為什麼美國不直接給留學生 SSN，而非要工作不可？

12-31

沒有ssn各種不方便乾脆直接給ssn得了唄
@Brian
為什麼不能給留學生一個沒有福利版本的ssn呢？
了解了一下ssn的歷史感覺留學生就是gov用來向美國民眾顯示ssn不是所謂全民身份證的犧牲品

(中文翻譯: http://zhi.hu/4LVW - Thank you @錢曦 for your awesome translation!)

Social Security numbers (SSN) are being used in a way that was never intended in its original design in the Social Security Act of 1935.[1]

Social Security numbers were originally the identification numbers for people enrolled in the New DealSocial Security program.[2][3] The Social Security program was first established as a permanent system of retirement pensions and unemployment insurance. In that respect, people didn"t need to apply for an SSN until they started working.

But the Tax Reform Act of 1986 required parents to start listing the SSN"s of dependents in order to claim tax deductions.[4] Everybody wanted to pay less taxes, so naturally everybody applied for SSN"s for their children. To make this easier to people, SSN"s began to be assigned with birth certificates.

Since all American citizens were being assigned a SSN at birth and there were no duplicate numbers, it became very convenient for other agencies and organization to use the SSN as a unique identification number. And over time, it became the practical national identification number.

For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) strongly recommends using the SSN when filing tax returns. Since this associates a person"s basic financial information, such as income, address, etc, with a unique number, it has also become standard practice (although a really bad one) for financial institutions to use it as an identification number and as an authenticator. Banks and credit cards companies often require that clients have a SSN because it simplifies the process of researching a person"s financial history.

But the U.S. Federal Government can"t give each new immigrant a SSN just to assign them a national ID number: having a SSN makes you eligible for the welfare benefits of Social Security and the government wants to avoid that. So the logic goes,

If an immigrant is not in the US on a work visa,
then the government doesn"t expect the person to be working until retirement on that visa,
therefore the government doesn"t expect to provide welfare for the person,
therefore the government avoids the hassle of assigning that person a SSN.

And I think that"s the real pain point for immigrants. There are basic processes, such as applying for a credit card or renting an apartment, that are completely independent from welfare aspect of Social Security but sometimes require a SSN. But because the Federal Government hasn"t reformed its national ID system, all the major agencies and institutions are stuck using an outdated and restrictive ID system.

So I think the better solution isn"t to assign a SSN to each immigrants, but to make a national identification system that is independent of Social Security.

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I give a brief overview of how an international student can apply for a Social Security number in the "Local ID"s" sections of my answer to 去美國留學，要注意什麼？.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_number

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#Social_Security_Act

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Reform_Act_of_1986

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As always, if you have the courage and patience to translate this into Chinese, then go for it! =P

翻譯 @Brian的回答。第一次在知乎上做翻譯，如有錯漏請大家指正。

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現在社會安全號（SSN）的用途已與最初1935年社會保障法中的設想有很大不相同了。[1]

SSN最初是給進入 New Deal 社會保障計劃的人的識別號。[2][3] 社會保障計劃最初被用作一個永久性的退休金和失業保險系統。所以，還沒有工作的人沒必要申請SSN。

但是1986年稅收改革法要求父母為了減稅需要列出子女等家屬的SSN。[4] 大家都想少交稅，所以很自然地，每個人都為自己的孩子申請了SSN。為了方便群眾，SSN開始與出生證明一起發放。

由於所有美國公民在出生時都獲得了SSN，而且SSN對每個人是唯一且不重複的，對於其它機構來說，把SSN作為每個人的識別號會很方便。長期以往，SSN就成為了事實上的國民身份證號碼。

例如，美國國稅局（IRS）強烈建議在填退稅申報表時使用SSN。因為它關係著一個人的基本財務信息，比如收入、地址等，而且又是每人獨有的一串數字，金融機構將之當做身份識別編號和認證措施也成為了標準的做法（雖然這很糟糕）。銀行和信用卡公司經常要求客戶提供SSN，因為這樣可以簡化調查個人財務歷史的過程。

但是美國聯邦政府不能為了給每個新移民一個身份證號就給他們發放SSN。有SSN就意味著你有資格獲得社會保障的福利，而政府不希望這樣。所以邏輯是這樣的：

1.
如果一個移民不是以工作簽證居留在美國，

2.
那麼政府不指望這個人以這個身份工作到退休，

3.
那麼政府不指望為這個人提供福利，

4.
那麼政府就避免給這個人分配SSN。

我認為這對移民確實是一個痛點。一些比如申請信用卡或者租房這樣的基本流程，它們與社會保障福利完全沒關係，但是有時候仍需要SSN。但這是因為聯邦政府還沒有改革它的全國身份系統。所有主要的機構都不得不被拘束於這個過時且處處受限制的身份系統。

所以我想更好的方案不是給每個移民都發一個SSN，而是建立一個獨立於社會保障的全國身份系統。

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我在去美國留學，要注意什麼？中 "Local ID" 這節簡單介紹了國際學生如何申請SSN。

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[1] Social Security number

[2] New Deal, New Deal

[3] Social Security (United States)

[4] Tax Reform Act of 1986

據我所知，如果擁有了 EAD卡（工卡），可以在沒有工作 offer 的情況下直接去 SS Office 辦 SSN。當然這並非絕對，不過 moonbbs 的大多數數據都聲稱可以直接去辦，也沒被盤問。

對 F-1 簽證的本科學生來說，EAD卡可以在 OPT 期間填 I-765 辦理，一般 post-completion OPT 可以在課程結束日期前 90 天開始申請。

所以如果一直沒有去工作或者沒有找到過工作，等到畢業前後也有很大幾率直接拿 EAD卡申請到。

F1簽證不是可以有SSN的么