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Monday, July 2, 2007

Hennepin nixes Social Security # requirement for marriages

As was first reported in Minnesota Lawyer on June 4, immigration lawyers and their clients have been miffed at Hennepin County for demanding that applicants for a marriage license furnish a Social Security number on their application. (Click here for article from the June 4 edition of Minnesota Lawyer, password required.) Minneapolis attorney David Wilson of the Wilson Law Group represented a woman who wound up leaving the state to get married after she and her intended groom -- a man from Peru who was in the country legally on a K1 visa -- ran into the marriage roadblock locally. (Her fiancé had been unable to produce a Social Security number, so Hennepin County denied the application.) Reporting that his client was "madder than a wet hen" at what had happened, Wilson announced that she was filing suit to end the Hennepin County practice.

Just about a month later, we can report that Wilson, his client and the county have apparently reached consensus, with Hennepin County agreeing to end its offending policy of requiring Social Security numbers.

In an e-mail sent to members of the Minnesota immigration bar late this afternoon, Wilson said: "Hennepin County and I have negotiated a settlement of my client's suit against the county and the Commissioner of Health. Judge [Edward] Cleary should sign the order executing the stipulation later this week. Rather than waiting for the court's order, Hennepin County started processing marriage applications without mandating social security numbers effective today."
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