important papers - where to keep them? - Page 2

SteveMA · 07-21-2012, 08:56 AM

Send the social security card, keep everything else at home. Make photocopies of the birth certificate if you think it will be needed. You can always send an official copy later. If he is going to a school that is close to Canada or Mexico, send a passport otherwise keep it at home. I wouldn't worry so much about theft of those items but just getting lost in the shuffle of moving in and out and maybe getting mixed up with other papers and getting tossed in the garbage by mistake. If he gets a job he will need his social security card.

Sop15's mom--how did you get a job without your SS card? It's required by law for employers to make a copy of that or a passport.

PackMom · 07-21-2012, 09:24 AM

We kept our kids' stuff at home in a file cabinet. When S1 needed his for a passport,I overnighted it to him and he returned it on his next visit home. S1 moved from dorm to apt. to house to different apt. over the course of his four years in college. He is notorious for losing things...there's no way we would have sent important papers for him to drag around in the college years. Now that he's out on his own, he has it all.
S2 just graduated from college. When he gets a job and moves out of our house, he'll get his too.

Both of mine went to instate u's so if they needed something like that it wasn't a big ordeal to get it to them.

intparent · 07-21-2012, 10:35 AM

Sop14'smom, there are a variety of documents alone or in combination that can be used to satisfy the I-9 requirements for verification of an employee's identification and right to work in the US. For example, a driver's license and a social security card in combination will work. Or just a passport. There are several options. So the SSN card is not absolutely necessary for the I-9 process, but it can be used.

In fact, based on this I am thinking that I will probably send D2's social security card with her to college instead of her passport, as I think that is probably the easiest document of all to replace if she losed it (easier than the passport or birth certificate).

ebeeeee · 07-21-2012, 11:07 AM

Keep the passport at home (if they need it for travel they will have to call and at least you will know they have left the country!)
Joking aside, I still have my 24 year olds birth certificate and some other papers. I have a secure firebox here. He has moved apartments every year for the past few. Throughout his undergrad years I had his passport but he has it now. When he has needed his birth certificate I have scanned it and sent him an email.
We no longer live near his place of birth and it would be a hassle to replace.

eastcoascrazy · 07-21-2012, 01:21 PM

When each of my kids were born we ordered several copies of their birth certificates. We keep one original of the birth certificate, photocopies of their SS cards, and photocopies of the passports in a safe at home. The remaining originals of the birth certificates, original SS cards and iriginal passports we keep in a safety deposit box at a neighborhood band branch. The kids have only ever needed an original birth certificate, along with a drivers license and their SS number, not card, for any jobs.

We have needed the birth certificates many, many times over the years. Needed to play high school sports, needed to play on a travel sports team or two, to get a drivers license... Sent a copy of the birth certificate to college, to be stored in a lockbox, for job application verifications.

joszacem · 07-21-2012, 02:05 PM

Keep it at home, send when needed. I would not send a PDF of any important stuff via email, way too easy to get stolen.

bajamm · 07-21-2012, 04:57 PM

My D goes to school 1000+ miles out of state from home and couldn't have a car for her freshman year. I mailed her her passport shortly after she moved to campus, so it would not get lost in the move in shuffle and so she would have it to fly home. She wasn't travelling overseas, it is just an acceptable form of ID instead of a driver's license at all domestic airports.

I had heard horror stories of students losing their wallets/purses right before travelling home for the holidays and so not being able to get home. I told her to keep it in a different place than she kept her drivers liscense so that she should always have one or the other to come home with.

peacefulmom · 07-21-2012, 05:37 PM

I would suggest keeping everything at home.

lje62 · 07-21-2012, 08:23 PM

I can't imagine a circumstance where a college student would need their birth certificate , or even their passport with them when they leave for school. Passport of course in the event of a study abroad. SS card if applying for a job. You can get small document safes at Staples and warehouse stores , but I think it might be wiser to leave the docs at home and if need be , mail them..dorms can be vulnerable

SteveMA · 07-21-2012, 09:54 PM

lje62--our oldest went to college an hour from Canada. It was common to go to Canada for a weekend "shopping" trip.....and the drinking age there is 18.....Almost all of the kids at his school had a passport so they could go.