Nearly two years after the state Department of Motor Vehicles began requiring new driver's license applicants to present birth certificates, the rule still catches some recent arrivals in the Lowcountry unawares.
Department spokeswoman Beth Parks said she has fielded occasional complaints since the policy of requiring birth certificates for state-issued identification went into effect in February 2002. A birth certificate, or an accepted substitute such as a passport, is essential when applying for an official identification card from the state.
"If we're going to issue you a document saying this is who you are, we want to be really sure that's who you are," Parks said. "A driver's license is not what it used to be. A driver's license used to be a license to show you can operate a motor vehicle. It's become an almost international form of ID."
Officials at the Bluffton branch would not say how many people had been turned away for not showing a birth certificate, referring questions to the agency's headquarters in Columbia.
Parks said the agency initiated the requirement because not all states require driver's license applicants to show a birth certificate. Terrorism and identity theft are just some of concerns that may have prompted the new policy, she said.
A passport will suffice for those who don't have their birth certificate handy. There is an exception for those born before 1918 because they may have more problems obtaining required proofs of identity. The date was based on DMV employee research on when documents would be available.
People whose birth records have been destroyed by fire, flood, earthquake or through some other circumstance will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, she said.
"These are documents that most citizens should have, and most citizens do have them," she said. "It requires some effort sometimes."
Women who have married also will have to present a marriage certificate to show how their name changed. People who are not U.S. citizens have to show "quite a few" documents to prove where they were born and in which country they have citizenship, she said.
For information, go to the DMV Web site at http://www.scdmvonline.com/.