I have no direct male relations bearing my last name, but I occasionally get an email asking about someone with my same last name. It’s common in Chicago, the largest Polish community outside of Warsaw. And the name is like “Brown” or “Smith” in Poland, of course!

My claim to fame is that I was the first Brzozowski to take that email address on AOL and I won’t give it up! (:

Yes, you can work in the U.S. without being a U.S. citizen. There are various types of certifications, such as work visas, that allow non-citizens to secure work.

If you are an actual employee of a U.S. company, and not an independent contractor, you would have had to have supplied some form of identification during your hiring process.

The rules for independent contractors are a bit more lax, but the fact remains that the IRS requires all employers file a 1099 form on any person to whom $600 or more is paid over the course of a year. That form relies on the W-9 for information. The W-9 requires a taxpayer identification numbers. This indicates that the person is U.S. based or authorized to work in the U.S.

If a U.S. corporation contracts with a foreign-based contractor, there are different regulations. From the IRS website, “Use Form 1042-S, Foreign Person’s U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding, for payments to nonresident aliens.” In other words, if a company is doing what it is supposed to do, there is still paperwork to fill out.

Further, from the IRS website: “Generally, every nonresident alien individual, nonresident alien fiduciary, and foreign corporation with United States income, including income that is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business in the United States, must file a United States income tax return.”

It’s unlikely they’ll come after you in a foreign country to recoup taxes from income paid by a U.S. entity, but more likely they will go after a company if an audit is done of their books and payments for services rendered are found to have gone to contractors – foreign or domestic – without the proper substantiating paperwork.

Not trying to confuse here, or be obtuse, but what this all boils down to is that it’s far easier to just fill out a bit of paperwork and comply with regulations than place yourself or your contracted partner in peril.

@Jodee – sorry for the multiples. I thought it was a hiccup.

Independent Contractors fill out W-9s instead of I-9s. This allows a US-based organization to collect your Taxpayer Identification Number and have the information they’ll need to issue you a 1099 at year’s end if you’ve been paid more than $600. If you’re a sole proprietor – which I assume that most of you are, as I am myself when I freelance – then your TIN is your SSN. For a W-9, you certify by your signature – not by any forms of ID – that you are a U.S. citizen.

Having said all of that, organizations, at their discretion, can require further levels of security in verifying the status of your ability to accept work within the United States. Most just want to cover their own butts in case of an audit. But unless you are hired as an employee instead of as an independent contractor, there is no Federal requirement to produce a driver’s license or passport. That’s an I-9 requirement, not W-9.

Hope that helps.

You mention “all employers are supposed to …”, but we are not employees. Is this also “required” for contractor-subcontractor relationships? I’ve never filled one out and have worked for about 30 different clients (have ongoing relationships, not a lot of one-shot deals) since 9-11, including many major publishers and had never heard of such a thing.

@ Becky: Sorry about the delay; I was occupied elsewhere for awhile. You got caught in our spam filters but I’ve de-spammed you and the links you posted are up now.

(I hope I’m not duplicating here; I tried to leave a link to more info, but it appears to keep eating my comments. Deb? Jodee?)

But I’ve never had to do it as a freelancer.

More info: http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesik/a/I9_form.htm

About the passport, they are just following the law that says you must be able to legally work in the U.S. Often a birth certificate will do instead of a passport. A driver’s license is not proof of citizenship. You may not want to share this information, but the company is doing nothing wrong.

Great list Jodee! Thanks!

Have a great weekend everyone!

It’s still working on and off. Some jobs load right up other times, I’ll get the message and then have to leave the site and try again. It’s when I try again that it will sit and take about a minute to try to load and then the message pops up.

I’m on Comcast, and they are not the most reputable company in the world, so I’m not sure if it is something they’re doing again or not, but this seems to be the only site I’m having issues with.