What does the interview ask me?
It asks what the official forms ask, and nothing beyond it — every question exists because an agency prints a box for the answer.
The interview is a set of short steps, each one holding the questions that belong together. Most people walk seven of them.
- Your names — how your name reads now, how it will read, and any other name you have used.
- Where you live — your address, your county, and a phone number. Your state also decides which license rules are yours.
- About you — your date and place of birth, and the handful of details your own state’s license form prints.
- Your parents — Social Security asks for their names on the application. Partial answers are fine, and so is not knowing.
- Your document — the date on it and where it was issued. Not the document itself.
- What do you already have — your license or ID, your passport if you have one, and whether you are registered to vote.
- Who to notify — every bank, employer, insurer, utility and subscription that has your former name on file.
Why each question is there
Each answer is written into a box somewhere. Your parents’ names go on the Social Security application, which is the question people are least expecting. Your passport issue date decides which of the three passport forms applies to you. Your state decides which license form is yours and what the counter will ask for. The list of accounts is what the notification letters are written from.
That is also the test we apply before adding anything: if no form asks for it, we do not ask for it. Nothing in the interview is collected to profile you, to segment you, or to make a report look fuller.
What it never asks for
- Your Social Security number. There is no field for it anywhere, on any step. The boxes that ask for one are left blank and named for you to complete by hand.
- Your certificate, decree or order. There is nothing to upload — we ask what is printed on it and take your answer as given.
- A password. There is no account to create.
Your answers are encrypted, used only to fill in your own paperwork, and deleted a year after your kit is first delivered. The finished documents, which carry those answers, stay in your kit for re-download until you ask us to delete them.
Other questions people ask
When you’re ready to do it
Two questions about your situation first, because there is one answer that means we can’t help — and we would rather tell you that before you pay than after.
One payment. No subscription.