When you hire a new employee, you’re required to enter their name and social security on a form W-2. But what if your new employee is from outside the United States and is still waiting on their social security number?

That’s actually no problem — the government has a process in place to account for slow processing times at Social Security. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Collect the employee’s name, address, date and place of birth, parent’s names, gender, and the date he or she applied for a Social Security number.
   
2. When it comes time to file the W-2, if he or she still doesn’t have their number, in the online W-2 filing, enter all zeros instead of the number.
   
3. Make sure your employee gives you their number — and their name as printed on the card — as soon as they have it.
4. If your employee gets their number after you file their W-2, file a W-2c (a corrected W-2) with the new number.