<p>My daughter will be starting college soon in another city some distance away. Should she take important papers like her birth certificate and such with her, or should we keep them for her at home? If she takes them, is there a safe place in a dorm room to keep such items? There's a fair amount of crime at her college.</p>
<p>My frosh D left important papers at home. I fedex’ed her passport for a spring break trip and she left it at home when she returned. She didn’t have off campus job so probably SSN and such doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Our kids did not have any need for their birth certificates while in college. Both had their passports with them and copies of the SS cards.</p>
<p>Send a pdf they can save in their email.</p>
<p>I needed my birth certificate for a job while at college. I kept these important papers in a folder in a box under my bed under extra blankets. To get to, you had to crawl behind my bed between a bed and a wall so it was difficult to get to. I took it home over breaks. My school doesn’t have a lot of crime though.</p>
<p>I would get a safe deposit box if you have to take it with you. I keep all of my kids important papers in my safe deposit box.</p>
<p>Important papers left at home. DS has passport card and took that while we kept original passport. No problems all year but would have FedEx’d if needed.</p>
<p>I have had to Fed Ex D’s passport twice for when she was starting a job. Did not send birth certificate or SSN card with her to college (but made both D’s memorize their SSNs). Now that D1 has graduated from college and has her own apartment, I gave her an envelope with her SSN and original birth certificate in it. Admit I kept copies of all the docs, though. :)</p>
<p>Siemom, what is a passport card? Sounds convenient…</p>
<p>I think I had left my passport at home the first time around and that was my only photo ID. I needed it soon afterwards. Now, I take my passport with me and my social security card to college, even though I’ve known my SS # by heart since 10th grade. </p>
<p>Birth certificate stays home.</p>
<p>
It’s a wallet-size ID document that allows you to travel to Canada or Mexico by land. It’s not valid for air travel.</p>
<p>If they have a job or get a job, even work study, chances are they will need a birth certificate or a passport for I-9 verification. I sent the birth certificate because it is easier to get one of those if lost (and cheaper) than to file for a lost passport. i FedXed the passport when they needed that and had them send it back home after they used it. the passport cards are pretty neat…but all the kids had regular passports that aren’t expired so used those for travel.</p>
<p>My son got a locking 2 drawer file cabinet for his important papers (one with a unique key). He left as much as could at home but used the file cabinet for those he needed to have (passport, SS card come to mind). His system isn’t fool proof, but it would be pretty obvious for someone to walk out with his file cabinet. The other part is not to let everyone know where your important papers are kept. Why tempt them?</p>
<p>Crime at colleges tends to be (a) crimes of opportunity (e.g., an open door), and (b) mostly of electronics and easily fenced stuff. I wouldn’t worry about important documents being stolen (unless you put them in a locked box that screams “steal me”) so much as lost. Which documents you send depends on the kid and the situation (disorganized, near Canada, does not have driver’s license, etc.).</p>
<p>My son needed his social security card (the actual card, not just the number or a photocopy) for his student job at his university.</p>
<p>He brought a footlocker with him to school and used it for storage while he was there (it fit easily under his lofted bed). He kept his important papers inside and it was secured with a padlock. He left it in storage at school over the summers but brought the folder with the important papers home with him.</p>
<p>^^That’s so weird. I’ve never in my life needed my social security card (which is a good thing, since my father misplaced it and didn’t find it until I was in my late 20s).</p>
<p>Send the social security card, keep everything else at home. Make photocopies of the birth certificate if you think it will be needed. You can always send an official copy later. If he is going to a school that is close to Canada or Mexico, send a passport otherwise keep it at home. I wouldn’t worry so much about theft of those items but just getting lost in the shuffle of moving in and out and maybe getting mixed up with other papers and getting tossed in the garbage by mistake. If he gets a job he will need his social security card.</p>
<p>Sop15’s mom–how did you get a job without your SS card? It’s required by law for employers to make a copy of that or a passport.</p>
<p>We kept our kids’ stuff at home in a file cabinet. When S1 needed his for a passport,I overnighted it to him and he returned it on his next visit home. S1 moved from dorm to apt. to house to different apt. over the course of his four years in college. He is notorious for losing things…there’s no way we would have sent important papers for him to drag around in the college years. Now that he’s out on his own, he has it all.
S2 just graduated from college. When he gets a job and moves out of our house, he’ll get his too. </p>
<p>Both of mine went to instate u’s so if they needed something like that it wasn’t a big ordeal to get it to them.</p>
<p>Sop14’smom, there are a variety of documents alone or in combination that can be used to satisfy the I-9 requirements for verification of an employee’s identification and right to work in the US. For example, a driver’s license and a social security card in combination will work. Or just a passport. There are several options. So the SSN card is not absolutely necessary for the I-9 process, but it can be used.</p>
<p>In fact, based on this I am thinking that I will probably send D2’s social security card with her to college instead of her passport, as I think that is probably the easiest document of all to replace if she losed it (easier than the passport or birth certificate).</p>
<p>Keep the passport at home (if they need it for travel they will have to call and at least you will know they have left the country!)
Joking aside, I still have my 24 year olds birth certificate and some other papers. I have a secure firebox here. He has moved apartments every year for the past few. Throughout his undergrad years I had his passport but he has it now. When he has needed his birth certificate I have scanned it and sent him an email.<br>
We no longer live near his place of birth and it would be a hassle to replace.</p>
<p>When each of my kids were born we ordered several copies of their birth certificates. We keep one original of the birth certificate, photocopies of their SS cards, and photocopies of the passports in a safe at home. The remaining originals of the birth certificates, original SS cards and iriginal passports we keep in a safety deposit box at a neighborhood band branch. The kids have only ever needed an original birth certificate, along with a drivers license and their SS number, not card, for any jobs. </p>
<p>We have needed the birth certificates many, many times over the years. Needed to play high school sports, needed to play on a travel sports team or two, to get a drivers license… Sent a copy of the birth certificate to college, to be stored in a lockbox, for job application verifications.</p>