SSN, short for Social Security Number; that’s the magic number in the US. You get your SSN printed on a Social Security Card. This card is not an ID card though, because Americans are independent and the government is not supposed to clearly identify its citizens. So instead you get a card that just happens to have a unique number on it to clearly identify the person it belongs to, without being an ID card. Do you see the difference between the two? No? Me neither. Either way you need one in order to be able to work. This post describes how to get one.
Entering the US for the first time
This will probably be one of the most anticlimactic posts on this blog. It is about how I arrived at San Francisco International Airport for the first time and then entered the United States with my H-1B visa.
The Visa Process
If you want to work in the US, chances are you need a work visa. As far as I know there are some special rules for Canadian citizens but if you are from other countries you need to apply for a visa.
A lot of the process to get a visa was unclear to me until I experienced it. In this post I am going to explain how the process was for me. There may be other options to get a visa but the one I am going to explain is what friends that relocated to California experienced as well.