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In the United States, a Social Security Card has 9-digit number called a Social Security Number (SSN) and is issued to citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. 405(c)(2).

Its primary purpose is to track individuals for taxation purposes. In recent years the SSN has become a de facto national identification number. A social security number may be obtained by applying with Form SS–5, “Application for A Social Security Number Card”.

The original purpose of the social security number was to track an individuals’ account within the Social Security program. It has become to be used as a unique identifier for employee, patient, student and credit records that are sometimes indexed by Social Security number. The U.S. military also uses the SSN as an identification number.

There is no law requiring a U.S. citizen to apply for a Social Security number to live or work in the United States; however, it is required for parents to claim their children as tax dependents. Although some people do not have an SSN assigned to them, it is becoming ever increasingly difficult to engage in legitimate financial activities without one.

Types of Social Security Cards

There are three different types of Social Security cards. The most common one contains the cardholder’s name and number. These cards are issued to U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. The other two Social Security cards are a restricted Social Security card:

• One reads “NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT.” Such cards cannot be used as proof of work authorization, and are not acceptable as a List C document on the I-9 form.

• The other reads “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION.” These cards are issued to people who have temporary work authorization in the U.S. They can satisfy the I-9 requirement, if they are accompanied by a work authorization card.

What is the significance of the numbers on a social security card?

The number is divided into three parts: the area, group and serial numbers. The Area Number, the first three digits, is assigned by the geographical region and are determined by the ZIP Code of the mailing address shown on the application for a social security number.

THIS DATA IS STRICTLY FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES

NOTE: The same area, when shown more than once, means that certain numbers have been transferred from one State to another, or that an area has been divided for use among certain geographic locations.

Any number beginning with 000 will NEVER be a valid SSN. The information in the social Security Database about an individual is confidential by law and cannot be disclosed except in certain very restricted cases permitted by regulations.

• 700-728 Issuances of these numbers to railroad employees was discontinued July 1, 1963.

Within each area, the group number (middle two (2) digits) range from 01 to 99 but are not assigned in consecutive order. For administrative reasons, group numbers issued first consist of the ODD numbers from 01 through 09 and then EVEN numbers from 10 through 98, within each area number allocated to a State. After all numbers in group 98 of a particular area have been issued, the EVEN Groups 02 through 08 are used, followed by ODD Groups 11 through 99.

This chart below shows how Group numbers are assigned:

Within each group, the serial numbers (last four (4) digits) run consecutively from 0001 through 9999.

Since 1973, social security numbers have been issued by the central office. The first three (3) digits of a person’s social security number are determined by the ZIP Code of the mailing address shown on the application for a social security number. Prior to 1973, social security numbers were assigned by our field offices. The number merely established that his/her card was issued by one of our offices in that State.

For more ways to verify Social Security documents, consider subscribing to Allegiant Solutions.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Bank Secrecy Act, Illegal Immigration, Homeland Security, U.S. Patriot Act, Worker Authorization, Fraudulent Documents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.