Adventures in Futility

So, today I tried to open a chequing account at the local bank. I was told that I need to get something called an "individual tax identification number". It's used for tax purposes for people who are not eligible for social security. Basically, it's a way to track people's financial activities; more recently it has been used for non-citizens who want to have an interest-bearing bank account. Apparently, the use of this number is enforced by the Patriot Act in order to "help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities". Getting one involves providing many forms of identification, filling out a lot of paperwork, then waiting 6-8 weeks to get the number [which is so convenient for me as I have to pay rent in American dollars by February 1...]. So, they're really making it difficult for suspicious people like me to get bank accounts. How difficult? Check out this brilliance:

1. I can't get a bank account without an individual tax identification number.
2. I can't get an individual tax identification number without already having a bank account.

Update:

It turns out that smaller banks tend to have this increased security, but larger banks don't care. So I get a bank account. However, I should add that yesterday in a mall I had to show my driver's license to a security guard before getting on an elevator to go to the food court. I asked why and he said that the elevator also goes to private offices. So I asked how my driver's license would prove I wasn't going to those restricted areas. He then told me to take the escalator instead. Apparently, those don't require identification even though they were both going to the same place.