Verifying for the Social Security Administration using self-service

ID.me works with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to verify SSA users requesting information online. ID.me provides secure digital identity verification to government agencies and healthcare providers to make sure you are you—and not someone pretending to be you. This article explains how to use your government ID and selfie to verify for Social Security.

Before you verify

To verify using self-service, you’ll need:

• • A mobile phone that has a camera or a computer with a webcam
  • Email address
  • Photo ID (driver's license, passport, passport card, or state ID)
  • Social Security number

1. Sign in to SSA

To begin the verification process, first sign in to your SSA account:

1. Go to the Social Security login page.
2. Select Sign in with ID.me.
   
3. Select Ok to be redirected to the ID.me Sign in page.
4. Sign in to your ID.me account.​​ If you haven’t created an ID.me account, select Create account and confirm your email to begin.

Set up multi-factor authentication

If you’re creating a new ID.me account, you’ll need to set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) to continue with verification. For steps to set up MFA, select one of the following MFA methods:

• Text Message or Phone Call
• Push Notification
• Code Generator
• NFC-Enabled Security Key
• Security Key

After you’ve successfully set up MFA, continue to verify your identity using self-service.

2. Verify your identity using self-service

After you’re signed in to your ID.me account, you can verify your identity with a video selfie, or over a video call with a live agent. To verify your identity with a government ID and selfie:

1. Select Self-Service, then select Continue.
   
   
   Note: If you do not live in the US, select I don’t live in the United States to verify with two primary documents or one primary and two secondary documents.
2. Follow the prompts to upload your US driver’s license or state photo ID, or select Change Document to upload a passport or passport card. You can take a photo of the document with your smartphone or upload one from your computer.
   
3. Take and submit a video selfie. Your selfie will only be used to confirm that the person in the selfie matches your government ID. You may request that ID.me delete your Biometric Data at any time.
4. Enter your Social Security number.
5. Review and confirm that all of your information is accurate, then select Yes. After ID.me verifies your identity you will receive a confirmation message as a way to protect you from fraud.
6. Select Allow to finish your identity verification process. This step securely shares your identity information with the SSA.