惱人的 Social Security Number

August 12, 2008

一早帶著 Kevin 到小學補交護照影本, Lesley 小姐見到我們很熱絡地打招呼, 對我們的名字還記得很清楚, 尤其是對 Kevin 印象似乎很深刻. 想必下學期應該只有 Kevin 一位新進學生吧?!

離開小學後便驅車前往核發 Social Security Number 的 Social Security Administration Office 去申請 SSN. 一進門, 有一位華籍的美麗小姐就很親切地問候: How are you? First Time? Yes! 我們跟她拿了號碼牌 C614 後, 大約等了一個半小時, 才輪到我們, 其間 Kevin 很不難煩地鬧來鬧去, 真想抓來打屁股, 不過我只是說說罷了, 因為我聽說在美國打小孩可是要吃官司的, 誰也不想在此公眾場合被千夫所指, 然後 Be prosecuted and put in jail. 輪到我們的時候, 服務人員跑去問另一位同事, 然後跑回來告訴我 I am sorry, we cannot give you SSN now. Because your name in the DS-2019 form does not match that appeared in your passport. What?! I just passed the interview and approved by AIT, and now here comes the same problem. Oh! 就因為 DS-2019 上有我的名字 Frank, 但是護照上沒有, 就將我打回票, 很浪費我的時間耶! 只好請她開一張信函證明她不想給我, 想想也好, 反正我所有的問題都已經解決了, 除了考駕照之外, 應該也用不著 SSN 了.

不過 Annie 倒提醒了我, 這個 Identity 問題可能還是要解決, 不然等到我們要出境時, 不曉得會不會再來一次, 如果老美不讓我們回到美麗的寶島, 那就慘了. 所以趕緊寫一封 e-mail 給 Thompson 小姐, 看她願不願意幫忙修改姓名. 因為要拜託人家幫忙, 所以我寫得很謙卑, 很 Humble! 希望她能給我一個回應:
Dear Professor Thompson,

It's really nice to meet you yesterday in UH.
My wife and me are visiting scholars of University of Houston. We have just participated the orientation offered by you on August 11, 2008. We greatly appreciate your orientation and guidance.

Today, we went to the social security administration office to apply for the social security numbers of myself and my wife. However, the officer told us that they cannot give us social security cards, due to the names typed on the DS-2019 forms are different from that of our passports.
I think that's our mistakes that we typed the names used to publish research papers, but the names are not not match our names in the passorts.

Therefore, I am writing this letter to ask for your kind help to guide us how can we correct the DS-2019 forms to be accepted by the officer of SSN administration office. Could it be possible to reprint the DS-2019 forms with corrected names for applying the SSNs? We feel sorry to bother you again, but this affair is really critical for us in the following six months. We sincerely beg your pardon and hope you could help us to resolve this problem.
Thank you very much. Your response will be greatly appreciated.

Yours Sincerely,

想不到我為了讓老外在叫我名字時能更加容易所加上的 Frank, 竟然成為我無法證明自我身份的絆腳石, 這也是我始料未及的, 想不到 Be considerate. 也有困擾! 奉勸各位, 往後要出國, 尤其是美國,
直接將護照上的英文拿來用就好了, 不要太雞婆, 否則就像我一樣.