Will Changing Your Date of Birth Pass a Background Check?

Background checks are often anxiety-inducing, and you might be worried about what your background check report might show to a potential employer or other organization that is running your background check. However, it’s important to report all information about yourself accurately, lest problems arise down the line when it comes to accessing your background check report.

Our article tells you if changing your date of birth will help you pass a background check.

Why Are Background Checks Important?

Background checks are designed to help employers and other individuals vet the identity and experience of someone they may be considering as an employee or volunteer.

In all states, proper authorization and acknowledgments that background checks are being performed on you are required. Many states also require the individuals requesting the background check to tell you what they are looking for.

Background checks look into a person’s criminal and civil history and evaluate their suitability for a specific occupation. They also check to make sure that the potential employee is safe to work around vulnerable populations. Experience and employment history are also verified to ensure that someone is reporting their identity accurately.

Most employers perform background checks including social media screenings to ensure they are doing their due diligence to ensure the safety of the workplace and protect their own company from issues caused by hiring an employee that isn’t qualified for a certain position. 

What Information Is Needed for a Background Check?

When you are requested to submit a background check report, the most common information to request is your full legal name and your date of birth.

Depending on the employer or the company that is running your background check, your social security number might also be required to verify your identity before a background check is performed.

Make sure you understand what is required of you and the information requested as you authorize a background check on yourself.

Can You Change Your Date of Birth to Pass a Background Check?

Though it might seem like a convenient workaround to change your date of birth to pass a background check, this is not a good idea.

Not only can you not legally change your date of birth on official documents, but any type of forgery of papers that appears to change your date of birth is also typically considered a serious criminal offense.

Additionally, your name is also an important part of running a background check. A correct legal name with an incorrect date of birth may also serve to raise questions. It would be considered illegal to give completely incorrect information such as giving a fake name and an incorrect date of birth.

Overall, it’s better to stay away from this option and instead work on understanding your background check report and any red flags on it so that you may provide thoughtful explanations to employers.

Correcting a Wrong Date of Birth

The only case in which you might legally be able to change your date of birth is if your date of birth is listed incorrectly on official documents.

This process can be lengthy, however, and you will likely need to speak with a lawyer and submit several supporting documents to a court or judge to achieve this correction.

More detailed information about correcting a wrong date of birth can be found here.

What Happens if I Authorize a Background Check With a Different Birth Date?

If you do decide to authorize a background check and report an inaccurate birth date, you might be setting yourself up for several issues.

To start with, the employer or other individual that is running your background check will likely still find your information, as your full legal name is required to authorize a background check, and searching background records by name will result in many potential matches, one of which can be yours.

In the case that your full legal name and the false birth date that you have submitted match with someone else’s real information, the person running your background check could be shown contradictory information. This creates issues as they try to verify your identity and information, and will eventually come back to you as they ask for verification.

If you give completely false information, such as a fake name and a false birth date, the person running your background check is likely to figure this out when they find matches that go against the information you’ve listed thus far, or they find nothing about you. This causes further problems as you will likely be asked about this discrepancy and employers won’t want to work with someone that provides false information.

Even if you are worried about what your background check report might show, it’s better to be honest and only communicate truthful information about yourself to avoid serious issues or accusations of fraud down the line.

Ensuring Your Records Are Accurate

When it comes to background checks, the information you give to the employer or other individual officially running your background check must be accurate.

Incorrect birth dates or reporting a birth date that doesn’t belong to you will only cause you problems down the line and bring issues as you receive questions about any incorrect information you have reported.

Make sure that your birth date is correctly reported on public records by running a quick search with this online records search and always report your birth date accurately when asked to authorize a background check report.

You can’t change your birth date to pass one of these reports, and if you did, there’s a high chance your records will still be found using just your name.