Academic Personnel

Process for Employment of Foreign Nationals without Permanently Assigned Social Security Numbers

All employees are expected to receive Social Security numbers. This procedure is for foreign national employees who have received a letter from the Social Security Administration stating there will be a delay of one month or more in receiving their Social Security number (SSN). By following these procedures a temporary number may be used to pay the employees until the SSN is received.

  1. The employee must have either a SSN or receipt of application from the Social Security Administration (SSA) for an SSN before this process can begin. The hiring authority will send to the Tax Services Office (104 Tigert Hall, 392-1324) the Foreign National Tax Information Form with attachments along with Form SS-5, application for a SSN, or a Form W-7, application for an ITIN, signed by the IRS to produce the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - W-4, W-9,W-8BEN, and 8233 Forms. The Tax Services Office will assign a Bureau of State Payrolls (BOSP) number to be used for payroll purposes and this BOSP number will be on the IRS forms that will be sent back to the hiring authority.
  2. The hiring authority will send to the appropriate personnel office
    Academic Personnel [PO Box 113005/903 West University Ave.], 392-2477] for academic appointment (including graduate assistants, fellows, and adjunct faculty),

    Recruitment & Staffing [PO Box 115002/903 West University Ave.], 392-2477] for non-academic appointments,

    Student Personnel Services [S-107 Criser Hall, 392-0296] for student assistants,
    the appointment form(s) along with an I-9, W-4 card, any other IRS forms, and all other required documentation. The appointment form must have noted in bold numbers the original Student ID number that was assigned by the Office of the University Registrar (OUR) at the time the student applied for admission to the University of Florida. (The hiring department will know this number and there will be no need to contact the OUR.)
  3. The appropriate personnel office will process the appointment using the BOSP number assigned by Tax Services. This number will be reflected on the W-4 card that is generated by the Windstar process, the I-9 Form, and all other forms required by the appropriate personnel office. The BOSP number will be used on all payroll, accounting and student files and materials until a new SSN is received from the SSA.
  4. The appropriate personnel office will notify the OUR of the assignment of the BOSP number along with original number assigned at the time of admission. This will be done on a daily basis and communicated to all necessary offices on the day an appointment is entered into the personnel/payroll system (IA).
  5. It will be the responsibility of the appropriate hiring authority to make sure that the appropriate personnel office and Tax Services is immediately notified when the employee has received his/her SSN from SSA. When the employing department receives a copy of the social security card, a copy must be sent to Tax Services. Tax Services will send a new W-4 Form to the department for the employee to sign. A copy of the newly issued SS card, the temporary BOSP number, a newly completed I-9 containing the newly issued SSN, a new W-4 card with SSN, and any other required document(s) need to be sent to the appropriate personnel office by the hiring authority.
  6. The assigned BOSP number will only be used for one semester. A SSN must be received before December 31 to be used for federal tax reporting. BOSP temporary numbers cannot be used for federal tax reporting. If the SSA has not issued the SSN in this period of time, a waiver from the International Center must be processed to allow the employee to continue to use the BOSP number. The International Center, in conjunction with the local SSA office, will be able to ascertain the status of the SSN application.
  7. Upon receipt by the appropriate personnel office of the newly assigned permanent SSN, the payroll/personnel system will be updated to reflect the newly assigned SSN number. Each personnel office will immediately notify the OUR, the BOSP and any other University department of the new SSN and currently assigned BOSP number so their systems can be updated.
  8. The Academic Personnel Office will need to insure the "letter of appointment file" will be updated to reflect either the BOSP number or the new SSN for all graduate assistants and fellows.
  9. Information Systems, OUR, OAA, and SFA will need to update the payroll distribution system, FLAIR records, student records and any other system containing SSN as a data element to insure that for reporting purposes each employee has only one and only one SSN for reporting purposes.