The box was labeled SSN. I had a letter from the IRS with nine digits on it, and the first digit was 9. I typed them in the order they were printed. The form answered in red: invalid SSN. It was right about the label and wrong about me. The number is an ITIN. It is not a Social Security number, and it is not work authorization. It is the taxpayer number the IRS issues when you have to file and you cannot get an SSN.
I sat with that red line longer than I should have. I assumed the letter and the form were disagreeing, and that one of them would have to win. They were talking about two different boxes that had been given one name.
What the nine digits are
An ITIN is nine digits and it starts with 9. You apply on Form W-7, usually in the same package as the tax return that needs it, not as a form you send because a number would be nice to have. The return is the reason. The W-7 tells the IRS which person the return belongs to.
A passport is the only document that proves both identity and foreign status by itself. A Certifying Acceptance Agent, a VITA site, or a Taxpayer Assistance Center can review it so the original does not have to be mailed. Processing is about seven weeks, and more like nine to eleven in peak season or when the papers come from abroad. None of that turns the number into an SSN. The card still does not say you can take a job.
How to get an ITIN as a foreigner is the page that separated those sentences for me. I had been using "the number" for all of them.
The form was checking the wrong name
Social Security numbers do not start with 9. A checker that only knows SSNs will reject an ITIN every time, and it will be proud of itself. The fix on the form is the label. The box should say taxpayer ID, and it should accept an SSN or an ITIN. The digits do not change. The sentence around them does.
I started seeing the same shape in other places once I knew to look. A bank application. A portal that says "Social Security number" in the help text and "SSN" on the input. A drop-down with one choice. Pasting the ITIN into a box named for a different number is how you get the red line, even when the letter in your hand is real.
The bank is a different desk from the letter
The letter does not open an account. The order I followed, which is the one ITIN Club writes down and not one I invented, is get the ITIN, open a US bank account that will take it, start a credit file, let a score exist, and only then look at cards. The club is free. I am not quoting a price because I did not pay one.
The bank page is the one I kept open while I retyped the number: How to open a US bank account as a non-resident. A personal account and a company account are different desks. A business account for a US LLC wants the company's papers, the EIN letter (a CP 575 or a 147C), and a passport for every owner with 25% or more. It wants a real street address. A registered agent, a P.O. box, or a UPS Store does not count. The account belongs to the company. The EIN is the company's number, not mine, and it does not replace the ITIN on a form that is asking about me.
A foreign-owned single-member LLC usually files Form 5472 every year even when the company had no income. The penalty the club's notes mention for missing it starts at $25,000. That is a filing fact I am repeating, not advice about my own return.
What I would ask the form to say
I would ask for one field: taxpayer ID, SSN or ITIN. I would tell the checker that a number starting with 9 can be an ITIN and still be nine valid digits. I would stop writing "invalid SSN" on a person who never claimed to have one.
I would also keep the rest of the errand in order. The number, then the bank, then the credit file. How to check your credit score is the page for the week a file exists at all. There is nothing to check on the day the letter arrives.
None of this is tax advice. It is the red line I got from a box with the wrong name, and the pages I wish had been next to it:
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