The Tucson Social Security Offices: First Avenue, South Tucson and the Border Counties

Which Social Security office serves a Tucson ZIP code?

It depends on which side of town you live on. Social Security's office locator assigns each ZIP code it lists to one field office, and Tucson is divided between the Tucson office on North First Avenue and the South Tucson office on West 38th Street. Assignments can change, so enter your address in the locator rather than going by a list.

The South Tucson office reaches far beyond the city. Sells, on the Tohono O'odham Nation, and Ajo, in western Pima County, both go to West 38th Street, as do the retirement community of Green Valley and the town of Sahuarita along Interstate 19. The office the locator names handles the non-medical side of your claim, so it is the place to call 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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Addresses, Phone Numbers and Mail for the Two Tucson Offices

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

• Tucson: 3808 N 1st Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719. Phone 1-866-331-7693, fax 1-833-873-4349.

• South Tucson: Suite 100, 88 W 38th Street, Tucson, AZ 85713, near South Sixth Avenue and 38th Street. Phone 1-866-220-7896, fax 1-833-950-3689.

Both offices list their street addresses for mail. 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 hearing office takes a Tucson disability appeal

Both Tucson field offices are on the list of the Tucson hearing office, at the Rio Nuevo Professional Plaza, Suite 265, 201 N. Bonita Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85745. 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 that, and all three list the Casa Grande, Douglas, Globe, Nogales, Safford and Show Low field offices under the Tucson hearing office too.

One entry differs. The hearing office list also names a Sells field office, but Appendix F lists no Sells office, and the locator sends Sells ZIP 85634 to South Tucson. Either way, the Tucson hearing office serves that area.

Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is set by the claimant's residence address. To ask for a different hearing office, make the request through a Social Security field office with a signed statement giving your reasons, 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, and 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 with good cause, although 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 your representative. Our Tucson disability lawyer page covers the hearing office in more detail, and our hearing office directory lists the rest.

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Casa Grande, Douglas and Nogales: the offices for Oracle, Sierra Vista and Nogales

• Douglas, 600 E 15th Street, Douglas, AZ 85607: 85635 and 85650 (Sierra Vista) and 85602 (Benson). Phone 1-877-480-4858. At 15th Street and F Avenue.

• Nogales, 1760 N Mastick Way, Nogales, AZ 85621: 85621 (Nogales) and 85646 (Tubac). Phone 1-877-405-5472. Its locator note says all of its employees speak Spanish and it has a drop box in the lobby for documents.

• Casa Grande, Suite 2, 1637 E Monument Plaza Circle, Casa Grande, AZ 85122: 85122 (Casa Grande), 85623 (Oracle) and 85631 (San Manuel). Phone 1-877-405-0403.

A few assignments run against the map. Sierra Vista, the largest city in Cochise County, goes to the Douglas office on the border rather than to an office of its own, and Oracle and San Manuel, in Pinal County north of Tucson, go to Casa Grande. All three offices keep the same weekday hours, use their street addresses for mail, and are on the Tucson hearing office list, so a move between their areas generally leaves you with the Tucson hearing office, although jurisdiction follows your residence address. Our Arizona disability lawyer page covers the Phoenix hearing offices that handle most of the rest of the state.

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