The issue is my child was born abroad. When I finally contact the SSA about a number, they tell me they will not issue a SSN without a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. By the time I contacted a consulate where he was born, they indicated there was no appointments for no specified time to start again in the future. This went on for about a year. When they finally started back up for "emergency" appointments, they sent a long list of documents and other papers I needed to submit to even get an appointment. Getting those documents of course took some time. Then submitting scanned copies of those documents, and waiting for them to give me an appointment too about an additional three months. Waiting for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad was an additional month.
I finally got everything for the SSA, and it takes about three months of dealing with them before a card with the number arrives (they have not been seeing people in person for a long while now).
I would think there would be exceptions in the case where the government is failing to do its job. Like the IRS did in 2020 where they extended time to file to October 15(?).
