Hello everyone,

First, a brief introduction. I presently live and work in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, but have lived and worked in various places in the U.S. and Europe, and traveled to many others. As you can see, I’m a “stranger” and have made just a few posts. I’m still working my way through past threads and learning the ropes.

This is my first attempt at opening a thread.

I have noticed a frequent recommendation to keep a flash drive with “important papers” and information on it. The few comments I have read don’t really cover what those “important papers” might be in any detail. So based on some harsh lessons, I thought I would try to put together a list for your consideration and thoughts. As pointed out in some earlier posts, an electronic copy may not be accepted as “official,” but it is better than nothing and can help show where to find the “real” copy (e.g. what county clerk’s office, etc.) is. I think most items on the list will be self-explanatory, but I’ll include a brief comment where I think it is helpful. I expect everyone realizes that you will need this for all family members and should have several flash drives in several places. Not all of these may be required, but at one time or another I have found the need to produce almost every one of them for myself or a family member.

Identification:

Drivers License
Social Security Number
Birth Certificate
Passport
Travel visa if you need it to be where you are.
Permanent residency documents if necessary.
Naturalization Certificate—yes, if you have a U.S. passport it means you are a U.S. citizen. However, there are agencies of the U.S. Government that will not accept a U.S. passport as evidence of citizenship, e.g. Social Security. The naturalization document itself says “do not copy,” but these agencies require you to produce it and then they copy it. The copy on your drive (probably) will not satisfy them, but it does record the information as to when, where, what Court etc. citizenship was granted so that you or they can go back and get an “official” copy or verify naturalization if the original is unavailable.

Financial:

Bank account numbers (including bank routing number) and bank toll free and your bank branch numbers.
Credit card numbers including the 3 digit security code on the back, and the toll free numbers to call them. (I dump the cards on the copier and copy front and back).

General Legal Documents:

Marriage Certificate
Divorce Decree
Wills
Trust documents
Adoption decrees
Power(s) of attorney
Deeds to real property
Title documents for vehicles
Vehicle registration

Medical:

List of medical conditions and allergies
Special medical precautions required by medical personnel in treating the family member.
List of medications by brand name, generic name, and if possible, scientific name, dosage and schedule. (If abroad, the local physician/apothecary may not recognize a U.S. brand name or generic name.)
Three to four years of those laboratory reports your Doctor gets from blood and other bodily fluid tests.
Unfortunate personal experience on this one. After moving here, a routine test showed something “too high.” Turns out, the actual number on the test was less important than the year to year change. Guess who didn’t have copies of those old reports? Guess whose former Doctor’s office took a small portion of infinity to find and produce the old records? Everything turned out ok, but now we always ask for and get a copy of the lab results for ourselves and file them.

General Medical records from your Doctor (notes, etc.)
Advance directives for medical care.
Durable power of attorney for medical care.

Sorry if this list is too long, I kept thinking of things. I hope it proves useful.

---Bruce, aka bws48