I'm 23 years old and I was born and lived my whole life in Australia. I have citizenship through my parents and moved to the US to work. I applied for an SSN and provided an exhaustive list of documents concerning my life in Australia. However, this had a gap between ages 1- 8 and my application has been rejected.

I simply do not have any other documents, mostly due to my parents divorce when I was eight and decisions they made regarding my education, medical care etc.

Does anyone have similar experiences? If you have advice on appealing this decision and getting an SSN I would really appreciate it. It seems hard to fathom that they could deny a citizen's application if I've given them everything I've had.

I've reached out to a couple legal advice centers, but I would appreciate any advice you have in the meantime.

Finally - is an SSN absolutely required to work? Is it possible to work on an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) as a citizen?