I used to be an international student in the US. So I feel OP's pain. I have an advice in addition to winter_blue's. However, I have been out of the US for 3 years and I don't know if any rules have changed since then.
Besides applying for precompletion OPT which will take months and months, a much quicker route for me was to get a part-time job at school. I did this when I was working as a CS tutor in my CS department's lab. This could still be possible for international students, it's definitely worth checking right row. The reason a social security card or a tax ID is needed for international student is solely for tax purposes. Yes, you read it right, we pay sales tax and income tax and don't get to vote or a path to citizenship in less then 20 years. I suspect your funds were frozen because PayPal could not determine whether your money should be considered income or something else. If it's income, you'll have to pay taxes.
I don't know which school you go to, but generally there should be hundreds of part-time jobs in all sorts of variety available at your school to accommodate students in work-study programs. You can apply for a job to be a lab janitor in a day and get your SS card in less than about 2 weeks. Once you have that then you can file a dispute complaint with PayPal.
Good Luck.
---Additional Advice Here After Edit---
If your 200k is saved towards paying for your tuition and living expenses, and you have money problem now, you should talk to your school's international student's office and/or legal counsel immediately. You might be allowed to work off-campus and stay in school under the premise that you are in "economic hardship".
This is a bad idea. Getting an SSN does not solve the bigger issue of work authorization. Having an SSN would make Paypal happy, but he could be deported by SEVIS/USCIS/ICE for earning an income without proper work authorization.
F-1 OPT is the only status I know that allows you to earn an income while being self-employed.
Even on an H-1B doing what the OP did would be a violation of status, and could lead to deportation.
Getting an SSN does not solve the bigger issue of work authorization.
That's right, but I didn't say getting an SSN will get you a work authorization. As an international student, you are legally allowed to be employed on-campus[1] on a part-time basis provided that you maintain your student status, which basically means you have an above minimum GPA and not serving any academic disciplinary actions. In order to get a permission to work on-campus, you need to file an I-9 form, then get an SSN, then you can start working, but you can get a job on-campus before any of these happens, as long as you don't get paid before you have I-9 filled out, authorized by CEVIS and have an SSN.
F-1 OPT is the only status I know that allows you to earn an income while being self-employed.
Generally, that's impossible, unless you incorporate a sole-proprietorship, which is generally not possible unless you change your VISA status to O-1 (alien with extraordinary abilities) or EB-5 (investor with 500K - 1 mil in the bank) or some other forms of partnerships with a citizen, and apply for an H-1 for yourself through the company. You are required to pay income taxes if you are "employed" or have any kind of income. You cannot show that information if you don't have the proper paperwork, and you can't have those paperwork unless you are employed under an organization that can issue you work-authorization.
Yes, getting an SSN is easy (just find an on-campus job), but cashing out the $200k could lead to the OP being deported for earning an income without proper work authorization.
If you get an SSN, you are still only allowed to receive an income from authorized jobs/sources. On-campus jobs are one of them. But a self-run online business, does not count as one -- unless you get it authorized via OPT (or some other means.)
> Generally, that's impossible
It is indeed possible to work for your own company while on F-1 OPT status. I've explained it in detail on this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5191832 (which I referred to in the grandparent comment).
I should add, "incorporate a sole-proprietorship" is a non sequitur. The term "incorporate" by definition describes the act of forming a corporation. A sole-proprietorship is when you operate a business on your own name, and not under a company's name. It does not give you the "liability shield" that a corporation or LLC provides, and is generally a bad idea for most businesses.
I'm sorry I've missed your point too, let's say he against all odds now magically got a pre-completion OPT authorized (which takes A LOT OF persuasion of the school officials BTW), an EAD, and have enough money to get a lawyer and incorporate a C-corp or what have you, before Immigration gets to him, now what? He still violated the rules to maintain his visa status.
If indeed he is in danger of being deported, how is ANY of your suggested action going to save him? He's running against time here, he can try to change his visa status, which Uncle Sam could find out about this and deny by the way. But if he was successful, Immigration could still decide to immediate terminate his visa when they find out about this. He is under risk of being deported, whatever he does now might alert Immigration, which puts him under further risk of being deported. I'm sorry I've totally missed your point here, but wouldn't minimizing damage the best course of action under these circumstances? What's the best way to minimize damage? Oh right, getting his money back, transfer it out of the country and hope Uncle Sam doesn't find out, or do absolutely nothing and hope Uncle Sam doesn't find out and still have money to go to school.
OP said he's from Venezuela, did you hear they just decided to devalue their currency by a third? Assuming he doesn't get his money back, his family suddenly has to pay 150% of tuition before devaluation for him to stay in school in the US. I don't know about his financial situation, but sounds like a lot of burden to me. Tuition and living expenses for international students currently range in about $100K a year. Minimizing damage sounds like the best course of action here.
(Sorry if this sounds like I'm promoting it or anything. I just don't want my comment to get buried among the 150+ other comments here.)