GQ reporter Julia Ioffe is a little peeved at the DC Department of Motor Vehicles after they refused to issue her a Real ID card today:
Hello from the DC DMV, where, after presenting my documents—passport, birth certificate, Social Security card, copy of my parents’ naturalization certificate—officials have refused to issue me an ID under the new regulations of the Real ID act. 1/
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
I’m an educated person who has the privilege of being able to take time off work to spend hours dealing with this and who has all my documents. If I’m having this much trouble, then happens to people who can’t take off work, don’t have the originals of all their documents? 2/
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
But then again, that’s obviously the point. /end
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
But then we find out that the reason she didn’t get a Real ID card is that — SURPRISE — her documents really aren’t in order, despite her being an “educated person” and all. First up? Her Social Security card has a typo, and this is one of the 3 main things you need to prove is accurate:
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People are asking, so let me clarify. I present MORE documents than necessary, but they were rendered invalid by the @dcdmv clerk and her supervisor:
1) My SSN card didn't count bc in 1990 someone spelled with a "Y" on it not a "J";
2) My birth certificate didn't count…— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
Next, the birth certificate she’s using is from Russia:
…because it's from another country ("that may be a document in _Russia_ or wherever it is you're from") but the notarized translation of it was rendered invalid;
3) Notarized copies of my parents' naturalization certificates don't count because…— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
And then, despite the website saying you need originals of everything, she just brought copies of her parents naturalization papers:
a) It's not an original, but why would I, an adult, carry around the originals of my parents' naturalization certifiactes?;
b) It's not MY naturalization certificate but I was a minor when my parents were naturalized, so I was automatically naturalized and the U.S. doesn't…— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
Her valid passport did count, which should have fulfilled the “REAL ID Proof of Identity-Full Legal Name, Date of Birth and Lawful Presence” requirement and made the birth certificate and naturalization papers a non-issue:
…hand out naturalization documents to minors, other than passports;
4) My passport, which the @dcdmv supervisor tried hard to find a problem with but couldn't.
I shudder to think what happens when my passport expires. How, under these regulations, can I prove who I am?— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
Well, maybe if they brought in the proper documents and not copies, as well as a Social Security card that matched those documents? Would that work?
How can anyone not born in the United States? Which, again, is very obviously the design of these new regulations.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
Well, hopefully the proof of residence docs were on this list:
(I brought four proofs of residency, but they wouldn't even look at those. So don't @ me.)
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 3, 2020
FWIW, I was able to obtain a REAL ID at the Florida DMV in about 30 minutes, and that included 22 minutes of wait time in line. But I a) made an appointment and b) brought the correct documents, so that might account for my different experience.
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