Social Insecurity Number

It’s the holiday shopping season, and opportunities to save abound. But as an international student, one particular type of offer stands just beyond the pale of attainability for me. My frustration started when I walked into a Banana Republic store, attracted by an enormous sign that read, “15 percent off when you apply for a Banana Republic Card!” I picked out a black leather bag and eagerly awaited my discount in the cashier line. But one glance at the application form for the card was enough to dash my hopes. It was a simple form asking for my name, date of birth, phone number, mailing address, and of course, Social Security Number (SSN).

I explained to the cashier that I did not have a SSN because I am a foreign student, but she was absolutely clueless as to how to deal with this alien customer. Out of frustration and impatience, I paid the full price knowing that every American customer could have paid 15 percent less.

The Harvard International Office (HIO) website offered little assistance. The SSN section of the website read, “If you are confronted with a situation where you are told you must have a SSN and you do not intend to work, please consult with the HIO.” But international students stumble upon many other barriers, trivial or serious, regarding SSN’s everyday, and it is unreasonable to expect that I would call up the HIO every time I need to make a purchase at the mall.

The SSN is a permanent nine-digit identification number issued by the government to its citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents with a job. Its primary purpose is to tax income in order to provide retirement and medical benefits. However, over the past few decades, the SSN has deviated from its original purpose. Now, SSN’s are required in order to set up basic services such as cell phones, credit cards, and to apply for a driver’s license.

Until October 2004, all international students were eligible to obtain a SSN without the necessity of engaging in employment. However, as of Oct. 13, 2004, only those students with evidence that he or she has secured employment or a promise of employment from the school (on-campus job) or an Employment Authorization Document from Department of Homeland Security (off-campus work) are entitled to apply for a SSN. Therefore, a non-U.S. resident, jobless student like me has no means of getting a SSN. Yet those unattainable and elusive nine digits seem to haunt me wherever I go.

SSN’s are not absolutely necessary. However, the alternative to the SSN is tedious and burdensome—foreign students without SSN’s have to submit a handful of forms and I.D.’s such a passport, F-1 visa, student I.D., birth certificate, and two to three proofs of current address, when just nine digits would do. Cell phone companies, for example, require an absurd amount of deposit in addition to a number of papers in place of a SSN. I got my phone after depositing $400 to Verizon Wireless.

Furthermore, credit card companies check a person’s credit based entirely on his or her SSN. People without a SSN are thus without credit and do not qualify to own a credit card in the U.S. This has created many difficulties, especially for graduate students, many of whom live off campus with families. In order to remedy this situation, the HIO has just recently started the Harvard Credit Union to provide eligibility for a credit card with limited credit, even without a SSN.

The restriction of issuing of SSNs to foreign students is no surprise in the rapidly changing nature of the U.S. regulatory environment in the wake of 9/11. And it is certainly not the first change that made international students feel unwelcome in the United States.

Sharon Ladd, director of the HIO, said “the restriction of SSN, trying to tie it to work, is justified, but [the government] has only set up another bureaucratic system”, and that the new SSN regulation “might be overkill.”

According to a document outlining the changes by the Social Security Administration (SSA), the new rules are intended to “further enhance the integrity of SSA’s enumeration processes for assigning SSNs by reducing the proliferation of SSNs used for purposes that are not related to work and thereby decreasing the potential for SSN fraud and misuse.”

Nevertheless, identity fraud problems related to SSN’s are not solved by limiting SSN’s assigned to international students. If the purpose of the new law is to decrease fraud and abuse of SSN’s, the SSA should limit non-work-related SSN use. Public and private entities such as drivers licensing agencies, telephone companies, and retailer stores should stop requiring SSN’s as its primary identification method. The focus should be restricting the businesses and services that require this number, instead of inconveniencing the individual consumers who are required to provide it. Such measures will more successfully reduce the misuse of SSN’s without depriving international students of a crucial identification number to function in this country.

However, these transformations cannot occur overnight. Most people living in the United States already have SSN’s, and the SSN has become too customary to expect an immediate decrease in its use. Although efforts should be made to winnow out the overuse of SSNs, in the mean time, the SSA should resume issuing SSNs to foreign students as they did just one year ago.



June Hwang ’09, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Grays Hall.