No, not at all. Non resident aliens can be provided with US cards at the discretion of the issuing bank assuming their identity can be verified and they have a US address (which I do). The issue is the automated systems, because there happens to be overlap with my SIN and a previously issued SSN, flags the application as invalid and I can't find anyone to override it. I have verified this a couple times.

Chase will not issue cards to non resident aliens, but Bank of America will, as will TD Bank (US) and RBC Bank (US); TD and RBC are setup for cross border banking so they can differentiate more easily.

Now what I think you think I might be doing is presenting my Canadian SIN# as an SSN#. That *is* illegal. And that is most certainly not what I do. I approach the bank directly with my passport and a copy of my Canadian credit report.