Fair Housing - National Origin

Hi everyone! We are reworking our Screening Documentation and policies - struggling a bit with our responsibilities under National Origin.

Could someone share their doc's on what documentation to review, and we keep having the recurring discussion on properties accepting ITIN's as acceptable identification.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Steve
(847) 656-5101, or [email protected]

Hi Steve,

Our company recently hosted several round table discussions in 7 major cities where executives discussed this very issue as part of a larger identity misrepresentation discussion. From those discussions we heard that property management companies are typcially not accepting ITIN's for the purpose of identification documentation or for determining legal U.S. citizenship, but instead as a means to show that they are eligible to work in the US and set up to pay income taxes.

Using ITIN's for credit and background check purposes will not normally yield additional results as most creditors do not use ITIN's as a form of identification for new credit accounts. In addition, ITIN's are not recorded with public records like evictions or criminal records.

One source you may find helpful is: www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/m-274_3apr09.pdf .
Starting on page 45, you will see some of the notable international documents. Although this document is for employers, it provides clear guidance on what documents are acceptable.

Hope this helps out....Linda Richer, 614 222 5355 [email protected].