Wednesday, November 07, 2007

"Real ID" can eff off

So. My driver's license expires in February. I am thinking about this NOW, because of the "we want to be really, really sure you're not a terrorist, or if you are, that you're good at faking documents" act.

Yet another way of generating headaches for the law-abiding U.S. citizen, and something that people who aren't supposed to be here will probably have some way of circumventing.

What I need to renew my license is this:

1. The old license
2. My birth certificate (Which I will be picking up from my parents when I visit at Thanksgiving)
3. Proof of Social Security number
4. Documentation of where I live ("Such as a utility bill")
5. Proof of lawful entry/residency (the Hell? I was born here. Does this not apply to me? Please say that this does not apply to me. I have no way to prove my 'right' to be here, outside of my birth certificate, my tax returns, and my property tax bills)

#3 is going to be a problem. I cannot find my SS card. No, it's not a "I think an illegal alien has it" issue; it's a "It's buried deep in one of the approximately 1582 file folders I have stashed in my home office or it's in my safety deposit box and if it's not in my safety deposit box there is no way on God's green Earth I am digging through every-damn-one of those folders until I find it."

Has anyone got their card replaced? The government website makes it sound laughably easy - fill out a form and bring clear proof of who you are. But that makes me suspicious - it is probably laughably easy for some people, but if I walked in there I'd be willing to bet they'd give me the 3rd degree and then deny me.

I don't know whether to begin searching for the dang card and hope I find it, or to take my chances reapplying (I don't even KNOW where the nearest local SS office is.)

I might be able to track down that thing the government sends me every year that tells me how much money is purportedly in that (non-existent) "lockbox" for me. I wonder if that would count. Or if I could get a notarized statement from my HR department with the number on it and a verification that "Yes, this woman is who she claims to be."

I just feel like - I should NOT have to be doing this, not at this stage of the game. It especially irks me that I know there are going to be criminals - people flying under the radar - who will have faked documents or will pay off the right functionary and breeze right through, while I waste spend an entire Saturday afternoon searching for a 1.5" by 2.5" piece of cardstock with some blue ink on it because it's supposedly necessary for me to renew the license I've had for 20-some years.

Dammit.

(Oh, and incidentally? To actually get that list of stuff, know where I had to go? The Snopes site! I cannot easily find a .gov page that lists it! All the other links that come up are either government sites justifying how this is Necessary and Important and Really Not That Big A Hassle At All, or conspiracy-theorist sites that are saying, "This is the first step! Next step is that they ear-tag us all like cattle!"

But do you know how much it IRRITATES me that I have to go to an urban-legends site for IMPORTANT information that I NEED to have because of something the GOVERNMENT is changing?)

Oh - and they were reporting on it on the local news, but I missed that story because that was the VERY MOMENT my youth group co-leader called up to let me know that there's no one signed up to provide food for the kids for dinner tonight. Sigh. So I guess it's ricki-foots-the-bill-for-pizza again.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did get my card replaced. It was years ago - pre-Internet - and it was a hassle, as I recall - but I now have it, and I keep it where I always know where it is.

Good luck!

Caltechgirl said...

your old B.C. might not do it. They will probably want a "new" copy with a colored raised seal.

Anonymous said...

Oh, man. Do we all have to do this now? I don't know where my SS# is! Or my birth certificate! Oh no!

red fish said...

I just got my driver's license replaced last month, and all I needed was the old one and some money. I don't know if Iowa laws are different, or if the laws have changed really recently, or if all that just applies to replacing lost cards. I'd look into it more locally if I were you.