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You’ve survived bedbugs, moved your car for alternate-side parking and developed strong opinions about subway etiquette. But can you prove you’re a New Yorker? A new “department” would like to see your paperwork.
The Department of New Yorker Verification is accepting applications to settle one of the city’s favorite arguments: who gets to claim the coveted title. Despite its convincingly municipal website, this is an unofficial project run by creative director and artist Franz Aliquo, with no city-government authority. Your actual residency remains safe from the identity police.
According to Gothamist, Aliquo, who was born in Bayside and raised on Roosevelt Island, built the site this summer. Among his inspirations was Jennifer Lopez’s viral declaration that being a New Yorker requires being born here.
His department offers two routes to verification, although only the first is currently open:
Track 1, “By Origin,” requires documented attendance at or graduation from a high school in the five boroughs, plus either a borough birth certificate or continuous enrollment in NYC schools from first through fourth grade. Under those rules, arriving as a child can qualify you; being born here alone doesn’t automatically clear the paperwork.
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For transplants, Track 2, “By Experience,” is still in development. The website sets a 1,000-point threshold, with no more than 500 coming from years of residence and at least 200 from hardship. (Renewing your lease indefinitely won’t get you across the finish line.)
Aliquo told Gothamist that potential qualifying ordeals include bedbugs, getting mugged and alternate-side parking. The full scoring schedule hasn’t been finalized, so hold off on calculating whether your last apartment disaster puts you over the top.
Successful applicants will receive a free PDF certificate and digital ID, Aliquo told Gothamist. Accepted evidence includes leases, receipts, photographs and witness testimony, with statements from bodega proprietors carrying particular weight.
There’s also a conduct clause: disrespect toward the city or its people can cost anyone their verification, including natives. The rules specifically call out contempt for different nationalities, languages and religions—and claiming to have “discovered” an already inhabited neighborhood.
Denied applicants can appeal once within 90 days. The stated fee? One documented act of kindness toward a stranger. At least this bureaucracy has a decent incentive.