My kid is at school. It’s her orientation week and she is supposed to sign up for her work study job. She got the paperwork and she’s required to have either her passport or her driver’s license and one of either her SS Card or her birth certificate for ID purposes.
She only has her driver’s license with her, and I really don’t want her to have her passport because it would be such a pain to replace if she lost it. So between the SS Card and birth certificate, I’m thinking I should send the birth certificate because from what I remember, it is fairly easy to get a copy of one. The info on the SS card sounds like it would be difficult to replace also.
She’s adopted, and I explained that her State birth certificate lists her birth country as her place of birth and has a notation: Not Proof of Citizenship*, but I called the college employment office and they said that would be fine. It is recommended that internationally adopted kids get State birth certificates because their home country birth certificates might be impossible to replace, so we did that for both our adopted kids. I plan to send the original birth State certificate (because the employment office assured me it would be fine even with that “not proof of citizenship” statement) and will also sending copies of her passport, SS card, and citizenship certificate in case they have any doubts.
She needs a document from list A (US passport qualifies), or a document from list B (photo driver’s license or other government ID qualifies) and a document from list C (to prove employment authorization, see list).
If the birth certificate is not valid as proof of US citizenship (which is one of the ways to be authorized for employment), then there may be question about whether is qualifies as a list C document.
For the I-9 form, only a passport or passport card is needed.
They must be original documents, so sending copies will not work. Looking at the I-9 instructions, if you do not want to send the passport, you can either send an original SS card or original proof of citizenship. Just one of these documents in conjunction with her DL will suffice.
I don’t know. You have to go to a passport agency in person with photos, and other forms of ID and fill out two forms to replace a passport. Isn’t getting a birth certificate easier since all you have to do is fill out a form, and mail it to the vital records dept. with a fee?
If your daughter flies to and from her college, I recommend that she have her driver’s license and her passport in her possession. That way, if she loses one, she will still have approved photo ID for checking in and getting through security.
@ucbalumnus Yes, that seems to be the form that she sent me a photo of with the lists, A, B, and C. I really don’t want to send her passport or her Certificate of Citizenship. I talked to the college and they assured me the birth certificate would be good enough. And @ollie113 yeah, I know that copies are not suitable for the two required documents - I just thought I’d send the copies of her passport and CofC in case they had any doubts about the validity of her birth certificate. The copies would be in addition to the original birth certificate or SS Card (which was issued to us before we got her Certificate of Citizenship, so I don’t know how that proves citizenship?).
Why are you thinking she’ll lose the passport (or the other documents)? She could send it home again if you think she’s not responsible enough to secure it.
My daughter (also a foreign adoptee) has her driver’s license but uses her passport for everything. In fact, she needed to get a new passport last year and did it entirely on her own while at college and I haven’t even seen it. She knows it is an important document and she takes care of it.
Earlier this year I started a new job with a group of other new hires. I was very surprised that almost every person used a passport for the I-9. So much easier than a birth certificate plus a SS card, or even a driver’s license. One document.
Definitely do not send her the SS card. That card should not be carried around in a wallet with other documents. Teach her that documents containing her personal info need to be safeguarded or shredded when no longer needed.
Although the ‘person’ from the job said that a Certificate of Foreign Birth is acceptable, it is NOT listed as an acceptable as a ‘C’ document (if using a DL or another ‘B’ list document as a form of ID, you must also use a document on List C)
I think it will NOT work, or at least it won’t work if a different person reviews the file. A copy of a passport is not acceptable either. A copy of a C of C will not work to prove citizenship.
Passport proves both identity and citizenship. DL proves identity, so proof of citizenship is needed. If her SS card says "not valid for employment " or her birth certificate has that notation that it can’t be used to prove citizenship, it would be more efficient to just use a passport. If her file is audited, there might be questions down the road.
@twoinanddone It’s not a certificate of foreign birth. It is a U.S. State birth certificate. We got State birth certificates for both our daughters (in two different states with different processes to get them - one required a re-adoption).
However, a birth certificate that says “Not Proof of Citizenship” does not satisfy the intent of the documents in list C. The list C documents are supposed to indicate that the person has work authorization (US citizen, US permanent resident, or visa which allows working), which a birth certificate that says “Not Proof of Citizenship” does not indicate.
But it says on it is NOT proof of citizenship and therefore doesn’t meet the purpose of List C documents. Will it work? Probably because the person won’t notice that she wasn’t born in state. But why chance it being rejected when you have the other documents that are acceptable?
For me to get a copy of D’s certificate of foreign birth, it costs $15 (maybe more now) and a trip to the state dept of records. To get a new SS card, she’d have to go to a SSA office and request a duplicate. No cost, but it takes a couple of weeks to come in the mail. To get a new passport, it depends on how quickly you want it. My sister lost hers while traveling and had a new one in a few hours. If you can wait, it is cheaper to order a new one and have it sent to you. If she’s over 18, she has to make the request for a new passport or SS card, you can no longer do that.
OK, thanks everyone. I will send the passport in the mail tomorrow and hope for the best, as she really doesn’t have a secure place to keep it. That being said, how do you or your kids store their important documents and/or valuable items in their dorm rooms?
The SS office issues a temporary certificate on the spot that expires when the duplicate card arrives. On the other hand there is a lifetime limit to how many duplicate SS cards one person can get - my daughter can attest to that, but thanks to moving now has two found SS cards that now live in a lock box. And since she’d need her birth certificate in order to get the duplicate SS card…might be better to go the passport route.
Thanks again for all the advice, now including an SASE when sending it. And BTW, she doesn’t fly to school - she’ll probably be taking AMTRAK for breaks, and I don’t believe they require passports.