How can one combine the social security wages from the ITIN to the social security number to qualify to receive social security benefits with enough credits under the social security number. I have worked over 10 years under my ITIN number and my social security number for two years.
Hi. I should start out by saying that obtaining an Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN) does not authorize a person to work legally. If you worked for wages in spite of that before you obtained a Social Security number (SSN), you could only get Social Security credits if Social Security taxes were withheld from your earnings.
If you believe that you paid Social Security taxes while working under an ITIN, the answer to your question depends in part on when you plan to apply for benefits. If you meet the requirements for benefits now and if you want to apply for them, then you'll need file an application with Social Security. When you apply for benefits you can inform Social Security about any earnings that haven't been posted to your earnings record. Social Security should then request documentation of your missing earnings.
If you aren't yet ready to apply for benefits they you'll probably want to start out by requesting a copy of your Social Security earnings record. That will list the earnings that have been properly credited to your SSN. Any missing earnings will need to be added to your earnings record in order for you to receive credit for them. You may be able to view your earnings record online on Social Security's website (https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/). Alternatively, you may be able to get a copy of your earnings history by calling Social Security, but they may ask you to submit a form SSA-7004 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-7004.pdf).
Once you know which of your earnings haven't been credited to your earnings history, you can submit a form SSA-7008 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-7008.pdf) requesting correction of your record.
If you you paid Social Security taxes on wages earned before you had a valid SSN and if those wages were reported to Social Security, then Social Security should have posted them to their suspense database. Earnings are posted to the suspense database when the reported earnings can't be associated with a valid SSN. If you now have a valid SSN, any earnings of yours that are in the suspense database can be moved to your earnings record once Social Security has sufficient information to identify the earnings as belonging to you.
If you had any earnings that aren't posted to either your Social Security earnings record or the suspense database, then you'll need to submit to Social Security proof of the earnings and proof that Social Security taxes were withheld from the earnings. In most cases that means submitting a copy of your W-2 form(s), although some alternate types of documentation may be acceptable.
Best, Jerry
