Why YSK: If you are a US Resident, don’t lose your Social Security card more than 10 times, or else you might need to respawn 💀
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
In accordance with §7213 of the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act of 2004 and 20 CFR 422.103, the number of replacement Social Security cards per person is generally limited to three per calendar year and ten in a lifetime.
Why. The hell. Are we supposed to keep sacred a piece of paper that only has 9 precious numbers we can’t choose, but that will permanently identify us, that will deteriorate over time, we’re not supposed to laminate or protect it, and we only have limited replacements!? So dumb…
Got rained on when I went to a new job about 10 years ago, had it in my wallet so they could copy it for new hire bs. The colors bled and the blue stained other parts of the card. I never got it replaced but seriously, it isn’t even as durable as a dollar bill.
That part is actually by design. The thought being that if you lose it that it will be more likely to be naturally destroyed than have the time to be found by someone with nefarious aims.
The 10 max rule (which allows for exceptions) was from 2004 when presumably they assumed most people did not have reason to be walking around with theirs all the time. I don’t know why it was put in place, other than a cursory search seeming to be antiterrorism bs, but 10 is kinda a lot for a document you generally don’t need to carry with you and don’t need very often in general. Probably super difficult for people that struggle with housing though.
Murrica
You can use plastic sleeve covers, just nothing permanent like laminate. You can’t scan it with laminate.
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“scan it”!? They don’t have barcodes on them, do they? I haven’t replaced mine in a while, but it certainly didn’t…
I’ve got a locked file cabinet with folders for all my important documents like social security card, birth certificate, the degrees I don’t have hanging on the wall, lease contracts, stuff like that. Also a shitton of appliance manuals
That certainly doesn’t sound like the first thing to get utterly torched in a house fire.
I actually keep them (minus appliance stuff because I just find them online and download the pdf and never found them that important) in a fireproof safe. Honestly, it’s not a lot of stuff, and so the safe is really small. It didn’t cost much at all but you do have to replace it like every 10ish years since fireproof doesn’t last forever.
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I plan on burning my house down fewer than ten times in my life
It’s fucking absurd. It is the flimsiest piece of paper imaginable too (unless it’s been changed recently).
Also, I’m pretty sure you have to pay a fee to replace it, so why the fuck do they limit it?
For decades i’ve had mine in perfect shape. I don’t understand what’s so hard in terms of protecting the original.
If your house is on fire then sure, you need a replacement. If your house catches fire, gets drowned by a biblical flood, has an earthquake swallow it, a volcano erupts underneath it, and has a meteorite strike it - all at different times, all destroying your SS card, you can still get replacements.
10 is enough. If someone is going to lose it more than that they should probably not keep one. It’s not like you need it for anything, you just need the number. A passport or state real ID covers identification.
“Mentally ill people shouldn’t be American citizens anyways.”
Or maybe just “Scatterbrained people…”
Okay, I hear what you’re saying… when was the last time you had to present a physical copy of your SS card and NOTHING else could be used as a substitute?
Rarely but it’s relevant because ICE thugs are abducting people off the street. I get the fear.
Requesting your W2s from the IRS requires you to have the card, or 1 of 10 other documents that usually have xxx-xx as the first 5 of the number.
As an aside, the first 5 can be determined if you know what state and year someone was born in.
Any time you get hired at a new job they need to make a copy of your SS card.
This is categorically false. You must not work in HR. My wife does! woooo
What needs to be done is an I-9 form needs to be completed. You need either an item from list A (e.g. something like a passport) or two other items. A birth certificate is a fine replacement for a social security card, if you go with an item from list B + C. https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents
Why? Seems like a pretty extreme rule to make with literally no reasoning whatsoever.
Careful, you’re getting into “cruelty for the sake of cruelty” territory.
You can laminate it. New ones don’t say not to, mine is and have never even been asked about it.