Obtain a Job Offer Letter

Obtain a job offer letter from your employer:

• On department letter head
• Addressed to you
• Signed by the person authorized to hire you
• Including:
  • Your name, department name, job title, brief job description, start date of job, end date (if applicable), number of hours of work per week, amount of pay, supervisor name and supervisor contact information

Obtain a letter from the Cal Poly International Center

Obtain a letter from the International Center to take with you to the Social Security Office along with your employment offer letter.

If this is a Cal Poly on-campus student job:

• Submit a copy of your employment offer letter in the Social Security Letter Request Form, found in your International Student Hub

If you are a J-1 student with a Cal Poly on-campus student job offer:

• Submit the On-Campus Employment Report

Complete Application Form SS-5

Complete the Application Form SS-5 (PDF) provided at the Social Security Office or print it out before going to the office.

• Question 1 of the form “Name To Be Shown on Card”- enter your name exactly as it appears on your passport:
  • First name: First name after the characters “>>” on the bottom of your passport
  • Full Middle name (if applicable): Other name/s after “>>”. No not use initials unless this is how it appears on your passport.
  • Last name (surname): Name/s appearing before the characters “>>” excluding the country code.
  • Do not enter initials for any names unless this is how it appears on your passport.
• Question 5 – check box for Legal Alien Allowed to Work
• Question 16 – The card will be mailed to this address

Submit all documents

Take the following documents with you to the Social Security Office:

• Application Form SS-5
• Employment offer letter
• International Center letter (on-campus work only)
• Original I-20 or DS-2019 form
• I-94 copy (Refer to US Customs and Border Protection to retrieve your I-94 electronically)