If you’ve applied for a new or replacement Social Security card and the local office claimed your U.S. passport does not prove your U.S. citizenship—or that they “can’t verify” your citizenship—you are not alone. But it’s not because your passport is invalid or that you are not a U.S. citizen. It’s because current U.S. policy and database systems have unlawfully mucked everything up.
Here’s what’s happening, and how it’s affecting a lot of my intercountry adoptee clients, among others.
You Aren’t Doing Anything Wrong
A valid U.S. passport is by federal law valid proof of citizenship (22 U.SC. § 2705). Federal law explicitly states that a U.S. passport “shall have the same force and effect as proof of United States citizenship as certificates of naturalization or of citizenship.” The federal social security regulation that controls citizenship verification documents (20 C.F.R. § 422.107) also lists a passport as acceptable evidence, the same as a certificate of citizenship or certificate of naturalization, with no priority or weight given to one or the other.
These laws and regulations have not changed. The way the social security offices view U.S. passports, especially for intercountry adoptees, is limited, and likely unlawful.
Why is this Happening?
Social Security checks citizenship claims against a federal database called SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements), operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). The U.S. government originally built SAVE to verify immigration status for noncitizens—not to confirm citizenship for people who were born in the U.S. or never went through an immigration process to become U.S. citizens—such as intercountry adoptees who secured U.S. citizenship automatically through adoptive parents (see note below). When SAVE cannot find a matching record, some offices treat that as a failed verification, even though your passport is valid and was properly issued by the U.S. Department of State.
To make matters worse, the current Trump administration, including its social security office, spent much of 2025 preparing for policies tied to 1) a federal database of U.S.-born eligible voters and 2) implementation of an unconstitutional executive order on birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court struck down the birthright citizenship order this past June, but the voter database began, for the first time, to capture US-born individuals within the SAVE database. SAVE, however, still does not capture intercountry adoptees who are U.S. citizens but never applied for a Certificate of Citizenship. and thus do not have the certificate* This is a database problem, and an unlawful policy gap on the government’s end. It is not a legal gap in your U.S. citizenship or your citizenship documentation.
What You Can Do
- Ask the social security office in writing (or request a supervisor) to state specifically why your passport could not be verified. A vague “can’t verify” is not a sufficient explanation. Asking for specifics or for a supervisor could move things along.
- If you have one, bring your certificate of citizenship or naturalization to your appointment. Even though the U.S. passport alone is enough, having a second document can cut through the problem quickly while the government sorts out its own verification problems.
- Keep a written record of your interaction: the date, the office location, who you spoke with, and exactly what they said.
- Contact me if you are an intercountry adoptee and cannot get the social security office to accept your U.S. passport.
- Contact your U.S. representative or U.S. Senator to request assistance in working with the Social Security Administration. First, it alerts your representatives to this problem, which needs to be fixed; second, your representative may be able to secure a new or replacement social security card through their office’s intervention.
Why Am I Not in the SAVE System as a U.S. Citizen?
SAVE was built as a tool that relied upon immigration records to verify U.S citizenship or lawful status in the United States. Until recently, it does not generally interact with the Department of State’s data, and even that data is limited to U.S.-born citizens. Instead, it relies primarily on immigration records held by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
When an intercountry adoptee enters the US after an adoption abroad, most typically become a legal permanent resident (green card holder) at arrival. But the person’s status in the USCIS database lists only that status— legal permanent residence—not U.S. citizenship. Even though you may have become a U.S. citizen automatically through the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, USCIS has no documentation of that citizenship. Either the adoptive parents or the adopted person needed to apply for a Certificate of Citizenship. If no certificate was applied for, there is no proof of U.S. citizenship in the USCIS/SAVE database. Thus, when Social Security or any other federal or state agencies use the SAVE database, it does not verify status as a U.S. citizen. At most, it may indicate you are still a legal permanent resident.
Note
This post is focuses on a distinct group of intercountry adopted people: those who automatically became U.S. citizens under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 but who do not have a Certificate of Citizenship. It does not apply to intercountry adoptees who 1) do not qualify for automatic citizenship under the current law and never naturalized; or 2) did not enter the U.S. as a legal permanent resident. More information about the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 and who does and does not qualify for automatic citizenship is here.
