Applicant with no SSN

[Michele Fischer]

Need some advice, please.

We have a lot of Hispanic families in my rental neighborhood, but they rarely apply for our units (not sure why, except some Craigslist ads do advertise that they speak Spanish), so I don't have a lot of experience with this.

We got an application where the husband has a SSN and what appears to be a W-2 job.  The wife does not have a SSN, does not work.  There are two school aged kids if that is relevant.  They have lived in the US for at least 8 years.  They are scoring very high on my screening criteria, have a lot of the attributes I look for in a tenant.

I'm not sure what to do about the wife though.  What questions should I be asking and how can I run a background check without out a SSN?  I am more concerned about criminal than credit, but am wondering what other considerations there are, and what others would do in my situation?