I’ve just started work for Aramark, whose policy apparently REQUIRES my SS card. I’ve followed official instructions before for every other job, which state that using just my passport is fine. I have no idea where my card is, and haven’t in years, but they insist (and it’s even printed on a sheet of paper stuck down in my paperwork) that they must have it for SS verification. And it has to be the original. And I’m fired if I don’t show it within 30 days. If pressed, I assume I’d order a new one. But is this OK?
I have run into this situation with employers as well. They are wrong; a passport is sufficient for your legality to work, and last year’s tax return or other correspondence from the IRS should be sufficient to prove that the number you gave = you. I don’t know what an employer is required to do these days with regard to the validity of SSNs; I assume they must verify with the IRS that the number is valid, but I don’t think they have to see the card itself.
In practical terms, however, it is probably much easier to replace your Social Security card than to convince them of that.
I think this is right (IANAL, especially not an employment or immigration L). I am a US Citizen and have used my US Passport as proof of employment eligibility, as well as a combination of a state driver’s license (which doesn’t establish eligibility in and of itself because you don’t need authorization to work in the US to get a DL) and a territorial birth certificate.
This might be an internal policy of your employer, but I remember seeing the list from HR on what is required and a passport was permitted.
Like the OP, I have no idea where my SS card is. It wasn’t laminated and probably fell apart a couple of decades ago. I’ve never needed it as long as I know the number.
Seems kinda silly. Of all the various gov’t IDs I have, the SS card seems like it would be the easiest to forge. Its on cheap paper and doesn’t seem to have much in the way of counterfeit protection at all. Especially compared to a US passport, which is coated in watermarks, micro-writing, etc.
The IRS requires employers to check your social security card (bolding mine):
The Social Security Administration says that’s not necessary if you use their verification service to make sure your name and SSN match and are valid.
Is that a requirement to show the card? They way its worded makes it sound optional: “You should ask”…“may show card if its available”… “if the employee provides it”.
Compare the language for actually entering the SSN on the W-2, where they actually use the word “required”
Even if the government doesn’t require businesses to see an actual social security card, an employer can require its employees to present an actual social security card to be employed. Not having an actual social security isn’t a protected class. Employers can have all kinds of conditions of employment as long as they aren’t discriminatory. If your employer says "show me your social security card or pack up your things, then you better get your ass down to the Social Security Administration office and apply for a replacement card, ASAP, if you want to keep your job.
What I italicized doesn’t read like any requirement I’ve ever seen.
The employer is only required by the IRS to obtain the number, from how I read this.
USCIS does NOT require employees to present Social Security cards to complete I-9 forms, and in fact, requiring specific documents rather than telling employees they can present a document from Column A or one each from Column B and Column C has frequently been held to be discriminatory. More info in the Employer Handbook at the bottom of p. 3, among other places.
Not having a Social Security card can mean many things, not the least of which is that all kinds of people who are legally authorized to work in the U.S. don’t necessarily get Social Security cards immediately - including recently arrived permanent residents, asylees, refugees, and people on work visas. They are still legally authorized to work in the U.S.
More info on unlawful discrimination can be found elsewhere on the USCIS website.
Eva Luna, Immigration Paralegal and former I-9 advice person for Fortune 100 financial institution
Simply requiring a card is an easy way for the company to comply with minimum federal regulations with minimal thinking on the part of its employees.
When I have had issues in the past, it has been for precisely this reason: they learn the formula “driver’s license + Soc. Sec. card,” which means they never think about the reasons behind this requirement. By giving a passport and an SSN, you are asking someone to combine critical thinking with bureaucracy, something < 100% of hiring prrsonnel are willing (or able) to do.
Okay, let’s think this one through, shall we?
The Social Security card is issued to you to track your income across jobs throughout your career. This is done in order to determine how much retirement money you get after you retire. If you paid into Social Security by working for X number of years, then you are eligible to claim Y dollars at the appropriate retirement age. So the Social Security system is based on employment. Why else would you have a Social Security card, if not to give your employers an “account number” of sorts?
Sort of blows my mind that anyone would question this. Of course it’s okay for an employer to require a SS card; that’s what the damn things are* for*! For what other purpose do you have a SS card?
Like Catbert?
The number is important. The card the number is printed on it secondary.
KneadtoKnow: heh. Good one.
Yeah, no one here is questioning the requirement to provide the SSN to your employer, but the card is printed on paper with no picture.
I’ve run into this requirement only once in my life. I had my original SS card (issued in 1954) laminated right after I got it and have carried it in my wallet ever since. The look I got from the HR jerk who demanded it was priceless. The look I gave him was less so.
I worked at a job for 30 years and then went back into the job market. So I thought that I should get an upgraded SS card. Turns out that what you get after all the verification is the same little printed piece of cardboard that I got when I was 16 years old.
I then found my original with my signature from when I was a kid. But both cards are from the same shitty little cardboard type stock.
And I had to show the thing so it could be photo copied with my driver’s license.
My social security card says right on it, “Not to be used for identification.” I will provide the number to those who have a need for it (i.e., anyone giving me money), but nobody has ever pushed me to show them the card itself when I point out that it is NOT a piece of I.D.
See, I thought the OP was questioning exactly that, when he/she said
Since when do your employers just take your word for it (the number)? :dubious:
SS cards are not ID cards. That’s why the passport can be used as ID, but it cannot be used by employers to verify that the employee remembers his or her SS number correctly. They might be legally allowed to accept it and just take your word for it, but if I were an employer, I wouldn’t.
I’ve not seen my SS card for 40 years. I’d better get a replacement soon as it’s almost time to get benefits and I think I will need it for that! 
I was asked for a SS card when applying for a Nevada Driver’s License. Paystub, W2, or photocopy of 1040 Form with the SS number was OK, but I didn’t have any of those either. I got a blank 1040 from the post office, filled it out randomly, photocopied it, and scrunched it a bit to look old, then got my Driver’s License. :smack: