The Phoenix Social Security Offices: Downtown, North, Glendale, Mesa and Apache Junction

Which Social Security office serves a Phoenix ZIP code?

It depends on which part of the city you live in. Social Security's office locator assigns each ZIP code it lists to one field office. Assignments can change, so enter your address in the locator rather than going by a list.

The Downtown office reaches a long way west. Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye and Tolleson all go to 7th Avenue, not to the Glendale office, while Ahwatukee (85044, 85045, 85048) and Laveen go Downtown too. The office the locator names handles the non-medical side of your claim and can answer questions about that part of a pending claim before it reaches a hearing office. You can apply online, by phone or at a field office.

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Glendale, Mesa and Apache Junction: the offices for the rest of the Valley

• Glendale, 5907 W Kings Avenue: 85301 to 85306, 85308, 85310 (Glendale); 85345, 85381 to 85383 (Peoria); 85374, 85378, 85379, 85387, 85388 (Surprise); 85351, 85373 (Sun City); 85335 (El Mirage); 85340 (Litchfield Park).

• Mesa, 702 W Jerome Avenue: 85201 to 85204, 85210, 85213 (Mesa); 85281 to 85284 (Tempe); 85224 to 85226, 85248, 85249, 85286 (Chandler); 85233, 85295, 85296 (Gilbert); 85257 (Scottsdale).

• Apache Junction, 253 W Superstition Boulevard: 85119, 85120 (Apache Junction); 85205 to 85209, 85212, 85215 (east Mesa); 85234, 85297, 85298 (Gilbert); 85142 (Queen Creek); 85140, 85143 (San Tan Valley).

Gilbert, Mesa and Scottsdale are each split by ZIP code. Gilbert goes to both the Mesa and Apache Junction offices, and the eastern Mesa ZIP codes listed above go to Apache Junction rather than to the Mesa office on Jerome Avenue. Scottsdale ZIP 85257, in the south of the city, goes to Mesa rather than Phoenix North. Farther south, the locator sends the city of Maricopa (85138, 85139) to the Casa Grande field office, which belongs to a different hearing office, covered below.

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Addresses, Phone Numbers and Hours for the Five Phoenix Area Offices

The locator lists all five offices as open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arizona time and closed on weekends, and all five list their street addresses for mail. Hours and closures can change, so check the office's own locator page before you go.

• Phoenix Downtown: Suite 100, 250 N 7th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85007, at the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and Van Buren Street. Phone 1-866-964-4852, fax 1-833-950-3683.

• Phoenix North: Suite A, 16241 N Tatum Boulevard, Phoenix, AZ 85032, south of Bell Road. Phone 1-866-348-7855, fax 1-833-950-3673.

• Glendale: 5907 W Kings Avenue, Glendale, AZ 85306, on 59th Avenue between Bell Road and Greenway Road. Phone 1-888-886-7213, fax 1-833-950-3685.

• Mesa: 702 W Jerome Avenue, Mesa, AZ 85210. Phone 1-866-964-1716, fax 1-833-950-3687.

• Apache Junction: 253 W Superstition Boulevard, Apache Junction, AZ 85120, next to the post office. Phone 1-866-964-7417, fax 1-833-950-3681.

When you answer a notice, use the return address printed on it. The national number, 1-800-772-1213, can also schedule a phone or in-person appointment, and a phone appointment can save a trip if you only need to ask about a letter.

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What the field office handles and what Arizona's disability agency decides

The field office checks the eligibility points that have nothing to do with your health, such as age, employment, marital status and Social Security coverage, then sends the case on for the medical decision, as Social Security's page on the disability determination process describes. The state agency usually asks your own doctors and clinics for records first and can schedule a consultative examination when they are unavailable or not enough.

In Arizona that agency is the Disability Determination Services Administration, a division of the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Arizona's Medicaid eligibility manual lists it among the department's divisions and describes it as the state agency authorized to make disability determinations for Social Security and for AHCCCS, Arizona's Medicaid program. Applications for Social Security disability or SSI still go through Social Security, not to the state agency directly.

Reconsideration, the first appeal after a denial, generally must be requested within 60 days after you receive the denial notice (Social Security assumes you received it 5 days after the date on it unless you show otherwise), online, by phone, by mail or in person, and when the denial was medical the review goes back to the state agency. A hearing request after a reconsideration denial moves the case to a hearing office.

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Which of the two Phoenix hearing offices takes your appeal

Phoenix has two hearing offices. Which one takes your hearing generally depends on your residence address, and Social Security lists each hearing office's area by the field offices it covers. The hearing office list behind Social Security's hearing office locator, Appendix F of the agency's privacy notice for hearing records and the offices' locator records agree on the split.

• Phoenix (Downtown) hearing office: Siete Square, Suite 200, 3737 N 7th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85014, phone 1-888-748-1991, extension 21651. Its list includes the Phoenix Downtown, Mesa and Apache Junction field offices, plus Flagstaff, Chinle and Tuba City.

• Phoenix (North) hearing office: Suite 430, 18444 N 25th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85023, phone 1-877-784-3690, extension 19839. Its list includes the Phoenix North and Glendale field offices, plus Prescott and the Colorado River Basin office, which Appendix F lists as Needles, California.

That split cuts across the Valley. Avondale, Goodyear and Buckeye go to the Downtown hearing office through the Phoenix Downtown field office, while their neighbors in Glendale, Peoria and Surprise go to the North hearing office. Most of Scottsdale goes North, but 85257 goes Downtown through Mesa. The Downtown hearing office is on 7th Street, east of Central Avenue, not at the field office on 7th Avenue. Maricopa's Casa Grande field office is on the Tucson hearing office list, which our Tucson office guide covers.

Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is set by the claimant's residence address. To ask for a different hearing office, give a signed statement of your reasons with your hearing request, which a field office forwards to the hearing office, and Social Security decides whether to transfer the case. A hearing can be in person, by agency video at a Social Security site, by phone, or by online video if you agree to it. You can object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing within 30 days after you receive the notice of the ways you can attend, or later if you show good cause. Social Security can still schedule a phone hearing over an objection in limited circumstances. The Notice of Hearing names the office and the format. Separately, Social Security's hearings manual lets management move a batch of cases to another hearing office to relieve a temporary workload imbalance or increase productivity, and the office that receives the cases notifies you and any representative you have. Our Phoenix disability lawyer page covers both hearing offices in more detail, our hearing office directory lists the rest, and our Arizona disability lawyer page covers the state as a whole.

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