Applying for a US Passport

[franztastisch]

Setting: present day Virginia

I am looking into applying for a US passport (obviously not for myself, but for a character). I found this which is super useful. My character has never had a passport before and needs a photo ID to get one but my character also has none of the things listed as valid photo ID. The above website goes on to say:

If you

Comments

[proudofthefish]

A social security card can also be used as a document to help establish identity. As a side note IDs and drivers licenses in Va take a few weeks to process because they are sent to a secure facility to be made. Something about making them super hard to counterfeit I think.

[franztastisch]

And everyone would have a Social Security Card? I looked it up before posting this and worked out it's a lot like the UK National Insurance number. They're sent out to you when you're 18. It looked to me like you get a SSC when you're born, but decided that if it's like a NI number, it's not useful for ID. Turns out I was wrong. :P

Thanks!

[conuly]

Everybody has a social security card. There are a very few cases of people deciding not to get one for their children (and thus losing out on being able to claim them as dependents on their taxes) because they're anti-government weirdos, often religious extremists, but that's both incredibly outside the norm and crippling if their children ever want to leave home. (Which really means it's abusive as hell.)

Edit: And to be clear, when I say a very few cases, I mean just that. This is a subject tangential to one I'm currently very interested in, that of people leaving religious fundamentalism (there's some overlap there), and I can only name one or two cases off the top of my head, one of which (Alicia Pennington) involves a young woman who did have a SS Card but whose parents wouldn't cede it to her.

[proudofthefish]

Yes everyone would have one, you get a number assigned shortly after birth (I think) and it is required on documents all the time in Dr's offices and such. I'm pretty sure my dad used it often. He used to keep an old business card with my siblings and my number on the back in his wallet for whenever he needed it, usually at the doctor's office.(we saw a lot of specialists for various reasons).

[conuly]

Technically, it's voluntary and your parents can refuse to check the box to have one assigned, but really, that's a shitty thing for your parents to do and very few even realize they have this option and fewer take it.

[franztastisch]

Aah OK. So it's slightly different to the UKs NI number. Thanks. :)