Information About

Your Number & Card

If you are authorized to work in the U.S., you need a Social Security number.

Visa classifications that allow work

How to get a Social Security number and card

If your work status changes

How to apply for a Social Security card if you're outside the U.S.

If you don't have authorization to work, you may need a Social Security number for other reasons.

When you need a Social Security number & when you don't

When you need a Social Security number for tax purposes

When you need a Social Security number for a driver's license

How to get a Social Security card for a foreign-born adopted child

How to prove U.S. citizenship for an adopted child

What you can get without a Social Security number

If you change your name

If someone misuses your Social Security number

Back to top 

Workers

It's important to make sure your earnings have been reported correctly. Unless your earnings are correctly reported under your name and Social Security number, you won't get credit for them.

Visa classifications that allow work

How to be sure your earnings have been reported correctly—get your Social Security Statement

If someone misuses your Social Security number

Household workers

Self-employed workers

If you work outside the U.S.

If you leave the U.S.

If you change your name

If your work status changes

Back to top

Employers

Because a person's Social Security benefits are based on his or her earnings record, it's important that the earnings are accurately reported. Although you—the employer— have the reporting responsibility, your employees should make sure their wages are correctly reported.

Visa classifications that allow work

How to verify names and Social Security numbers for employees

How to report earnings for household workers

If you are self-employed

If someone misuses your employee's Social Security number

General information for employers

Back to top

Students

If you are temporarily in the U.S. as a student, you do not need a Social Security number to register for or to attend college.

Visa classifications that allow you to work

When you need a Social Security number and when you don't

Social Security numbers for foreign students

Work performed by foreign students

Wages earned by foreign students

If you've worked overseas

How to be sure your earnings have been reported correctly—get your Social Security Statement

If someone misuses your Social Security number

Back to top

Refugees & Asylees

Are you a refugee or an asylee?

Documents you need to work in the U.S.

Is your case pending? Check your status

Back to top

Other Agencies

When you click on the links below, you will be leaving this site and going to another Federal government website on a new browser.

Internal Revenue Service

Department of Homeland Security
Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services (formerly the INS)

Department of State
Visa Services

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants & Refugees

Department of Housing & Urban Development

Small Business Administration

Back to top