Verifying for the Social Security Administration using Self-Service – ID.me Help Center

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

Tip: Review our tips and best practices for selecting and uploading acceptable identity documents.

1. Sign in to SSA

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

Go to the Social Security login page.
Select Sign in with ID.me.
Select Ok to be redirected to the ID.me Sign in page.
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.

Note: It’s not possible to create more than one account. If you already have an ID.me account, sign in instead.

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:

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

Tip: To ensure continued access to this MFA method across devices, we recommend setting this up with as many devices as you may usually use (i.e. smartphone and computer).

2. Verify 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.

Note: If you live outside of the United States and don’t have a US phone number or mailing address, you can still verify your identity. During the verification process, you can select specific links if you don’t have US-based information. In order to access the SSA, you must verify with an SSN.

To verify your identity with a government ID and selfie:

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 additional identity documents.
Follow the prompts to upload your US driver’s license or state ID, or select Change Document to upload a passport or passport card. Learn how to take photos of your documents.

Note: If you do not have a US phone number, select I don’t have a US phone number.
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.
Enter your Social Security number.

Note: If you don’t have a Social Security number, select I don’t have a Social Security number to continue your verification with your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), additional documents, and a full video call. However, you must provide a Social Security number to access your benefits at the SSA. Contact SSA for alternate options if you do not have a SSN.
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.

Note: If you don’t have a US address, select I don’t have a US address.
Select Allow to finish your identity verification process. This step securely shares your identity information with the SSA.