Kari’s entry of today reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to write for a while now. The story of my Social Security number.
A Social Security number (SSN) is something of a pre-requisite for life in the US. They become most important when opening a bank account (you can do it without, but not all banks realise this), applying for credit (such as a mortgage) or receiving payment for work. Even though the latter is not an option for a while yet they are an important piece of ID and one we felt I needed to have.
Remembering some suggestion that I was entitled to an SSN even before receiving work authorization, I made the application something of a priority upon arrival. Naturally the first step seemed to be to download relevant forms from the web, which I duly did. These, however, caused some confusion. The website itself refers to several types of cards, saying of the the second type:
The second type of card shows your name and number and notes,