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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

They won't use a Chase account. They'll get paid cash or a physical check they can take to a check cashing place.

Why wouldn't they? They'd probably just use the business tin as the taxable account owner and then their real foreign passport as the UBO for KYC. If they can't do that it would surely break the wheels of industry as foreign owned US businesses need US bank accounts.

IIRC banks need a ITIN or SSN + passport or ID of the UBO

Documented immigrants will get a ITIN and/or EIN.

Undocumented immigrants are far more likely to go the... undocumented route.

Undocumented immigrants can get an ITIN, and many do. A lot of the time the ITIN will be used where it's allowed (opening bank accounts) and a counterfeit social security card where it's not (applying for employment).

Wouldn't that, by definition, turn them from undocumented to documented?

I guess in a pedantic manner, but then they were always documented, since their country of origin knew who they are.

In terms of immigration, undocumented typically means you don't currently have a valid visa or residency permit. In that case no, they would still be undocumented, since the ITIN doesn't grant them either.

Yes but my question was not about how they open a Chase account, but why Chase requires a SSN if SSN are sold in a black market (according to the previous comment)

Chase requires more than just the SSN. Chase requires you to prove your identity matches the person whose SSN you submit. They require it as part of a larger picture, not in isolation.

(Employers are supposed to verify ID too, but they're not scrutinized as heavily as a major bank like Chase.)

Chase uses the SSN to look for a bad banking history.

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