durham_lad

Fair enough, but here is a copy of that old card with my face and other details blanked out. It certainly looks like an A followed my 9 digits but I could always be mistaken. Note that it was issued in 1993 (Expired in 2003) which is more than 12 years ago so maybe that memo you saw was not early enough.

S Folinsky

You have an 8 digit number preceded by a zero. However, they were getting ready for nine digit numbers.

lizzyq

Our newly minted A numbers are each nine digits commencing with a 2

ian-mstm

My A# from 1998 was also 9 digits beginning with a 0. Since 0 is a legitimate digit, your comment seems completely stupid.

Ian

iarnell

Mine from 2016 was still only 8 digits - the leading zero only appeared on the green card - visa and IDS only have 8 digits.

durham_lad

As you saw from my photo above my A number had 2 zeros in it but apparently the one at the beginning is not a digit

However, I do understand his intent. The A numbers back then apparently were all 8 digits (zeros classed as a digit) but all were preceded by a zero. As the holder of an engineering degree I would always class a zero as a digit regardless of where it appears in a row of digits.

S Folinsky

Looked at the card again. I think the card has an extra zero at the end.

With the 8 digit numbers the convention was A xxx-xxx-xxx. I'd be curious to see the other documentation.

durham_lad

Unfortunately I didn't keep the original documentation from way back then. I just happened to have that copy because always kept a copy of that and my passport while travelling as it easier to report lost or stolen documents if you have a copy.

On a side note I applied for health insurance through Obamacare in 2015. One of the questions after saying I was a US asked if I was a Naturalized Citizen. When I clicked on Yes it prompted for the number from my Certificate of Naturalization but it would not accept any format I tried. My number starts with A and has 8 digits I think(I'm in a coffee shop at present). No way could I get it recognised so the application remained pending authentication until I found a place on the site to upload copies of it and my US passport. A few days later I was notified that the documents had been reviewed and authorised. So I was not impressed that the government website could recognise older formats of documents.

ian-mstm

Fortunately, I did keep most of my documentation - even though it's almost 20 years old now. I'll check my stuff tonight.

Ian

ian-mstm

Forgive me, but that looks remarkably like a 9 digit number - and 0 is a digit. Is this some kind of new math nonsense? It's an 8 digit number but only in base 5?

Ian

S Folinsky

This discussion intrigues me and Google can be interesting. I found the 1998 edition of the "WV Income Maintainence Manual." Chapter 18 is in regards to refugees and immigrants and section 18.1 is on definitions.

It also gives a brief discussion on how alien numbers were assigned to individuals back then. (It pays to remember that many of the record keeping started out as entirely manual and has become more and more computerized over the years).

The alien numbers in 1998 were described as being seven or eight digits. And the numbers were assigned when a "field control office" would pull pre-numbered folders which they had been issued. (As an aside, this sometimes allowed a rough method of telling how the A file came to be created).

Interesting.

iarnell

That certainly explains why attorney's fees are so high - y'all just add a zero at the end! A xxx-xxx-xxx would be nine digits, not eight!