We had our meeting with Social Security to finalize the procedure and provide the information that the representative still needed. We had an appointment, and things could not have gone more smoothly.
Social Security decided on the date that Karin's residency began. It was the date that her green card was issued, which we thought would be the case.
Since the agency and its computers are not set up to deal with cases like ours automatically yet, Karin's spousal benefits will be manually prepared, and then she will fall into a regular automatic system, or so we were assured. Let's hope that's right!
We also told the Social Security representative that my pension plan, CalPERS, had said that they could not enroll my wife in Medicare, claiming that it has to happen through Social Security. The rep agreed that that is the way it works, so Karin is now in part of Medicare and will be in the other part when the enrollment period comes in a few months.
Whew! And wow! It took an online application that I did on a Saturday, an office visit and a follow-up office visit, and now Karin is taken care of for Social Security and Medicare! We are thrilled that this trailblazing went so smoothly and happened without a lot of hassle.
Now we feel better taking off for our honeymoon, finally, knowing that Karin is safe with her green card, and that things have been brought up to date, paper-trail-wise, at home. These two old, retired broads are getting things done!
Aloha! Off for two weeks in Maui, including Maui Pride!