For what its worth, I've been "required" to bring my SS card with me many times ranging from I-Day at USNA up to Onboarding at various jobs. For every one of them, the actual process was for me to either write down my SSN or verify that it was correct but in none of them was my actual card ever looked at. I know it and have known it by heart since the day that I got it at age 12 (For the information of younger persons, people had to apply for them when they started working because it was not automatic at birth) when my father took me down to the local SS Office.