# US Employers and SSN Checking **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608 "2009-04-01T19:06:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/21 "2009-04-01T23:50:56Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I was also under the impression that it’s common practice for people looking to sneak across the border to pay for all of these fake or forged documents, and it’s really a huge investment on their parts. Is that not as common as I think? Forged identity documents are indeed quite common. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/22 "2009-04-02T02:09:57Z")
The Soc. Security Administration verifies the name/number match against their own records. The name and SSN do not match, the employer is issued a “[no-match letter](http://www.ssa.gov/legislation/nomatch2.htm).” If they fail to rectify the situation, they are in trouble, because hiring an undocumented worker is a crime. Wanna read an interesting article? Sure ya do. [The “No-Match” Letter Rule: A Mismatch Between The Department Of Homeland Security And Social Security Administration In Worksite Immigration Law Enforcement (PDF)](http://law.hofstra.edu/pdf/Academics/Journals/LaborAndEmploymentLawJournal/labor_vol25no1_Gibek.pdf) Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal, Vol. 25 (Fall 2007) ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/23 "2009-04-02T02:16:09Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Where do you get the idea that “illegal aliens” can’t get Social Security? > > I mean if they later become “legal”. Principally, they will have a shiny new SSN with absolutely no connection to their past contributions. All the past contribution will be lost entirely, unless they feel like telling the authorities that they were employed illegally, thus negating any legal status they have acquired, putting themselves immediately into deportation proceedings, and getting manditorily barred from the U.S. for 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/24 "2009-04-02T02:31:16Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Over in [this Pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=512557) there’s a dust up about illegal immigrants. Eva Luna posted a link to a paper about undocumented immigrants paying taxes, which says: > (bolding mine) > > So my question is this - why doesn’t the government give employers easy, cheap and/or mandatory ways to check out W2 information? I’m an employer and I’ve never had to verify anything about anyone I’ve ever hired. > > Can’t the SSA easily take submissions of names and SSNs and run a check? Can’t they tell employers if the SSNs belong to a deceased person? Or if the ages don’t match up? > > I realize you can do a background check on employees but those aren’t cheap and aren’t feasible for most employers. Plus, lots of employers probably do not want to lose candidates because of past records - but they’d like to at least know if they’re straight with the IRS. Maybe employers didn’t care so much before if the SSN was valid but with state governments cracking down on employers these days you’d think the federal government would throw everyone a bone. > > I may be woefully ignorant of the system, though. Is there already something in place? There is the [e-Verify](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16126268) system, which is supposed to tell employers if an employee is authorized to work. It is a mostly volunteer program, although I believe companies that work on Federal contracts are required to use it. Of course, the two biggest problems (according to the article linked to above) is that there are errors. 18 million errors. And two, the check is supposed to be done after a person is hired, but many employers run it before-hand and then simply don’t hire someone who comes back as unathorized or in process (and that could be a result of a spelling error). Many employers have a problem with making its use mandatory, citing these problems. And of course, it’s not cheap to maintain and I have no idea how difficult it is for errors to be corrected. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/25 "2009-04-02T02:40:13Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > The Soc. Security Administration verifies the name/number match against their own records. The name and SSN do not match, the employer is issued a “[no-match letter](http://www.ssa.gov/legislation/nomatch2.htm).” If they fail to rectify the situation, they are in trouble, because hiring an undocumented worker is a crime. > > Wanna read an interesting article? Sure ya do. > [The “No-Match” Letter Rule: A Mismatch Between The Department Of Homeland Security And Social Security Administration In Worksite Immigration Law Enforcement (PDF)](http://law.hofstra.edu/pdf/Academics/Journals/LaborAndEmploymentLawJournal/labor_vol25no1_Gibek.pdf) > Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal, Vol. 25 (Fall 2007) I actually read it. Yay me! Interesting article. It was like a short story…things got worse but then they got better but there were some gotchas at the end. Looks like the big problem is that there’s too many acronyms involved (SSN, SSA, IRS, INS, DHS, DOJ to name a few). Seriously tho, looks like accountability crosses too many federal agency lines and no one can take full responsibility or, in some cases, one agency can’t report to the other agencies. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/26 "2009-04-02T03:30:17Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Principally, they will have a shiny new SSN with absolutely no connection to their past contributions. All the past contribution will be lost entirely, unless they feel like telling the authorities that they were employed illegally, thus negating any legal status they have acquired, putting themselves immediately into deportation proceedings, and getting manditorily barred from the U.S. for 10 years. Former SSA employee here. If someone acquires a valid, legal SSN and can verify that wages/contributions earned under another number actually belong to them, those contributions can be legally transferred to the new number. Unless there has been recent changes in procedures (which is possible) SSA does not automatically report this to any other government agency. Of course, this does not preclude other agencies from requesting information on suspected illegal activities from SSA. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/27 "2009-04-02T15:32:31Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Former SSA employee here. If someone acquires a valid, legal SSN and can verify that wages/contributions earned under another number actually belong to them, those contributions can be legally transferred to the new number. Unless there has been recent changes in procedures (which is possible) SSA does not automatically report this to any other government agency. Of course, this does not preclude other agencies from requesting information on suspected illegal activities from SSA. Likely, they have the same restrictions that the IRS does- my Bro sez that it is illegal for an IRS auditor to pass on the information that a Taxpayer under audit is an illegal alien. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/28 "2009-04-02T18:26:35Z")
> [@Foxy40](#): > > Well you aren’t so that is why more than one form of identification is needed. However, if someone wants to go to the trouble of creating a person with multiple forms of ID, there really isn’t too much to be done about that. I’m probably misunderstanding you, Foxy, but it’s not true that more than one form of identification is needed for the I-9. You can use just one form of ID, so long as it’s one of the ones listed under column A (like a passport). For the last few jobs I’ve had, I’ve produced only my passport, that’s it. It’s only when you don’t have any of the documentation listed under column A that you need two forms of documentation, namely those from columns B and C. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608/29 "2009-04-09T19:00:10Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Former SSA employee here. If someone acquires a valid, legal SSN and can verify that wages/contributions earned under another number actually belong to them, those contributions can be legally transferred to the new number. Unless there has been recent changes in procedures (which is possible) SSA does not automatically report this to any other government agency. Of course, this does not preclude other agencies from requesting information on suspected illegal activities from SSA. Based on your knowledge and experience, do you believe that a great number of people who paid in using an illegal/fake/dead guy SSN ever attempt to recoup their withheld pay? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-employers-and-ssn-checking/491608.md?page=1)