Acceptable documents for citizens of the US

This list still needs some more details, feel free to add them.

Wikipedia has an article for some basic reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_documents_in_the_United_States

Primary documents

US Passport

See http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/epptnew_2807.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_passport

State Driver's License or ID card

U.S. driver's licenses have a unique number or alphanumeric code issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (or equivalent), a photograph of the bearer, full name, a copy of his or her signature, the address of his or her primary residence, the type or class of license, restrictions and/or endorsements (if any), the physical characteristics of the bearer (like height, weight, hair color, and sometimes even skin color), expiration date, issuing date, and birthdate. (cited from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_licence)

In the front side it also have unique hologram image for that State's DMV Seal, and in the backside there is barcode and magnetic stripe, though its not exactly same for the all states.

Best way to check validity of a Driver's License itself, would be to visit one of the closest local DMV office (since, US DMV offices have no unified single website, use Google to find address of local office). DMV technician/employee can verify the License number and the photo with the person, who will request to check its status condition. By using computer terminal, DMV technician will inform you if its Active/Valid or not, by matching the number and photo in the terminal with the person in presence. Though it may take some time during busy hours, but otherwise whole process will take about 20 minutes to complete. For this extra length of checking, a person can earn extra 15 points (Proposed situational modifiers) in ID assurance process.

Military Common Access Card (CAC)

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Access_Card and http://pmo.cac.navy.mil/docs/CAC_INFO_SHEET.pdf

The CAC is a plastic smartcard with the photo of its owner and some other (human readable and barcode) data printed on it. It is issued to military (and affiliated) personnel by the US Department of Defense and qualifies as a primary document, since it contains a photo and the date of birth of the owner and is government issued.

Nevertheless it is not really hard to forge such a card. AFAIK it contains no security features a simple plastic card printer can not create (like a holographic image) and the average assurer will not have the equipment available to access the smart card's chip, so you should handle this ID with a bit of care...

Secondary Documents

Not acceptable


AcceptableDocuments/UnitedStates (last edited 2010-09-04 17:37:08 by UlrichSchroeter)