The On-Going Saga
Hey Everybody,
Riddle me this: how hard would you think it is for a 31 year-old, white male, American citizen to renew his license, though it happens to be expired a few days and from two States away? Allow me to answer:
Last Monday, I went into the Secretary of States (SS), with all proper documentation: my old license (which says Jason Alexander Kallas on it), three other forms of picture ID (overkill), my social security card with Jason A Kallas on it (this name thing is going to come back, you'll see), and an abundance of documentation indicating my residency (bank records, tax records, W-2s, a letter from Schoolcraft confirming my employment in the Fall). You only need two of these, but gain overkill. Now, you also need your birth certificate (BC), which I searched for where my mom had indicated it was, and all I found was my birth-record. I took that hoping that would be enough. It wasn't.
So the SS told me I needed to be reissued a new copy of my BC, which being born in Detroit, meant I had to go to the Detroit Department of Health, located in Detroit. Other than the annoying drive and having to go early Tuesday morning, it went rather smoothly and quickly (but there is something they told me that is going to come back, you'll see). Went back to the SS after that. Guess what? The computers were down. So I was given the option to stick around and hope they came back on, or come back some other time. Having business in Hillsdale later that day... I left.
Went back to the SS yesterday around 2:30. At about 5:00 I finally got help: they literally went through almost one-hundred numbers to get to mine. Everything was checking out, I had all the proper documentation. Then why does the clerk seem to have a confused look on her face as she's typing away. She leaves a couple of times to get things signed off. Comes back... there's a problem. On my birth certificate, under my middle name, it says "Alexander/George." I have gone by Alexander my WHOLE life... I never knew about this "/George" in my name. I asked my mom about it later, she couldn't remember about it. No other piece of documentation gives credence to the "/George": not my license, my social security card, my tax records (my BIRTH RECORD)... NOTHING. Everything either says "Jason Kallas," "Jason A. Kallas," or "Jason Alexander Kallas." Yet she goes on to explain to me that because the BC and my social security card don't match (the "/George" does not come up when they enter my social security number), they can't give me a license. So she says I have to go to the Social Security Adminstration Office (are you dumbfounded at the stupidity of this yet) and get my card changed to match my BC to include the "/George."
TODAY, went to the Social Security Administration office, handed them my BC, my SSC, and my license, and explained the situation. He takes one good hard look at my BC, a flash of confusion comes on his face and he opens his mouth, "that's strange ["that's strange" people! You know what's coming after that isn't going to be good], I've never seen a BC with a slash "/" between the two middle names." Evidentally there's either just a space or a hyphen "-". So he said, with a kind of confused reluctance, that he could change it, but because the computer doesn't recognize the "/" it would have to be either a "-" or a space. I went with the hyphen and left. It takes a full day for the change to show up on computers, and I should receive my new SSC with a "Jason A-G Kallas" on it.
Why do I feel like somehow, my legal name has been inadvertently changed?
So tomorrow I go back to the SS with the changed SSC; and I feel that somehow, another can of worms has been opened. I'm pissed and I feel like there is yet another complication waiting for me tomorrow. I don't like how the clerk at the Social Security Office reacted, like it was an incredibly unusual thing to see the "/" inbetween the two names. I'm worried that the SS is going to give me more shit, about it being hyphen in between the name, something. And I don't like in general that I've gotten through my whole life with out ever knowing about or having this "/George" ever come up in any form of legal documentation until now. I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. My theory is the the "/George" is some kind of typo error on the part of the Detroit Department of Health. My dad's name is George, though there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the rest of the info on the BC. I'm also worried that even if they give me a license, it's now going to say "Jason Alexander-George Kallas." Which is not my fucking name. Never has been.
Best case scenario, they give me a license that still says "Jason Alexander Kallas," and I can go about exploring my typo theory and get the "George" removed my my BC and my SSC.
Worst case scenario, they can't issue me a license for whatever reason, and I will have to do whatever after that to get things straightened out. The problem is, if the "/George" is a typo, and I have to start back at the Detroit Department of Health to get this fixed, my chief form of identification (my license) has gotten progressively more expired. When I went to them originally, I had asked what forms of identification I needed to be reissued a BC. They said a valid drivers license. When I informed them that it was out-of-state and expired, they asked, "how expired?" I responded only a couple days and they said that was acceptable, but they clearly sounded like a couple of days is the limit. I'm worried, now that it's 15 days expired, it won't be accepted there anymore, creating a serious catch-22. I can't get the license without a BC, can't make the changes and be issued a new BC without a license. It's ridiculous fucking bulshit.
At least if I'm given a license that says "Jason Alexander-George Kallas," I can still go through whatever processes are needed to change the name. But I got to get the license. And I'm really suspicious and anxious that they are going to have some kind of problem.
In any case, this whole thing has been a pain in the ass, and will in any case probably continue to be. Like I said, even if all goes well and they give me a license that says "Jason Alexander Kallas" on it, I still want the "/George" removed from the other documents. It's irking me to no end that it's there, when I never knew about it, nor had any sort of problem with it until now. Even when I got my license changed to a Pensylvannia one I didn't encounter this problem; and I needed the same documents. The difference is, which has compounded my typo theory, is that my BC used to change to a PA license was my original. Sometime after that, somehow the original got lost somewhere, whether my fault or my mom's, which is why I needed to be reissued one in the first place.
