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HR Woman, You Fail. America, You Fail.
03/12/09
04:37:18 pm, by admin 
, 408 words 
Categories: ...and Takes On, 사랑?, America, Politics, 결혼식, Operation Immigration
HR Woman, You Fail. America, You Fail.
I had to call HR today. "Hi. I need to make a change to my insurance because I was just married. But my husband doesn't have a SSN. Do I need a dummy number?"
[Note for non-SSN readers: A Social Security Number is a nine-digit number which was originally supposed to be used for tax purposes only. Over time it's become this radically abused number and is sort of a national ID number, even though we aren't supposed to have those in the US.]
"You need to find out his SSN."
"..." I repeated myself. "He doesn't have one."
"How doesn't he have one?"
I really didn't want to explain that he isn't eligible for one. "He doesn't have a SSN. What should I write?"
"Um, write that he doesn't have one."
Like I'm the first person in the entire district to marry a SSN-less foreigner? Doubtful.
Then I asked if I needed to send a certified marriage certificate or if I could send a copy of the commemorative, non-official one they give you.
She said, "You need the license."
I said, "The license was returned to the state by the officiant. I do not have the license."
"You have some sort of license."
It took all of my self-control not to say, "I have a driver's license." Instead I explained, very slowly, how it works and that I only had the decorative certificate. The one that reads "this is not a certified certificate." She told me I could just send a copy of the fake certificate. Fine.
It's a bit moot now. Monday we sent off for ten legal copies figuring that in our half-SSN-less-Green-Card-and-in-state-tuition-applying-he-is-my-husband-even-though-he's-not-white-and-this-is-our-proof situation ten copies was a good guess as to how many we'd need. We got the legal copies in the mail today. I will probably send copies of both through interoffice mail. God knows if I send an official copy they might flip out and not know what to do with it.
Then I called Walk All Over Ya, my bank, to try and add Good Man to my account.
I asked how I could add him. They put me on hold for 15 minutes.
And then they hung up on me.
So I called again. And was immediately told it's impossible to add him without a SSN or TPIN (another tax ID number). I said, "So basically there's no way for me to add my husband to my bank account?"
"Right."
America. Sucks.
9 comments
Banks changed the way they do business after Sept 11th attacks. They will not allow someone to open an account without a SSN due to some anti terrorist laws.
You can get Goodman a SSN. Just take his Korean passport, some mail sent to your address and your marriage certificate. I am sure they will give him a SSN. His SSN will be for a non-resident. So, he wouldn't be able to use it to work here. However, after he gets his green card you can go back to the SS office and they will change his status to US resident on his card and I think he keeps the same number. At least that is what they used to do. Hopefully they haven't changed that. His SSN is going to be helpful when you file your 2009 tax return (married filing joint). I would recommend filing your return using his SSN rather than a tax id. Getting a tax id is very easy and the form is online on the IRS' site.
I had to get a SSN for my korean born children and dealing with the ss office was like a visit to hell.
Good luck!
All of my research--and everything he's rec'd from schools--shows that on HIS visa it is NOT easy for him--a legal resident--to get either of those numbers. He can't get an SSN because he doesn't have a job. I'm not going to tell him to start working just to get a number, especially since he can't just go out and get any job with his visa restrictions. He doesn't need a TPIN because he has no tax obligations in the US.
If you do not have a SSN and are not eligible to obtain a SSN, but you have a requirement to furnish a federal tax identification number or file a federal income tax return, you must apply for an ITIN.
[...]
If you have an application for a SSN pending, do not file [for in ITIN].
When we apply for AOS we're going to file for EAD. It will take 30-90 days to get EAD and then we can file for SSN.
But this is beside the point. A SSN is NOT supposed to be a national ID number. Good Man is LEGALLY AND APPROPRIATELY (not out of status) in the US. If a SSN is going to be a de facto national ID number, than all legal residents should be issued one, much like we were issued ID numbers in Korea. If a SSN is NOT going to be a national ID number, then a passport number should be accepted instead. In ALL cases. I bitched about restrictions on foreigners in Korea, and I'm going to bitch about restrictions on foreigners here.
All of these restrictions 9/11 are making life more difficult for normal people and I HIGHLY doubt that they are protecting us in any way from terrorists. Good Man's bank account is already monitored by the FBI and Homeland Security. They can monitor his bank account just as well if I'm on it.
I doubt it would be efficient, but at least you're killing the 'try to make things work' and 'try to get the policies changed' birds with the same stone.
And then they hung up on me"
Gee, that sounds like another country I know!
But the point still stands. ALL legal residents should get SSNs if they're going to be used as national IDs.
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