US SSN portal “ID.me” verification questions with foreign address

Hello. I searched for this and maybe I missed it, apologies in that case.

I'm trying to verify myself for the US's SSN portal through this login service called "ID.me". The ID.me site itself has a documentation page on "verifying from abroad," but (maybe I'm just an idiot), I can't figure this out.

  • When I begin, it starts with a "do you live in the US or abroad?" –> abroad. So far so good.
  • Then it wants a "document that shows your full name and full SSN" –> no problem, got my SSN card.
  • Then it wants "a document that shows your full name and full address." –> PROBLEM here.

My permanent address that I use for all practical day to day purposes, including IRS tax return, etc., is my Japanese address. Yet the list of possible documents is all US-centric. For example there is "W-2 Form" as an option, which I thought, "well okay maybe that would be gensen with an English translation," but if you select that, you then get a notification that the document you provide here must ALSO include the full SSN (which obviously a J-gensen does not).

My parents still live in the US so like if there HAS to be a US address in here somewhere that is at least tangentially connected to me, I could probably stretch that out somehow (?), but that just seems like the wrong way — not everyone living abroad is going to have such a secondary address. I must be missing something.

I guess for a government site it's par for the course, lol, but any advice? Thanks.

by CptSupermrkt

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