Bureaucracy in the United States
No national ID card, no single portal, and fifty different DMVs — the U.S. runs on a patchwork of federal and state paperwork you have to assemble yourself.
Social Security Number vs. ITIN
If you’re authorized to work in the U.S. (H-1B, L-1, O-1, a green card, etc.), your first stop is the Social Security Administration (SSA) for a Social Security Number (SSN) — it’s free, takes about 2–4 weeks to arrive by mail after you apply in person, and unlocks everything else: payroll, bank accounts, credit, leases, phone plans. You need it to get paid legally, so apply in your first week. If you’re not eligible to work (a dependent spouse on some visa types, or someone who needs to file U.S. taxes without work authorization), the IRS issues an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) instead via Form W-7 — it doesn’t authorize work and won’t build a credit file the way an SSN does, but it lets you file taxes and, at some banks, open an account.
State ID and the REAL ID Act
There is no federal ID card. Every state issues its own driver’s licence or state ID, and as of 2026 REAL ID enforcement is fully in effect at TSA airport checkpoints — a standard, non-compliant state licence will no longer get you through security for a domestic flight; you need either a REAL ID–marked licence (look for the star in the corner), a U.S. passport, or another TSA-accepted federal ID. Get the REAL ID version when you apply for your state licence to avoid a second trip to the DMV later.
The driver’s licence maze
This is one area where the U.S. is genuinely more complicated than most countries: there is no federal driver’s licence and no uniform rule for exchanging a foreign one. Each of the 50 states sets its own rules, and those rules often depend on which country issued your original licence. Some states (e.g., many with reciprocity agreements) let residents from certain countries swap a foreign licence for a local one with just a vision test; others require you to pass a full written and road test regardless of your home-country experience. There is no central list — you have to check your specific state’s DMV/DPS site. Budget several weeks and $20–$100+ in fees, and don’t assume your home-country licence, or even an International Driving Permit, will be honored for more than a few months as a visitor.
The first-30-days checklist
Tick things off as you go — this list lives in your browser for this visit.
| Path | Typical wait |
|---|---|
| Spouse of a U.S. citizen (immediate relative) | ~12–18 months, no annual cap |
| Employment-based green card (EB-2/EB-3), most countries | 1–3 years |
| Employment-based (EB-2/EB-3), born in India or China | Often 10–20+ years due to per-country caps |
| Naturalization (citizenship) after green card | 5 years as LPR (3 if married to a U.S. citizen), plus 6–12 months processing |
The green-card wait is not one number — it’s set by your visa category and your country of birth. Because no country can receive more than 7% of employment-based green cards in a year, applicants born in India or China routinely wait a decade or more in the same category that clears almost immediately for applicants from most other countries. Check the monthly State Department Visa Bulletin, not general advice, for your specific case.
Get your Social Security Number (or ITIN if you're not work-authorized) in week one, get a state ID or driver's licence in month one, and expect the path to permanent residency and citizenship to be measured in years, not months — with the wait length depending heavily on your visa category and country of birth.
Sources & how current this is
U.S. immigration policy has moved unusually fast through 2025–2026 — the H-1B $100,000 fee alone has been imposed, vacated, appealed and stayed within a single year. Treat every fee, cap and court-status figure here as a snapshot and re-check uscis.gov and travel.state.gov before filing anything or relying on a number for a decision.