So I lost my ID quite a while back and have been living without it. I can do all my banking electronically so it hasn’t been too big of a deal in that regard, but I can’t get on a plane, and that’s been an issue a couple of times.
I went to the SS Administration and tried to get my card (I have a birth certificate) and I couldn’t get it without some form of ID.
here are the suggested forms of ID:
Some documents that we may accept as proof of identity are:
Driver’s license
Marriage or divorce record
Military records
Adoption record
Life insurance policy
Passport
Health Insurance card (not a Medicare card)
School ID card
Now here is my problem. I lost the Driver’s License and SSC in my wallet. I had my SSC in my wallet because I was nominally homeless for a while, and hadn’t completely realized I wasn’t any longer. I have no Marriage or Divorce record, those were lost in the shuffle of homelessness. I never served military service, I don’t have Life insurance and wasn’t adopted. I have never had a passport, and do not have Health Insurance. I’ve not been in school since 1996.
What I do have is a Birth Certificate and Bank statements. I’ve been to the Social Security Office, they didn’t accept those as valid ID, and the DMV requires a Social Security card. Of course the poor clerk at the SSA had to feed me a line about how much safer it makes me because the terrorists can’t steal my identity now. I told him what a farce I thought the idea of terrorism in this country was, eliciting some laughs from the security guard, but no love with the Social Security card. I sort of gave up after a while, but now I want to go back into this process, it’s been nearly a year. So if anyone can give me some advice, I’d really appreciate it. I don’t know what to do from here.
Have you tried getting copies of your marriage/divorce records from the appropriate local authority? If the SSA accepts them as ID then you could get a replacement SS card and then work up to a drivers license.
IIR, in the past Social Security would accept affidavits from family members, etc, that you are such-a-person with such-a-birthdate. You might need more than one affidavit. The witness had to be old enough to be able to attest to the birthdate.
I hope the “security” reaction hasn’t eradicated that useful, human procedure.
It might be easier to start with the driver’s licese and go from there. Here in IL they keep your digital photo on file, so the clerk at the DMV can certainly see that it’s you. (I was actually bummed when I went to change my address on mine the last time that I didn’t get to take a new picture.)
This is a semi-related question… does anyone know what you can do if the only ID you have is a U.S. birth certificate and you needed to get a SS#/card in order to get employed?