurance and school enrollment
Health insurance is the expense that surprises European arrivals most. Coverage comes through an employer or through the individual marketplace. Arrivals over 65 with enough qualifying work quarters may reach Medicare, though none of this switches on automatically the week you land. Our page on insurance for new EB-5 residents puts numbers to it.
Children enroll in the local public school on proof of address, with no immigration paperwork required beyond what the district asks of everyone. For families weighing university costs, in state tuition usually turns on how long you have lived in the state rather than on citizenship, which is one of the quieter financial arguments for the EB-5 route for children heading to college.
Mistakes that cost new residents real money
Four recur often enough to name. Driving past the state deadline on a foreign license. Traveling for eight months without thinking about abandonment, then arguing with an officer at the border. Missing the Treasury report on foreign accounts. Filing the first tax return as though the whole year were foreign income when residency began in March.
Where you settle affects several of these, since state income tax and licensing deadlines both vary widely. Our comparison of where new investor families choose to live goes through the trade-offs, and processing times for anything still pending with USCIS can be checked against the official USCIS processing times tool.