Talk to y'all soon,
K-Dog
Riddle me this: how hard would you think it is for a 31 year-old, white male, American citizen to renew his license, though it happens to be expired a few days and from two States away? Allow me to answer:
Last Monday, I went into the Secretary of States (SS), with all proper documentation: my old license (which says Jason Alexander Kallas on it), three other forms of picture ID (overkill), my social security card with Jason A Kallas on it (this name thing is going to come back, you'll see), and an abundance of documentation indicating my residency (bank records, tax records, W-2s, a letter from Schoolcraft confirming my employment in the Fall). You only need two of these, but gain overkill. Now, you also need your birth certificate (BC), which I searched for where my mom had indicated it was, and all I found was my birth-record. I took that hoping that would be enough. It wasn't.
So the SS told me I needed to be reissued a new copy of my BC, which being born in Detroit, meant I had to go to the Detroit Department of Health, located in Detroit. Other than the annoying drive and having to go early Tuesday morning, it went rather smoothly and quickly (but there is something they told me that is going to come back, you'll see). Went back to the SS after that. Guess what? The computers were down. So I was given the option to stick around and hope they came back on, or come back some other time. Having business in Hillsdale later that day... I left.
Went back to the SS yesterday around 2:30. At about 5:00 I finally got help: they literally went through almost one-hundred numbers to get to mine. Everything was checking out, I had all the proper documentation. Then why does the clerk seem to have a confused look on her face as she's typing away. She leaves a couple of times to get things signed off. Comes back... there's a problem. On my birth certificate, under my middle name, it says "Alexander/George." I have gone by Alexander my WHOLE life... I never knew about this "/George" in my name. I asked my mom about it later, she couldn't remember about it. No other piece of documentation gives credence to the "/George": not my license, my social security card, my tax records (my BIRTH RECORD)... NOTHING. Everything either says "Jason Kallas," "Jason A. Kallas," or "Jason Alexander Kallas." Yet she goes on to explain to me that because the BC and my social security card don't match (the "/George" does not come up when they enter my social security number), they can't give me a license. So she says I have to go to the Social Security Adminstration Office (are you dumbfounded at the stupidity of this yet) and get my card changed to match my BC to include the "/George."
TODAY, went to the Social Security Administration office, handed them my BC, my SSC, and my license, and explained the situation. He takes one good hard look at my BC, a flash of confusion comes on his face and he opens his mouth, "that's strange ["that's strange" people! You know what's coming after that isn't going to be good], I've never seen a BC with a slash "/" between the two middle names." Evidentally there's either just a space or a hyphen "-". So he said, with a kind of confused reluctance, that he could change it, but because the computer doesn't recognize the "/" it would have to be either a "-" or a space. I went with the hyphen and left. It takes a full day for the change to show up on computers, and I should receive my new SSC with a "Jason A-G Kallas" on it.
Why do I feel like somehow, my legal name has been inadvertently changed?
So tomorrow I go back to the SS with the changed SSC; and I feel that somehow, another can of worms has been opened. I'm pissed and I feel like there is yet another complication waiting for me tomorrow. I don't like how the clerk at the Social Security Office reacted, like it was an incredibly unusual thing to see the "/" inbetween the two names. I'm worried that the SS is going to give me more shit, about it being hyphen in between the name, something. And I don't like in general that I've gotten through my whole life with out ever knowing about or having this "/George" ever come up in any form of legal documentation until now. I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. My theory is the the "/George" is some kind of typo error on the part of the Detroit Department of Health. My dad's name is George, though there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the rest of the info on the BC. I'm also worried that even if they give me a license, it's now going to say "Jason Alexander-George Kallas." Which is not my fucking name. Never has been.
Best case scenario, they give me a license that still says "Jason Alexander Kallas," and I can go about exploring my typo theory and get the "George" removed my my BC and my SSC.
Worst case scenario, they can't issue me a license for whatever reason, and I will have to do whatever after that to get things straightened out. The problem is, if the "/George" is a typo, and I have to start back at the Detroit Department of Health to get this fixed, my chief form of identification (my license) has gotten progressively more expired. When I went to them originally, I had asked what forms of identification I needed to be reissued a BC. They said a valid drivers license. When I informed them that it was out-of-state and expired, they asked, "how expired?" I responded only a couple days and they said that was acceptable, but they clearly sounded like a couple of days is the limit. I'm worried, now that it's 15 days expired, it won't be accepted there anymore, creating a serious catch-22. I can't get the license without a BC, can't make the changes and be issued a new BC without a license. It's ridiculous fucking bulshit.
At least if I'm given a license that says "Jason Alexander-George Kallas," I can still go through whatever processes are needed to change the name. But I got to get the license. And I'm really suspicious and anxious that they are going to have some kind of problem.
In any case, this whole thing has been a pain in the ass, and will in any case probably continue to be. Like I said, even if all goes well and they give me a license that says "Jason Alexander Kallas" on it, I still want the "/George" removed from the other documents. It's irking me to no end that it's there, when I never knew about it, nor had any sort of problem with it until now. Even when I got my license changed to a Pensylvannia one I didn't encounter this problem; and I needed the same documents. The difference is, which has compounded my typo theory, is that my BC used to change to a PA license was my original. Sometime after that, somehow the original got lost somewhere, whether my fault or my mom's, which is why I needed to be reissued one in the first place.
Talk to y'all soon,
K-Dog