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2007
Sequence Converter- Widgetless
- Visa Swap
- Voxel Brain
- Quake
- Prefix Matching
- 12 Girls Band
- Waves to Wine
- Sphere Builder
- SF Panorama
- Global Warming
- Cycling at Mach 1
- First Steps
- Power
- Who Gadget
- Transposing Diffs
- Bike to Work
- Google Code
- Spaghetti Monster
- Visitors
- Maker Faire 2007
- Brave New World
- 420
- COMP2405
- H-1B Visa
- Mandelbrot Scroll
- Carved Links
- New Page
- Moo Inspector
- Fridge Letters
- Vet Tax
- Boredom and Frustration
- Crescent Moon
- Nesting
- Queen Mary 2
- Social Security
- SketchUp
- San Francisco
- Traffic Bugs
- 2006
- 2005
- 2004
- 2003
- 2002
Social Security
3 February 2007
I spent a delightful Friday morning in the Social Security Office in San Francisco. Obtaining a social security number should have been a quick and easy process. Unfortunately the name on my birth certificate doesn't quite match the name on the rest of my ID. So the agent asked for more ID. I showed her my British passport. Then things became ugly. In her eyes I was no longer Canadian. I was British. Only Canadians are allowed to work under the visa I have. The concept that I could be both Canadian and British -- at the same time -- was (excuse the pun) foreign to her.
This led to an interesting but surprisingly polite conversation about my parentage, my nationality and my intentions. My favourite exchange was:
"The problem is you are from overseas."
"No I'm not, I'm from Canada."
"Exactly."
[Silence as each person hoped the other person would realise the truth of their statement].
After two hours of arguing from opposite sides of bullet-proof glass, no conclusion had been reached. The matter has been referred to a higher authority.
To top it all off, security confiscated my Swiss army knife on the way it, and it had been stolen by the time I left. My boss graciously offered to cover the cost of replacing it since getting a social security number is a requirement of employment.
