state ID without proof of address?

January 23, 2008 12:36 PM

Is it true that when I get a NY state non-driver ID card, they won't ask me to prove my street address? According to the DMV's list, my passport plus my social security card are enough to get me a state ID. Neither of those two things shows a street address (and I have no proof of my address, and I've never had a driver's license or non-driver ID). Does this mean I could just write my address (or for that matter, any NY state address!) on the form at the DMV?
posted by sparrows to law & government (12 comments total)

I have never had to prove my address to the NY DMV.
posted by milarepa at 12:38 PM on January 23, 2008

I just got a new NY state driver license and didn't have to prove my address. We hadn't actually moved into our new place yet, but I wrote that address on the application anyway. I imagine the requirements for a non-driver card are the same.
posted by defreckled at 12:41 PM on January 23, 2008

Huh! That is so funny, I just feel like I must be missing something because a state ID is considered acceptable proof of address in so many contexts (and how could it be considered that when you could declare any address to the state)?
posted by sparrows at 12:50 PM on January 23, 2008

Ask them. NY DMV Email or phone.
posted by meehawl at 12:52 PM on January 23, 2008

Don't they mail it to the address you give them?
posted by Brian James at 12:53 PM on January 23, 2008

They do mail you the ID.
posted by frieze at 1:06 PM on January 23, 2008

In New York, situations that require proof of residency usually require utility bills instead of drivers' licenses (school enrollments, for example).
posted by astruc at 1:09 PM on January 23, 2008

Yep. If you can't receive mail at the address you give them, then you won't be getting your hands on the ID card
posted by winston at 1:09 PM on January 23, 2008

When my license came in, the address was misspelled; though I had it corrected, my jury duty and voter registration notices were mailed to me with the typo, as were my state IRS forms. It took awhile for things to settle down, but not without standing in line at the county clerk's office, and fielding phone calls at home. As a form of ID, a license is very much part of a paper trail.
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:17 PM on January 23, 2008

I recently got my NY ID card with just my passport and social security card.
posted by Melsky at 2:44 PM on January 23, 2008

More zany fake security here folks, my wife and I use a prIvate mail box, had it 19 years now. Always have the same address, works great. Get this :.......She had to CHANGE her license to put our PHYSICAL adddress on her new one, so of course none of our other paperwork matches now, and I renewed mY ID and didn't have to do any such thing. So we have different addresses on our married ID's. Can't wait for some TSA idiot to stall when the facts become known.

ID's are poorly implimented, I had to use a VISA card to get a passport and a note from my wife that I am who I say I am, seems that if you do not drive you do not count.

Sort of clubs the whole voter ID thing around a tad huh?
posted by Freedomboy at 2:54 PM on January 23, 2008

Freedomboy - I used a NYS Non-Driver ID to get my passport.
posted by cmgonzalez at 6:34 PM on January 23, 2008