Is it safe to send a new employer a copy of your ID?
What onboarding actually requires — and how to send a copy that still protects you.
Short answer
- Ask what is kept versus what is only viewed — right-to-work checks are often a one-off supervised look, not a permanent copy.
- Redact the number, MRZ and signature; reveal your date of birth only if payroll specifically requires it.
- Send a fresh watermarked copy for a later background check rather than resending the original email attachment.
A job offer arrives, and with it an onboarding email: “Please attach a copy of your passport or ID for our records.” It feels like paperwork, but the same rule that applies to a hotel or a landlord applies here — you can prove who you are without handing over a document that also proves everything else about you.
Why employers ask
Onboarding typically needs to confirm your identity, match your details to your contract and payroll, and in many places verify that you’re legally entitled to work there. All legitimate reasons — none of them require a permanent, unprotected copy of your full passport or ID sitting in an HR inbox or shared drive.
What onboarding actually needs to see
- Your full name, to match your contract and payroll records.
- Your photo, to confirm you’re the person who was hired.
- Your nationality or right-to-work status, where that’s part of the check.
Your document number, machine-readable zone, date of birth and signature are rarely needed in a copy kept on file — they’re identifiers for government and border systems, not HR records.
What to redact before you send it
- The document or passport number.
- The machine-readable zone.
- Your date of birth, unless payroll specifically requires it — in which case, reveal only that field.
- Your signature.
If HR’s process specifically requires viewing the unredacted original — some right-to-work verification systems do — that’s usually a one-time, in-person or supervised check, not a copy that then lives in your file forever. Ask what’s kept versus what’s just viewed.
Watermark it before it leaves your phone
A copy marked “For [Company] onboarding — [date]” stays useless outside the file it was meant for, whether it’s forwarded by mistake, sits in a breached inbox, or is kept longer than intended.
Do it on your phone
Photograph the document, cover the fields above, add a watermark, and send that instead of the original — all on-device, with nothing uploaded anywhere. That’s what Anonymize my ID does. For exactly which fields to cover, see how to redact a passport or ID card; to understand why the machine-readable zone specifically matters, see what is the MRZ.
New job, new landlord, new bank — the habit is the same every time: send the redacted copy, never the original.
Frequently asked questions
Is it normal for a new employer to ask for a copy of my ID?
Yes. Verifying your identity and your right to work is a standard part of onboarding in most places. What's worth questioning is not that they ask, but whether they need a complete, unredacted copy kept on file indefinitely.
What should I redact before sending my ID to HR?
Cover the document number, the machine-readable zone, your date of birth if it isn't separately required, and your signature. Keep your name, photo and nationality or right-to-work status visible.
HR asked for my ID again for a background check months later — same copy?
No — send a new redacted, watermarked copy for that specific request. A photo sitting unprotected in an old email thread is a liability whether or not the job worked out.
What if the onboarding portal requires an upload, not an email?
The same redacted copy works for an upload as it does for email — redact and watermark first, then upload that file instead of the original photo, unless the portal is specifically designed and required to capture the unredacted document (some right-to-work checks do require the full document to be viewed or verified by a specific system).