Yes, apparently the US federal system is quite slow, newly assigned SS numbers might take upto a year to get in to the system (according to another dreamer in the forum who called to check).

It is the reason why many of us got denied of credit cards, no credit/ss number in the system.

I think you could TRY to call the three credit check companies to ask them to add your number manually. You might have to send in photocopies of your ssnumber and EAD.